Mr John Dalli, ersatz Minister of Health appointed by Labour PM Joseph Muscat, former Minister of Health under a Nationalist Government, has let it be known, ex cathedra as it were, that he has no trust in Leader of the Opposition Simon Busuttil because he, Busuttil, says what he thinks he should say, without regard for the content of what he's saying.
In other words, Dalli thinks Busuttil is a liar.
Let us examine the record, or at least such bits of it that spring to mind.
Dalli says he was imprisoned in Brussels. Dalli fails to say, that, as an EU Commissioner in Brussels, his cage was rather less insalubrious than the Corradino Hilton, which is where most Maltese are imprisoned.
Dalli says he fulfilled his functions as an EU Commissioner perfectly well.
Dalli gives the impression that Gaddafi, late and not much lamented, was not the reprehensible beast that most of us think he was.
Dalli says he is a Nationalist.
Dalli spends his time on Labour's TV station, denigrating anything and everything that Lawrence Gonzi and his Government were doing. Dalli stays away from Malta while the Nationalists were in Government, for health reasons, while happily making a full recovery as soon as Labour got into power, coming back to Malta secure in the knowledge that his health would not be endangered by having to inconvenience himself in the criminal court.
Dalli says he is a man of integrity and probity.
Dalli is asked by his boss to resign office or be dismissed summarily. Dalli is asked by his boss to do this even before his (Dalli's) dash across the Atlantic and back to sit on a plane and meet some folk about oodles of cash became known, and before his associations with a lady of dubious repute became known.
Dalli says - or at least implies, by taking on Muscat's quasi-Ministerial post - that he was a Minister of Health non pareil. Dalli finds tons wrong with the way Mater Dei Hospital is being managed, giving the impression that all went South the minute his expert hands were taken from the tiller.
Dalli thinks that Simon Busuttil is a liar.
Oh well, he's entitled to his opinion.