There was a time in the past when the British Parliament would draw admiration and respect for the manner, content and depth of knowledge available in its debate.

If, judging by what the Times of Malta reported on May 9, that same Commons has now degenerated to MPs insulting other MPs, because these had “read the works of communist icon Karl Marx”, then that is now certainly indicative of the mental poverty and frivolity that has made its way into that once noble institution. For the Tories to insult Jeremy Corbyn, and shadow chancellor John McDonnell, for having “read Marx”, for Conservative election candidate James Cleverly to brand those MPs as “the Marx brothers”, well, all of this goes far to show their poor mentality insofar as economic theory goes.

No MP worth his salt anywhere, no student, teacher, academic, researcher or politician of any orientation whatever, anywhere, should ever go through life without having read Marx.

Marx is not (or not only) an ideology (as so often viewed by biased observers) but a ‘method’. How can one teach or speak of labour economics, of the theory of value, of the capital-vs-labour dualism and so much more without exposing the thought and theory of Marx even, if anything, merely for exposition and ‘compare and contrast’ exercises.

Perorating against, or even insulting, fellow MPs about economic attributes or qualifications and basing oneself only on Adam Smith, Keynes, Stiglitz and whoever and, in the process, insulting anyone who would have the complete baggage - inclusive also of Marx’s works - is just like someone saying he knows everything about Formula 1 but not also accepting there is such a thing as a Ferrari.