As I write this, the Three Unwise* Men’s Report has not yet been made public.   I am morally convinced that their conclusions will be such as to create so many doubts as to who was where doing what and saying which to whom that Labour’s spinners will wet their pants with glee.  

Perhaps I will be surprised and there will be a clear and unequivocal pointing of fingers at various individuals involved in the whole sorry affair. 

Forgive me I I don’t hold my breath waiting, I’m too much of a realist, though I still hope I’ll be pleasantly surprised and that there will be evidence of a collective spine in the little bunch.

That being as it may be, many people have many questions to answer.

Starting from the bottom, and working our way up, let’s have a look at them.

Kurt Farrugia is the occupant of the lowest rung of the ladder of responsibility, Communications Co-ordinator at the Office of the Prime Minister.  He receives instructions as to what to communicate and co-ordinates the communication of it: he doesn't set government policy, he merely transmits it.

Or does he?  

Was Kurt Farrugia making it up as he went along, or was he keeping the people who mattered in the loop?

Why was the Acting (I suspect soon to be Ex-Acting) Commissioner of Police reporting to this functionary at all?  

The A/CoP tells Farrugia what to do, if at all, and not the other way round, and in any normal hierarchy, the Top Cop, in a situation like this, doesn’t waste his time on lowly apparatchiks, unless he’s been told to do so by someone higher up the tree, which in this case could only be the Prime Minister.

Was the A/CoP, therefore, working under some form of standard operating procedure that means that a call from the OPM is to be deemed to come from the PM himself and he has to drop everything and kow-tow? 

Did Kurt Farrugia give him this impression, to look big, or is this how things are run under Labour?

And if they are, does this not mean that the buck stops with the Prime Minister on this, for all his desperate squirming to get out from under the lowering boom?  

But the questions for the PM come later.

Would the A/CoP please enlighten us, perhaps by getting Farrugia to issue a statement, assuming either of them are in a position to do this little thing by the time this blog sees the light of day, how he came to the conclusion that “warning shots” had been fired?  

While he’s about it, could the A/CoP explain why, in the call “leaked” to the media by it’s pretty obvious who, he seems to be taking the news that one of his men discharged his weapon with such equanimity?  A normal Top Cop, hearing this news, would be bellowing orders for the misbegotten constable to be banged up immediately if not sooner, not having an intimate chit-chat with him and confiding in him (“bejnietna”) that he has the PM’s man on the other line.

Had the initial shock worn off, because you already knew about the incident, or is this sort of Wild West behaviour so much the norm under your watch?

Now a few questions for Minister Mallia, or Dr Mallia, as this might come out after the PM discovers that he has a spine - or decides he has to grow one, in the circumstances.

Did you, or did you not, know Sheehan before he was appointed as your driver?

If you did not, why was your young daughter in his care, are you crazy?

Were you, or were you not, with him in the car as he said you were when calling the Control Room?   I don’t think you were, but you tell us, for the record.

If you were not in the car how do you justify having someone who seems to have rather significant difficulty in telling the truth and in controlling himself sitting by your side and armed?  And why was he armed, what are you scared of?

If you were not with Sheehan, because you were at Police HQ, with the A/CoP, who you know well, are you expecting us to believe that you did not know exactly what was going on and what the A/CoP was saying both to Sheehan and to Kurt Farrugia?

And consequently, if, as seems to be the case, pretty much everyone at Police HQ knew what was going down, how come you allowed a completely misleading statement to be issued?  

If, on the other hand, you had no idea what was going around you and what being said on behalf of the outfit for which you’re politically responsible, how fit for purpose are you?

Finally, as they say, is there anything else you’d like to tell us, before it’s too late?

And now for the cherry on top of this cake, the Prime Minister.

Did you, or did you not, know what your Communications Co-ordinator was doing?   That he issued a pretty misleading statement, either because the A/CoP gave him completely the wrong information or because he was doing that thing people do with dirt and carpets, is pretty clear, but did you know he was going to do that?  

Were you aware that the statement to be issued was talking about warning shots when the media were already saying that the fleeing car had been hit at least twice? 

If you were not aware, what does this say about your control over your employees and your manner of keeping abreast of situations? 

If you were aware, when are you going to resign?

Were you aware, when you appointed that Board of Inquiry to do your job for you, that recordings were in existence? 

You should have been, it’s pretty standard operating procedure for Control Room communications to be monitored, and if you weren’t aware, seriously, do you think you should be Prime Minister? 

And if you were aware of the existence of recordings, why did you not order them to be published immediately, rather than having to depend either on the Opposition to do your job for you or on their being “leaked”?   

While we’re about it, what are your views on how much you’re needed as PM, what with the Board of Inquiry doing one aspect of your job for you and the Opposition the other?  

And do you agree that it was quite providential that there was a “leak” (forgive the inverted commas, they’re meant to represent my raised eyebrow) because this might be the only thing that saves Kurt Farrugia’s hide and spares you a few blushes?

In England, people resign over silly tweets and lying about speeding tickets: here, they do much worse and cling to power like grim death: do you think that this is right?