The negative reactions to the appointment of Drs Joe Mifsud and Monica Vella to the bench seem to me nothing but baseless, since they are inspired exclusively by the fact that the two learned lawyers were involved in a particular political party.

I think Justice Minister Owen Bonnici is right when he says that one’s political background ought not to have any influence on the decision leading to the appointment.

After all, all citizens should be free to exercise the fundamental right to associate themselves and be involved with a political party, and they should not pay for exercising such a right by being automatically barred from judicial or other appointments.

God forbid if we start attaching a price tag to the exercise of fundamental rights!

What really should have raised eyebrows years ago was not the appointment of morally upright persons with a political background (and there were and have been many), but the appointment to the bench of persons who might have given the impression that they were thus appointed because they served the party in power in politically sensitive judicial cases.

I cannot see such a serious shortcoming in the two Labourite lawyers recently appointed to the bench. They are widely known to be morally upright.