About 50 years later than other countries, Malta has leapt forward into the 21st century. Sex shops are now permitted and vilification of religion has been decriminalised.

Our government seems to be supremely adept at spin and distracting measures. This exciting item of news diverted the attention of no fewer than 352 (and counting) people who commented beneath the report that appeared on the website of the Times of Malta.

The grand gesture didn’t cost a single centime and, of course, it is just cheap cake to distract the peasants from more pressing issues. This generous gift to the nation was graciously bestowed on us right in the middle of the ODZ/‘American’ University controversy and the cunningly designed Mepa demerger.

What is so appalling about this government’s record is that the object of practically every scheme or policy has been the pursuit of money while ignoring the interests of those who might be in need.

The name of today’s game is to join the money stampede to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, not to mention making a number of undeserving but wealthy people EU citizens - at a price.

All the while, politics and money have been systematically put before welfare of people and the environment. Even the crucial issue of healthcare has been turned into a question of money and foreign investment.

This government’s attitude is even more greedy and mercenary than that of the yuppie Thatcher 1980s.