At the very least, I would have to wonder why I bother having ministers, when it seems that I have to do everything myself.  Not that Muscat has shown much of an aptitude for doing anything other than acting as a modern-day equivalent of Dell Boy, flogging passports from embassies rather than dodgy brollies off a stall in Borough Market.

 

Generally speaking, the Cabinet with which Muscat has over-loaded  "Peanuts" Scicluna's payroll has distinguished itself in one of two ways: either by making us shake our heads in disbelief or by making us wonder where the minister is, not to mention who it is.

 

For instance, can you say who the Minister for the Environment is?  Or the one responsible for Social Security?  Or Culture?  

 

We all know who runs the cops, catering and propaganda, he can't keep out of the news, though for reasons that really shouldn't be endearing him to his boss.  

 

In Education, the minister's report-card cannot be marked any higher than "could do much better", with the headmaster's comment being "Ev must really stop blaming everyone else for everything".

 

Apart from them, who else's name pops up?  

 

Mizzi, the one responsible for transport?  Yes, well, there again, if I were him, I'd rather my name didn't actually spring to mind.  

 

Or the other Mizzi, whose political future depends on a power-station being up and running in a matter of months, where ground has not yet been broken? 

 

Vella, today making the news for meeting the Second Under Secretary of State's Third Cousin Twice Removed, who happened to be here on holiday?  Again, after the Ukraine and Libya analyses, and diplomatically comparing the Minister of Finance to a monkey, perhaps anonymity is preferable.

 

Where are the rest of them?  Who are the rest of them?  

 

The snag for Muscat's peace of mind is that when they put their heads above the parapet, our head shaking starts.  

 

The latest to cause this is the glaring fact that the head honcho at Malta Enterprise, something of an important agency for attracting effective foreign investment (as opposed to foreign loot for passports) and his Minister, the Cardona gent, don't see eye to eye, to put it very mildly, on how Malta should be promoted.

 

Dr Mario Vella, the ME man and very much a mentor to the PM back in the day, is fundamentally opposed to the blunderbuss approach to promoting "Brand Malta", while the man to whom, technically, he looks for direction, takes the opposite view and has just promised that "Brand Malta" will be up and running soon.

 

One has to wonder whether it will be the mentor or the minister who will have to back down when the Headmaster gets back from his selling trip.