It was part of folklore that Minister Evarist Bartolo, in another life, was Mary l-Maws (or was it Marija?) on Labour's weekly paper, KullHadd.  Whoever it was, he or she used to delight in getting at people on the other side of the political fence, with some, but not very much, malice.  Things are different now, with people remunerated by you and I being as vicious, and untruthful, as they want to be, La Maws was a different kettle of fish.

Not that it wasn't irritating to be targeted by him/her, but it was par for the course.  As I M Beck, I was also in the cross-hairs, but truth be told, I was never particularly hurt or worried by the jibes, which were part of the hurly-burly of public and semi-public life.

All of this is only by way of background, to remind one and all that Evarist Bartolo was, is and, from where I'm sitting, always will be a stalwart in Labour's ranks, love him or not.  In this regard, he was, is and will always be as one with Doctor Alfred Sant, whose pen always was mightier than the swords others within his party sometimes chose to wield.

And still do.

Minister Chris Cardona is no shrinking violet, and he has now come out in his true colours to threaten to deploy the axe against anyone who dares be "politically insensitive" to any Labourite.  What Cardona started to say, but didn't have the wit to get out of saying, was that he and people like him within Labour have no qualms about resorting to intimidation when they feel threatened.  

In order to tone down the viciousness, Cardona interposed the word "politically" in front of his threat to make like a mad axe-man, but that only reflects on him and his poor political judgement.  Bartolo, on the other hand, was as clear as Sant: Konrad Mizzi should have resigned, long ago. 

If a week is a long time in politics (actually, today, a couple of hours is way too long in some instances) then the seven or eight weeks that have gone by since Mizzi's taste in hats and Easter meals (New Zealand lamb, if you'll allow me to Labour ... the point) was exposed are so far off the scale that it beggars belief. 

Sant, and Bartolo, stopped short of saying that Premier Muscat is as guilty of unconscionable delay as Mizzi, who adroitly, some might cynically, lumbered him with the poison chalice.  Was he daring Premier Joe to fire him, after all?  

Sant, and Bartolo, stopped short of saying that Premier Muscat is as guilty of unconscionable delay as Mizzi, who adroitly, some might cynically, lumbered him with the poison chalice. Was he daring Premier Joe to fire him, after all?

Premier Joe should have got himself shot of Mizzi and Keith 'Kasco' Schembri within days, if not hours, and all this mealy-mouthed obfuscation about tax and other audits is worth just so much warm spit, if you'll forgive the nauseating imagery. 

By not hanging them out to dry, Muscat, even if Bartolo and Sant aren't able to spell it out as clearly as they are spelling out their message to Mizzi,  has now nailed his colours inextricably to K and KK's rickety mast.   At least as far as men and women of goodwill are concerned he now sinks or swims with them.

Let's be clear on something, shall we? 

Speaking for myself, even if the so-called audits paint K and KK virginal white, I will give them as much credence as they deserve, which is the sum total of sweet nothing. 

You can't audit what you don't know about, even a first-year accountancy student knows this.  Even if you don't give old K and KK the benefit of the doubt and assume that they're not exactly virginal white, hypothetically speaking, unless the so-called auditors are soothsayers and readers of tea-leaves, their audit will be worthless.

 And while we're being clear on things, let's be clear on something else. 

Premier Joe will carry the day on Monday or whenever it is that the Confidence Motion is to be debated, of this I have no doubt.  He might crow about it, he already is doing just that. 

Meanwhile, Evarist Bartolo, Edward Scicluna, Louis Grech, George Vella and a number of others might be uncomfortable with their younger colleagues' position (not only Mizzi, all the others who are sticking up for him with such gusto)

This does not mean that they will bring down Premier Joe's Government.  But it does mean that they will have ranked themselves alongside Konrad Mizzi and his Protector-in-Chief, Premier Joey and when they lay their heads down to sleep, they will have to live with that.