Back in the early seventies, what would be seen in today's anodyne world as a totally politically incorrect show had as one of its catch-phrases "Shut that door...".

Joseph Muscat seems to have taken it up, because that's what he did on the Opposition's extension of yet another olive branch in the context of the prostitution of our citizenship scheme.

According to Muscat's Government, the Opposition has missed the boat, Government has heeded civil society's objections and amended the scheme, so now there was no more need for discussion.

What Muscat forgets, of course, is that the European Parliament is going to discuss the pimping of European passports, so his fond hope that the storm has died down will be dashed. Perhaps he's banking on the oratorical skills of Joseph Cuschieri (a little bird tells me that he's pretty much going to be making his last speech in Brussels/Strasbourg sooner rather than later, as the odds of his getting elected are lengthening by the day) and Marlene Mizzi, who might even get to find out how many members of the EP there actually are.

Frankly, if I were pressed to give Dr Muscat some advice, I'd tell him to instruct his MEPs to stay away, lest they make as much of a dog's dinner of defending his cunning plan as his Minister of Finance did. That video of him making said dinner is still prime viewing when "how NOT to do it" is discussed in seminars on public affairs management.

And where does Muscat, bless his North Face jumpers and cotton socks, get off telling us that his nifty little scheme has been modified? All that's changed is the price of a pasport, which is hardly an issue for the sort of people he's trying to flog it to, there's been no increase in the material and real obligations that should accompany being granted the privilege of calling one's self Maltese.

For that matter, where does he get off telling us that civil society was consulted? We all know now how many members of the MCESD were actually consulted, and it hardly constitutes the majority. The General Workers' Union is all in favour, but you'll forgive me for not staggering back in astonishment at that piece of news, as was Mr Tony Zahra, who apparently represented no-one but himself.

So basically, we're still where we were: Tom, Dick or Abserjawani can buy themselves a nice new Maltese passport for a little more than originally advertised, along with supplementary passports for all their extended family, provided that Minister Manwel Mallia gives a regal nod to the due diligence exercise carried out by Henley & What'em Called, after Henley & Who's'it would have done all the preliminary pimping.

You can tell, of course, how good something is when you run its flag up the pole and see who salutes. In this case, the evidence is more than sufficient to say that now, indeed, is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party to do our utmost to have the scheme scuppered.

If that means we're washing our soiled knickers in public, so be it: the one who soiled the knickers in the first place is at fault.