To read certain columnists, that blinking open space, part of Piano's design for City Gate, remains the be-all and end-all of everything that matters in the country.

In fact, the debate has expanded to take in the roof, rather than lack thereof, of the Parliament building, this part of the edifice having raised the hackles of no less a luminary than Marlene Mizzi, who is now an MEP.

On Tuesday, we went to the Manoel to listen to what turned out to be a marvellous recital by a gent called Brouillard, playing in honour of the memory of Brigitte Engerer, herself a great pianist, now sadly deceased.

The theatre was hardly half-full, if that. Of course, had the event been held in the City Gate area under a shabby roof erected in satiation of the artistic foibles of the Great Ungrateful, it would have been packed to the rafters.

In fact, an emergency demolition job would have had to have been undertaken in order to move the audience into the Parliament Building, with the Honourable Members having to transpose themselves to a factory in Bulebel or a disused stadium in Paola.Y

es, that's just what the country needs, a project designed by one of the greatest living architects messed around, preferably by a committee of worthies, to make sure that it becomes a dog's dinner.