Minister Dr Konrad Mizzi appears to have convinced himself of two things.

The first is that his wife is being attacked. The second is that he is doing s good job. He has connected the two, concluding that the former is because of the latter.

A professor of philosophy would have a field day.

I recall, from the dim and distant days when assorted philisophy dons tried to teach me the rudiments of their art, cracks about the undistributed middle and false premises leading to incorrect conclusions and such like wonders. I didn't get it then and, quite obviously, I don't get it now, but compared to young Mizzi, I am an over-achiever and a veritable colossus of logic.

This is because his equation is fatally flawed.

"A", where "A" is the attacks on his wife, is inexistent, because there are no such attacks, and "B", where "B" is the assumption that he is doing a good job, is equally ghost-like. Thus, for the dear chap to posit A because of B is a non sequitor of cosmic proprotions.

Let us put this simply, such that even the meanest of intelligences, on the lines of that with which certain Lil'Elves are un-blessed, can grasp it.

No-one is attacking Mrs Mizzi. Indeed, I believe it can be said that it is taken as a given that she is a paragon of all the virtues needed for her to be the embodiment of the best envoy the country has ever had. No argument about that, whether or not it is true, because Mrs Mizzi's attributes are, quite simply, not the point.

The point, as her husband seems not to have quite got, is a) the manner of her appointment and b) the fact that she is his wife, and like Caesar's, she must be perceived to be pure, the relevant purity in this instance being only related to the process of her nourishing herself financially from the public trough.

In other words, it is entirely irrelvant whether Mrs Mizzi is the best thing since sliced bread, as a Minister's wife she should be appointed to publicly-funded positions very, very circumspectly and even then after the most rigorous and transparent selection process.

Got it, Minister?

Now get this: what gives you the impression that you're doing well? The fact that you managed to get out of that meeting with Enemalta's employees without being politically lynched? The fact that the process of hiving off a considerable chunk of said Enemalta to Chinese interests is as yet shrouded in a dense fog?

The fact that we're six months down the line and the ground hasn't been broken on the new power station? The fact that water and electricity still cost the same and we're no nearer finding out how you're going to live up to your pre-electoral promises?

What? L-Orizzont and your hangers-on telling you that you're doing well don't count.