I confess that for a moment they had me more worried than usual. For newcomers the political leaders in Parliament are already at it as frequently as they could. The topic that had me concerned was the handling of the island’s security aspect. The Leader of the Opposition immediately jumped on a mistake by the Home Affairs Minister who sat in on recruitment interviews into the special service.

Should Malta negotiate nicely, though in a firm manner, and then resign itself to the result if it goes against it?

That is a no no, for any department, let alone security. Let’s not be hypocritical about it – ministers and their staff interfere in recruitment.

They do it through a whisper in the interviewing chairman’s ear, a name on a slipped note, an sms, in all manners – except sitting in on interviews. I have no idea what compelled the minister to do so.

The Leader of the Opposition had a clear idea – interference. Building on interference in interviews he moved on to interference in the work of the security service itself.

That would be definitely out. The secret service, as it in fact is, is not there to play politics.

Its concern is the security of the country.

It is unlikely that it will detect plots to overthrow the government, to kill some big shot or other. But there are many areas that need careful monitoring, much information that needs careful sifting.

Its tasks have been added to by the revelation, if such it was, that the Americans spy on their own friends, but there are other areas to ferret out, including foreign terrorism cells that may be using Malta for planning, if not worse.

In short the service has its work cut out. And properly cut out it is. It meets, well, secretly. It doesn’t publish agendas. It hardly wants it known that it exists.

As far as I can remember, past prime ministers and the leaders of the opposition never referred to it in public.

It’s one area sphere their lips are publicly sealed. They say what they have to say behind closed doors. And that is it.

Which is why I was worried when the interviews incident broke out and the Leader of the Opposition made an issue of it. He was cautious even them but he was public.

He demanded to know more. To his credit the Prime Minister responded with alacrity. He called a meeting of the secret council straight away.

That is where maturity stepped in. As soon as the meeting ended, Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil declared himself satisfied that the service was working well.

That was manful of him; a declaration in the national interest.

It does not mean to say the two leaders will not have more to discuss, maybe to disagree about. But they signalled they intend to do it diplomatically, with caution.

In a way the incident served an unexpected purpose. It showed that dialogue can work.

There will be few areas for the Government and the Opposition to agree about without carping criticism of each other. But there are some, foreign affairs, for instance.

The relationship with the EU is another. Each time the leaders have to ask themselves where the country’s interest lies, not what partisan gain there is in differentiation stances.

A test is coming along there with the Prime Minister signalling a very strong stance to get the EU to appreciate the problem Malta has with the arrival of boat people totally out of proportion to its size.

Should Malta negotiate nicely, though in a firm manner, and then resign itself to the result if it goes against it? As it has done already?

The Prime Minister does not intend to do that. He has declared he intends to use Malta’s veto on other matters unless reason prevails.

That’s a very tough stance which people will compare to Dom Mintoff’s way of doing things, recalling the Helsinki conference.

But if Malta doesn’t use all the resources available to it to punch above its weight, its chair at the negotiating table might as well be left empty.

In this regard our present political class has most to learn, not simply from Mintoff’s way of doing things, but from that of Margaret Thatcher also years ago, and from the way the British are acting now and preparing to act in the near future,

The political class should not pause for a second from the clash and contrast of politics. But it should define very clearly where the national interest lies.

That comes first, as it did with security. Not many will agree with that.

There will be those who say that the Opposition should oppose the Government all the way, especially over its behaviour with foreign governments.

Others on the Government side will say that the Opposition shows its true colour when it acts that way.

The truth lies in between. There is only one national interest and there has to be sense and sensibility to recognise what it is, and how best to achieve it.