If things didn't change much we’d still be living in trees, munching nuts and vegetation. Cows, pigs and turkeys would have no worries about being gorged in sumptuous feasts. There would be no cars or stress to keep us all nice and hale.

Honeymoons too have evolved since I embarked on mine a few good moons ago. They are still embarked upon by a couple who tie the knot and pledge unloving fealty till death, or hatred, sets them apart.

But today honeymooners visit more exotic places, travel in more stylish comfort and do more daring stuff than we fusty ones ever did. Give or take a little, honeymoon periods have remained static.

In politics one usually talks of honeymoon periods lasting 100 days. A long time for a couple to live it up and not go mad through too much fun and frolics. For a new Government, that is usually seen as the time-span during which ministers, and their leader the prime minister, can do no wrong, or be forgiven with a wink and a snigger.

In Malta, as we know, we always do things differently.

It’s been not 100 days but many hundreds now since we saw Labour move, together with all its movement, into power. And yet our Prime Minister—a star of the firmament—goes on shining and smiling. He can do no wrong. Going to Baku is no big news. Going twice in a few months is less news.

Baku is not the land of the free—it is the land of the oppressed, the antithesis of anything our country and its people need as our keen buddies or partners. But does anyone care? Does anyone ask too many questions?

How about the abnormal number of people being employed by our already too-huge public sector? Does anyone worry too much about the Sai Mizzi affair, now a drama which is way beyond laughter? Does anyone even remember that Joseph Muscat emailed—on his gmail personal account—his assent to the Café Premier payout?

Do we care that the CHOGM supremo might have another bad day come the summit? Has the Arriva débacle been fixed? Is the power station up and running?

This is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg of questions left unchased. Ministers are hardly ever present for questioning by journalists. And maybe we journalists are also guilty by our nonchalant attitude to anything that is not honeymoon material for Joseph and his truly amazing ways.

No honeymoon can last so long. Even if the money coming from passports is so refreshing and we are truly awash with dosh we need to ask and question not just the visits to despicable leaders of countries like Azerbaijan but why members of the media—except for the state-controlled one—are never asked to join such sojourns. 

Is it because Joseph Muscat feels it is his privilege to travel alone as, after all, his honeymoon carries on and he does not want prying eyes while he conducts his affairs of state.

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