I've long had the feeling that the PN and all its works are held to a much higher standard than Joseph Muscat and all his works and the recent protest by a job-lot of NGOs proved this.

Theirs is a noble cause and it was good and just that a protest against the Government's manner of dealing with the environment should be made. After all, it's becoming increasingly clear that the developers and their lobbyists are very often pushing at an open door and this is a worrying development, if you'll excuse the sorry excuse for a pun.

The recent grant of a permit to build a ton or so of flats in Mistra is an example. Not being totally au fait with the ins and outs of planning and its associated arcania (word that looks good, "coming from arcane", not entirely sure it exists) far be it from me to lay down the law about whether MEPA had the right to refuse to grant the permit. The Planning Ombudsman (not an accurate name for the office, but it will suffice) Perit David Pace, a respected and erudite gent, said it did, and that's good enough for me.

Not enough for the PM, who let it be known that Perit Pace's finding was full of factual errors.

I trust I'll be forgiven for not staggering back in awe at Dr Muscat's conclusion, given that he has also let it be known that the recent passport-pimping fiasco was handled badly. The fact that he said it was "handled" badly demonstrates such a paucity of understanding that one hardly knows where to start: it was not the handling that was bad, dear PM, it was the scheme itself, as many understood your very own Minister of Finance to say last week.

But to get back to the NGOs and their protest: I suspect I wasn't the only one to feel a touch of reluctance to get all worked up about it.

I am completely wrong to have this feeling, and in fact it constitutes something of a betrayal of Din l-Art Helwa, a strong and consistent defender of the national interest for many years longer than the "Josephines come lately".

Can I be blamed, though?

The shriller environmentalists, less than a year ago, were screeching all manner of imprecations at the Gonzi administration, ensuring - consciously or not is not germane to the issue - that Joseph Muscat's panting thirst to charge up the steps to Castille would be sated and greatly so.

Today, as you can see from a number of comments and Facebook pages, by Labour's Little Weasels and not, the shouts and figurative fists are being waved not only at the Government, as heretofore, but also against the Opposition. The PN will be in Government, at best, in about four years from now, so why they should be being thumped roundly about the ears now is lost in the fog that seems to shroud many fine minds.

I mean, for Lino Spiteri, for example, to swipe at the PN is perfectly understandable, though why he thinks we should give him any credence for lambasting them about being obstructive, when we all remember the way Labour acted every instant it was in Opposition without a peep from Spiteri, is beyond me.

Then you get people like Martin Scicluna being unable to resist the temptation to dump on the PN even now, just under a year from their being dumped out of Government and with Labour's manner of governance shoving itself into his case, and you begin to feel, in truth, that certain people should be ignored.

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