This is what Joseph Muscat should be doing, if you take polls and columnists at face-value, that is.

In fact, in a certain light, looked at through squinty eyes, it looks very much like he is - having a good weep, that is.    

This is because there seems to be a grown (no, not a misprint for growing, it’s established) body of opinion that he is messing things up big time.  

Over the last few days, and I don’t include my ex-Beck column in the count, given that the tenor of thought in that oeuvre has been consistent and thus shouldn’t worry the jolly old PM one whit, I counted something in the region of four or five opinion pieces that were highly critical of Dr Muscat’s antics.

I mean, when you get no less a pair of opinion movers and shakers than Martin Scicluna and Claire Bonello being very down on Joseph, mainly but not only because of his quasi-obsessive insistence on lionising the criminal Engerer, you start thinking that not all is well in the State of Castille Burmarrad & Girgenti.  

Incidentally, I didn’t include Lija, Villa Francia, in the panoply of noble locations with which the Muscat escutcheon is becoming identified, because the Royal Family hasn’t quite taken possession yet, though one hears rumblings that the Great Incognita has her eyes on some engulfment and devouring there, to turn the place into an even more expansive milieu for the masses to be awed and bemused at the panoply of glitterati that will be amongst them.  

The local peasantry are unamused, but that’s hardly an issue when the comfort and amusement of the ruling class is concerned.

But should Muscat be worried that he’s going to get a poke in the eye from the electorate next Saturday?

I don’t think so: he’s starting off from a lead of no less than thirty-six thousand, for Pete’s sake and while electoral arithmetic will change the seat-distribution to three-three, more than likely (still a poke in the eye, but a minor one) it’s hardly likely on the other hand that more than, what, five thousand will decide to change their vote to PN. 

This will leave Muscat with a twenty-six thousand lead, comfortable enough though perhaps indicative of a cloud no larger than a man’s hand on the horizon.  I’m not taking this portal’s online poll as any indicator, because as of Sunday morning, the last time I looked at it, it showed that the fringe parties will be getting the same as PN with Labour just about beating the “don’t vote, don’t know, don’t care” figure.  

I’m not entirely sure that this would mean that the AD would finally get a seat out of Malta, or whether it would mean that the loonies or, even worse, the racist scum, would be getting one, but it’s not a reliable poll (and nor does it pretend to be)

So, basically, what Muscat is doing is pretending to have a little weep and be worried, so as to make sure that his voters, the ones who would vote for him even if he put up a donkey or a criminal (that was close) as a candidate, don’t fall into the trap of thinking, well, it’s a nice day, let’s go for a picnic, everyone else is going to vote for “Our Joey”, so we needn’t put ourselves out.

What would worry me, if I were Dr Muscat, and the rest of the political class, for that matter, is the fact that a poll published this morning shows that 18% would still have voted for that Engerer person even after his criminal conviction.  

This shows a side to your common-or-garden elector that is perturbing in the extreme.  It shows a number of sides, actually, one of which is that quite a few voters don’t care to what levels of moral turpitude the people they are asked to vote for descend: as long as they are endorsed by “their” party, in this instance by their Leader, no less, they will vote for them.  

Another side it shows is the one that completely doesn’t give a toss about the fact that by endorsing Engerer, Muscat showed a disdain for the rule of law that is breathtaking, that in normal countries would be resignation material.   But not here, no, and a considerable number of voters agree with him, Engerer is the victim and the object of political attacks, rather than a moral thug and a bully.

In passing, and closing, what price the Broadcasting Authority now, ay?   This august institution, so eager to keep up standards, at least when there were standards to keep up (check out PBS at this time if you want to see what I mean) allowed a nasty piece of propaganda produced by racist scum (yes, I know I’ve called them that before, but there’s no better description) to hit the airwaves and only pulled it when there was general revulsion. 

Read my lips, BA, you don’t allow that vile crap to go through in the first place and you owe us an apology for allowing it through in the first place.