Muscat’s two star turns are rapidly turning into spent whizz-bangs.

Manwel Mallia, presently Minister for Everything A Tinpot Dictator Would Give His Right Arm To Have, is in a flat spin, with not even an inkling where the next salvo is coming from. No sooner had the ink dried on the Head Man in the Army’s circular playing musical chairs with his officers than it was on maltarightnow.com.

So much for the respect people have for the rules, which is hardly surprising since Mallia himself has demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that rules are not something that apply to everyone.

I just love the way Times of Malta headlined his latest intervention on the subject of the now famous shooting, “I never asked for a cover-up: Mallia”, which leads scurrilous wags like myself to exclaim “Ah, then there was a cover-up, after all”.

All that’s left now is to find out who was responsible for it.

This gives Mallia’s felicitous phrase an even more poignant twist. The chattering classes in the cafes around Court know full well that the combination of friendship, lack of will and surfeit of political expediency to be found in the Three (un)Wise Men appointed by the PM to do his job for him is more than likely going to result in it being difficult to point a finger directly at the dear chap.

If any of the three are irked at my characterisation of their attributes, all I can say is, I told you so, you decided to dirt your hands in the political arena, now you’re going to have to take the flak, instead of the PM.

Mallia, clearly, is positioning himself to come out of this smelling like a component of the rose-garden his boss promised us all, even if it means that lesser heads than his will have to roll because of the cover-up for which he never asked. His side-kick might have to fall on his sword, provided that Mallia wants to take the risk of the fall-out from that particular event, as will the PM’s Communications Director, whose days were anyway numbered since the appointment of that Abela fellow to do his job.

And then we have the other star-turn, Konrad “shame on you” Mizzi, who has now let it be known that the date by which he and Muscat had said they would be resigning, also known as the date on on which the new power-station would be up and running, has been pushed back a year or so.

What store should we set by the promises these people have made?

Not a heck of a lot, frankly.