Ever since the news broke that the Nationalist Party was in financial difficulty, the glee on the faces of many commentators was wondrous to behold. Other commentators were not at all gleeful, but were, and remain, pretty acerbic in their criticism of the way the party is handling things.

Truth be told, there has been something of a communication breakdown, a phenomenon symptomatic of a hefty chunk of the PN's recent past, and headlines such as "employees asked to forfeit two months' salary" certainly didn't help the public's perception of the situation.

On reading the piece headlined that way, anyone with the patience to read the whole thing would soon realise that what the employees were being asked to do was postpone receipt of and not forfeit outright their salaries.

Now don't get me wrong, and I know a bit about this stuff, although Minister Dalli's PRO tries to give the impression I don't, not paying salaries on the due date is a mortal sin in the employment world and no mistake, but it's not, for obvious reasons, as dire as not paying at all, ever.

So, while a degree of "shock horror" is to be expected, it would be nice if there was a bit of a nod towards the realities of the situation.

Equally, a touch of real politik should accompany some of the shouts of "well, don't have a mass meeting then, pay the workers" that are echoing around. True, in an ideal world, salaries would have been paid before mention of an Independence Mass Meeting Celebration was made, but one should perhaps recall that this is the first big public manifestation by the party since its drubbing and there are many, many supporters who are fairly gasping for a bit of backbone to be shown.

And quite right they are too, given the way the Government is behaving and the deafening silence from the PN that is being perceived, more than a tad unfairly, by us, the Great Unwashed.

I hear, anyway, that the celebrations are being funded entirely by the proceeds of the Independence Lottery, so it's not as if funds were being diverted away from better destinations.

Now here's a notion: why don't the Honourable Members of the PN in Opposition take the opportunity of the preparations for the mass meeting to tell all concerned that they will be giving up their Parliamentary honoraria for a couple of months to put towards a "pay the workers" fund? It's not an original idea on my part, but it's a good one.