Simon Busuttil’s decision to declare with holier than thou hubris that he will be voting in favour of spring hunting may well in the fullness of time be judged as the beginning of his end as a figure of consequence in Malta’s political scene.

The question as to whether thousands of armed men should be allowed to furtively roam the country lane ways of one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in Europe and shoot down endangered migratory fauna in the name of sport is beyond rational or sensible debate.

Busuttil’s stated reasons for his stance are oxymoronic. The man who leads Malta’s alternative government argues in favour of a compromise between hunters and environmentalists. There can be no compromise between wrong and right.

These are the utterances of a man of straw, bereft of principled policy who seeks to grasp at every prop in his quest for political expediency. Not a man of smart ideas, justsomeone so obsessed with bridging the ever widening chasm between government and Opposition that he fails to feel the pain when he shoots himself in the foot.

By patting himself on the back for diligently working hard in favour of and defending the derogation for hunting in spring, Busuttil clearly seeks the support of those in favour of hunting under the pretext of a sense of fairness and compromise between those who are hell bent on blasting the natural heritage of our next generation and those who wish to conserve it.

Alas for Busuttil there are no accolades for on-the-run policy based on Machiavellian expediency and hollow of any substance. The only perceivable result of his rush of blood so far – and I include the writer in this regard – is to convince traditional supporters of the PN that under his leadership the party will be in opposition for a long time.