As a regular reader of Lino Spiteri’s column I feel duty-bound to refer to his latest piece: “The PM may, however, get away with defeating the opposition’s motion on the huge pay rise the Cabinet granted itself. If so, that will be a vote outcome that does not represent public opinion, which has condemned the retroactive pay rise and its size in no uncertain terms. The Prime Minister might win the vote but he will certainly lose the argument.”

I doubt if Mr Spiteri read the opposition motion. One need not be a wordsmith to note that the emphasis, like the refrain in a song, is all about the fact that the Leader of the opposition did not get his salary hike.

Why didn’t the opposition present this motion in 2009 when it first found out that frontbenchers would be taking their MP salary too?

Why didn’t the opposition present this motion last January after all MPs were notified they were to take around €20,000 in arrears and a salary increase of around €600 monthly from this year? Is it because among the Labour parliamentary group I had witnessed some telling me I was being a “masochist” by spearheading the “we’re all in it together” campaign?

Politics is not about rhetoric I’m afraid!