Well, there you have it.

PM Muscat not only doesn't know the difference between the just-removed chairman of the Malta Communications Authority, who was a non-executive chairman and earned an honorarium that reflected this, and his predecessor, who was the executive chairman and paid accordingly, he also doesn't seem to know, or care, that this is not one of those positions that are within his gift.

The European Commission, on the other hand, sees a difference between political appointments that PMs are perfectly free, nay obliged, to make, and the appointment of regulators who, once appointed, are supposed to be independent and free to act as such.

When Labour were elected, such was the euphoria that overtook them that they wanted everyone to make obeisance and offer to stand aside. Such was the level of insistence that even holders of quasi-judicial or regulatory office were told to "submit their resignations" (civil service-speak for shove off, when you think about it) and told also that when in doubt, do it, that is to say submit your resignation.

Let's be clear, I was not one of those starry-eyed naifs who thought that Joseph Muscat's tista' ma taqbilx maghna imma tista' tahdem maghna was going to last more than mere minutes after the result was known.

But nor am I one of those who thinks that a Government doesn't have every right to place people of its trust in places were people of trust are needed. It would be nice if they could trust people who are half-way competent, but at the end of the day, it's their choice.

This does not mean, however, that there is some sort of divine right to make a clean sweep of every position under the sun and the chairmanship of the Malta Communications Authority is one example. There are quite a few others (the Industrial Tribunal, for instance) but this is one that caught the eye of the Commission, and if Muscat's face isn't now just a little bit red, all this means is that he really doesn't get it.

And that is worrying.

Not to put too fine a point on it, you simply don't swap a regulator out of his position just because you won an election, is what the Commission is telling Muscat, in its own way, clearly not giving his rather vague (albeit only for local consumption) waffling about why Dr Ghio was not kept in place the time of day.

That he had to be told is bad enough, but that he had to be told in so public a fashion, and after the deed was done and not undone, is worse.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.