Except for a letter on Wednesday saying that its author had checked out the Spanish bus company and found it wasn’t exactly an enormous outfit, we don’t know much about them. What we do know, however, is that this newspaper’s sister-on-Sunday had reported that the deal was a done one, that it was going to cost the public purse somewhere north of €25 million and that fares were going to rise.

This led to a deafening silence on the part of everyone and his brother, in marked contrast to the situation whenever Arriva had a bus that got a puncture in some outlying village, causing a farmer to be two minutes late for his beer in the village square.

I believe it is no exaggeration to say that if it had been reported in some rag or other that Arriva were about to get its sticky fingers on a substantial portion of our taxes and charge us more for the privilege of carrying us around, the sky would have darkened, the veil of the temple would have been rent asunder and corpses would be roaming the streets, wailing and whining and gnashing their teeth, assuming they had any left.

Teeth, for that matter, seem to have fallen out of most of the heads of the people running the media since Joseph Muscat and his merry band got elected but that’s as may be.

The government, in the form of Minister Joe Mizzi, has now broken its silence, with a statement saying that it’s too early to make a statement. When it will actually become incumbent on the government to let us know what it’s going to do with our money is something that, in his infinite wisdom, only Mizzi knows.

No doubt, he will enlighten us when he deems it’s time to get off the pot.

Who cares, as long as we got rid of the foreigners?

He did, however, say something that was indicative that the government was preparing to shovel quite a few shed-loads of our cash in the general direction of the new bus company.

The relevant paragraph reads that “[it was]… pointed out that the former operator (Arriva) had asked for a government subsidy of €45 million to continue to operate the service. The government had not been obliged to pay such a sum for a service which was not up to the required standard”.

Adopting Muscat’s tu quoque style of political argumentation, infantile and illogical though this is, his faithful henchman has now, even if unconsciously, made it clear that the government will be paying Alesa (the Spanish operators’ acronym) because they will be giving a better service and Arriva had asked for more money even though their service wasn’t any good.

Yes, I know there’s no logic in that but, hey, who cares, we’ve got rid of the foreigners and if that means that the Maltese drivers are going to lose their jobs in favour of employing Spanish ones, again, who cares, as long as we got rid of the foreigners?

The toothlessness endemic in various areas of the media is evident not only when you look at the way they tackle stories now as opposed to the way they tackled stories then, then being when “GonziPN” was in government.

For instance, during the Nationalist government, it was unheard of for a minister to fail to meet his counterpart from the European Commission. Consequently, the anti-PN media was never called upon to report on such a lapse of manners, diplomacy or political savoir faire.

I am morally convinced that if there had been such a lapse, the minister concerned would have been crucified, our place in Europe questioned and the sky would have… well, see above.

Mere days ago, on the other hand, Emanuel Mallia, minister for the army, the cops, the catering corps and the government’s TV and radio station, was conspicuous by his absence (rather than by his presence, in which case being conspicuous is hardly an accomplishment) during an official visit here by Cecilia Malmström, the commissioner with whom Mallia is obliged to interact on immigration matters.

Apart from a few passing references, during which the minister’s PR lady’s bland response was dutifully reported, did anything hit the gently revolving media fans, the ones that today seem more preoccupied with wafting cooling breezes to soothe Muscat’s fevered brow than anything else?

No, of course not, nothing seems to be important any more. Perhaps the summer heat has sapped the energy of the ladies and gentlemen of the press and we should be able to look forward to the government being held to account on a more regular basis when the heat lifts.

If so, here are a couple of stories that I can chuck into the mix for my colleagues, the ones who prefer to earn their daily crust by digging up and reporting stories, rather than regurgitating press releases.

The legal world is agog with rumours at the moment.

Not about the identity of the law lecturer who is accused of sexual harassment, that is idle gossip and shameless curiosity, not fit to be reported on.

What I’m referring to is the discussion going on about who is going to be the new Chief Justice, when the current incumbent moves on, for whatever reason.

Two names seem to be gaining traction, and it would appear, if either of them is true, that the government is going to revert to a practice that had fallen into desuetude many, many years ago. And to carry on one that it has created itself, at the same time.

Way back, the Chief Justice was often appointed from outside the ranks of the judiciary, very often with the Attorney General being elevated, though not by much, given the order of precedence.

The names now being mentioned indicate that one part of that ancient tradition (the one where current members of the judiciary are passed over) is to be revived, though not the bit about the Attorney General being tapped on the shoulder.

To save my reporter colleagues the hassle of trying to dig up the names, let me point them in the right direction: they need look no further than the deputy leadership of the Labour Party for one name.

As for the other, well, a senior lawyer who would be comfortable in one of the Three Villages, and not Attard or Balzan either, is also being mooted.

Another story is of less earth-shattering importance but it illustrates the way the government is prone to let things slide, appease anyone who it would be politic to appease and generally take the line of least resistance.

A letter by the president of the Malta Union of Nurses and Midwives, a fine body of men and women (and I mean that), making loud noises about the food given to inmates of St Vincent de Paule, apparently because some nurses are being prosecuted for negligence in another hospital, has been shown to me.

Far be it from me to comment about a case about which I know nothing: my point is, as has been reported to me, that Paul Pace’s arrogant description of members of another profession (he refers to “so-called ‘experts’ being the speech language therapists”) and his high-handed manner of laying down the law, is being left unchallenged by the Health Department.

As I said, in and of itself this case is not of immense relevance, it is simply symptomatic of the way that for the politicians who run our lives everything goes, from a bag of weekly groceries being worth €25 (take a bow, Konrad Mizzi) to a Cabinet minister blithely ignoring a European commissioner to an arrogant union man being allowed to get away with it and so much in between.

Anything goes, as long as it doesn’t rock Muscat’s boat.

imbocca@gmail.com

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/author/20