Some people would like an election because they believe there is uncertainty; others want one because they would like to see Labour in power; a growing number, however, would like Malta to go to the polls just so they do not have to listen to personally-driven bickering by politicians any longer.

It is clear from our interview today that Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando is a man who desperately wants to be believed.

He would like us to believe that the vote he cast in favour of a Labour motion which forced the resignation of Richard Cachia Caruana was not personal. He has said as much. Trouble is, after his tirade about the EU ambassador and those he perceives to be controlled by him – it is difficult to attach credibility to such a statement.

Just as it is difficult to believe, even more in retrospect, that his opposition to a proposed underground extension of the museum at St John’s Co-Cathedral in 2008/09 (coincidentally, or perhaps not, he was then also joined by Jesmond Mugliett) was solely motivated by a love for the environment.

For two reasons: one, because a figure it is clear he despises, Mr Cachia Caruana, was also involved in that (the Labour Party had presented a motion at the time urging the government to withdraw support for the project); two, because he showed no such love for the environment when it came to his land in Mistra which landed him at the centre of a huge political controversy during the 2008 election campaign.

When The Sunday Times’ interviewer raised the question of Mistra – the fallout from that is in many people’s eyes what caused him to vote with Labour against Mr Cachia Caruana on June 18 – Dr Pullicino Orlando made it clear from the outset he did not wish to revisit the subject.

Yet it is impossible not to revisit a subject – and his ambiguous statements at that time coupled with extraordinary conduct – that have caused such turmoil four years later. To many it was clear why the party were upset with him after the election.

It is clearer to nobody more than Lawrence Gonzi. As Prime Minister, he was the one who decided not to award Dr Pullicino Orlando a Cabinet position – which was widely expected until the Mistra issue cropped up – and he was the one who took any decisions which led to the MP being sidelined.

Yet it is Mr Cachia Caruana who Dr Pullicino Orlando has seen as the architect of those actions.

Even if this were true – and it is an insult to Dr Gonzi to suggest he would agree to do anything he is not in agreement with himself – the new allegation, that Mr Cachia Caruana somehow colluded with figures in the Labour government against the interest of the Nationalist Party in 1996-98, appears to stretch the lines of credibility once again.

If he did such a thing, Mr Cachia Caruana would have been betraying Eddie Fenech Adami, his closest political confidant for many years. And only in recent days the former Prime Minister, who does not waste words, ensured he included “loyal” when he commented on the EU ambassador’s resignation.

Moreover, in our interview Dr Pullicino Orlando was challenged to produce evidence of this, as he had intimated in a statement that morning he would, but he failed to do so. It is time he produced the goods. Or give the nation a much-deserved break from the politics of the personal.