From this man, I mean. I have always had this sneaking feeling that he’s nothing better than a snake oil salesman of a politician, however, developments over the last few days have given me an even stronger moral conviction that what I used to say before the March 2013 election, that he would say anything and promise anything to anyone if it meant snaffling a few more votes, was spot on.

Fair play to the man, it worked, he and his (Malta) Labour Party got a stonking majority and the Nationalists still haven’t recovered. Aided and abetted in his quest by a shedload of whiners and whingers, some simply fed up because they hadn’t been given what they (and no-one else) thought was their due by the PN in government, others dazzled by the bright young thing who played them like a cheap violin, Joseph Muscat scurried up the steps to Castille a year and a bit ago and he hasn’t looked back ever since.

He doesn’t even have to worry about watching out for knives in the back because there aren’t any Brutuses or Mark Anthonys in his Cabinet, leaving aside perhaps one who might – if this were a political thriller – be a candidate to lead a coup and take control of the army and broadcasting.

But the chickens are coming home to roost now and pretty darn soon the honeymoon will be over for him.

People are going to realise that there is a chasm, and then some, between what Muscat had promised before he was elected and what he now has been forced to admit cannot be achieved.

It’s starting to look like we didn’t need the power station Joseph Muscat promised to resign over

Clearly, the theme of the moment is the new power station, the mast to which he – and no-one else (Konrad Mizzi hopes he remembers) – nailed his colours. He’s on film saying that he will resign if the thing isn’t up and running within two years of his settling his derriere on the Prime Minister’s chair, no two ways about it. He couldn’t have been more unequivocal: had he been being advised then by some itinerant Yank or by Alastair Campbell, they’d have had conniptions at a politician actually promising something, with a specified timescale and saying he’d go if it didn’t happen.

The power station will not be up and running by the end of March, 2015.

I for one never believed it would be, but then I have scant respect for promises made in the heat of a campaign by politicians, especially those who are simply gagging for power. Whether I believed it or not, however, is immaterial: Muscat promised it would be, or else, and he hasn’t kept his word about it being ready. Whether he will resign is an open question, though I am morally convinced I know the answer.

It’s becoming as clear as day that the Chinese aren’t going to charge up on a white horse to save Muscat’s political bacon. It’s becoming even clearer that what they want is a guaranteed market, at our expense, and hang the Prime Minister’s pre-electoral promises, he can find a way to get around the European Union’s pesky cross-subsidisation rules and redistribute Maltese money, making sure our friends from the Middle Kingdom get a return on their investment over and above the political dividends that will be received by having a foot well and truly planted in an EU State.

So, what now for Muscat?

Pretty obviously, he’s back-pedalling as fast as his little legs can pump. We’re already hearing the humming tops spinning merrily, whipped along by assorted mini-Alastair Campbells, the tune rising from them being ‘the important thing is that tariffs will go down, tra la la’, which is a refrain guaranteed to satisfy the great unwashed, though not all of us.

You can’t blame Muscat, though, we have large swathes of the media that seem to have adopted the Three Monkeys’ posture, except where fingers can be pointed at GonziPN.

As for the electorate at large, just chuck them €25 for a power cut and €1.16 as a wage rise, throw in a few concerts with superannuated rockers and they’ll forgive anything.

I mean, what would you call a media sphere that accepts without raising a peep the sale of Enemalta’s profitable bits to a couple of companies owned by the government, paid for by a loan taken out by those companies, no doubt guaranteed by the government, with the proceeds being passed right back to the government to reduce the amount owed by Enemalta to the government?

I’d call it terminally quiescent, and still in awe of Muscat, not to mention other choice descriptors that would see the editor wield a blue pencil if I even tried to use them.

Now we have it in black and white or in full living colour or whatever you’d like to call it: Muscat’s government will be reducing the price of utilities for business and ‘femmilees’ without the new power station coming on stream because that’s the important thing; don’t be negative, smell the coffee.

Just as an aside, tremble in your shoes those of you who do not have a family because there’s no guarantee that you’re not going to have to pay for this charade.

It’s businesses and families that are exempt, only.

Could someone please explain, then, why such a blasted fuss was made about the current power-generation and distribution systems, including the interconnector with Italy, which are quite clearly going to be sufficient unto the day when it comes to reducing tariffs?

Why, in more simple terms, do we actually need a new power station and why did Muscat promise to resign if it wasn’t ready by March 2015?

Ah, one forgets, the BWSC power station, which was sold to the Chinese who now want a return on their investment in turn, and the interconnector, were PN government projects, so Heaven forfend that Muscat would have to rely on them and admit that he was selling us a mangy pup all the way to the polling booths.

But, willy nilly, he’s going to have to rely on them because his promise of a shiny new power station has been smashed to smithereens and he’s going to have to come up with something to make sure his political career stays on track.

The only thing that’s going to work, apart from chucking Mizzi kicking and screaming off the train, which would not be enough for the slavering masses, is bringing down tariffs and letting the EU imitate a turkey with its restrictions on cross-subsidisation and State aid.

Or they can be an ostrich, as they did when Muscat started his ‘never mind the quality, feel the width’ gig with our passports.

It will take a financial analyst whose prowess exceeds mine to work it all out but, somewhere down at the bottom line, it’s starting to look like we didn’t need the power station that Muscat promised to resign over, except it’s also starting to look like the Chinese, bless their black capitalist souls, are preparing to stretch him (and, therefore, us) over a barrel at the same time.

I certainly would not, to answer my own question, buy a used car from that man.

Would you?

True, the Chinese have bought a (hardly) used power station off him but, in that particular case, I suspect that the boot is firmly on their foot, aimed squarely at our Prime Minister’s sit-upon.

Unfortunately, we’re the ones who might be getting the kicking.

imbocca@gmail.com