In the run-up to the elections, our current Minister for Electricity Rate Reductions swept into the public consciousness with his immortal "Shame on you Minister". He was addressing the then-Minister of Finance, under whose purview Enemalta fell, as it does now under the youthful-looking (though his hair is tending t'ards gray) Konrad Mizzi.

I forget the reason why Mizzi was of the opinion that Tonio Fenech should have been ashamed, I'm sure it was something of titanic immensity (as opposed to the mouse that the straining elephant in the guise of the House Public Accounts Committee is about to produce) but it escapes me now. Must be something to do with my advancing age, I suppose.

The thing is, if any Minister should feel ashamed at the moment, it is said Konrad Mizzi and if you want concrete, shoo-in, beyond reasonable doubt evidence, just tune in to timesofmalta.com and check out the video. It's on Tuesday, which is when I am writing this.

Mizzi starts out with a piece of breathtaking, if perhaps unconscious, arrogance, He tells the pressmen who are dutifully sticking recording devices into his face that he quite understands that they want to ask questions about his wife's new job and they're free to ask.

I mean, precisely who does this guy think he is, telling the press that they may, by his munificent permission, ask questions? I know he probably takes his lead from his Leader, the one in NY NY for a jolly (and a well deserved one, too) who sees his thumping win as carte blanche to lord it over us, but come on, Mizzi, do you seriously think anyone was waiting for you to grant them leave to question you?

Things went from bad to worser and worser, and I'm not talking about the great imitation of a bunny transfixed in the headlights that was being put on either.

The panic-stricken look and the constant slipping into English, the hiding behind obviously rehearsed tag-lines ("ask the appropriate Ministry about my wife's qualifications and suitability" "I never spoke to Minister Cardona or Malta Enterprise about the offer", as if they were the important questions) these pale into insignificance against the starkness of the basic fact.

This fact is quite simple: a Minister's wife was appointed to a public position and will be compensated with public funds without a call for applications or anything of the sort. It is starkly significant as a stand-alone, and is enough to make the Minister ashamed - in fact, both Ministers involved should have red faces, if it was even possible for them to adopt this fetching hue in the first place.

But what makes Minister Konrad Mizzi's behaviour even more shameful is the fact, simple and stark as it is itself, that from what we saw of him, he sees nothing wrong in the slightest in the whole thing.

And this is the man on whom we are relying to act as a safe pair of hands in ensuring that when we turn the switch, the light goes on and, at least taking into account what he has promised, it won't cost as much as it does now.