"I wanted us to have this little chat Renzo to put you right on a couple of points."

"Puta me a right? Whaddaya meana puta me right?"

"Nothing to get upset about; just a few minor details concerning the City Gate project."

"Erm... which-a ceety gate we tokin about here? I do so many."

"The Valletta one... remember?"

"Erm... go on, remind-a me."

"The City Gate project for Valletta, Malta, you submitted last year. Eighty million euros worth, remember now?"

"Vaguely, well-a waddabout it?"

"Well... we put your model of the project in the National Museum of Archaeology and invited comments from the public about it."

"You done-a what!?"

"Invited discussion and suggestions."

"Are you crazy?! Do you a-know who I am-a?"

"What do you mean Renzo?"

"I am the most-a celebrated architect in the a whole-a world-a... and you invite-a suggestions and discassowns of my-a work-a?!"

"It's what is known as democracy, Renzo. But don't worry, whatever suggestions etcetera they come up with, nobody will take a blind bit of notice. Incidentally, that's also what's known as democracy."

"Then excuse-a mi, if dat's de case-a then why-a do it eh?"

"Because... because, well Malta is a democracy... sort of and - even though we take no notice of it, public opinion must be seen to be aired and noted."

"Een Eetalia we don-a do such teengs. We jus-a pay something to de mafia and do whatever we like-a!"

"In Malta it's slightly different; for mafia, read government. But that's not what I'd like to discuss today."

"You wanna discuss some-a more-a on dees leetle-a job eh? What is eet these time?"

"This time I'd like you to consider one or two amendments to the afore-mentioned parliament building - "

"Ees impossible!"

"Hold on a minute. These are very infinitesimal amendments."

"Like-a what-a?"

"Well... like I notice from your drawings that the rooms set aside for the leader of the opposition are nearly as capacious as those set aside for me... the Prime Minister."

"So?"

"No offence but... well, as that Prime Minister, I feel that my quarters in Parliament should be larger and more imposing than the mere Leader of the Opposition."

"Be careful signore... Remember today you are-a de Prime Minister, but tomorrow you may well-a become Leader of-a de Opposition eh."

"Ahem; I'm not asking you to trim Joseph's quarters. Just to make mine a lot more imposing and opulent than his... OK."

"Uh huh, I get eet. You wanna me to further downgrade the teatro again eh?"

"The what?"

"The teatro... the open-a air teatro I plan for de project."

"Oh that. Look Renzo...the truth is, nobody really gives a hoot about the theatre... certainly not we politicians - and we are the people who have to occupy the new Parliament building. The theatre thing was always just a sop to the arty-farty types and a peg on which to hang the new Parliament building."

"Hmm, well-a I don't-a see what-a more savings I can-a make-a to these budget-a, by cutting back-a anymore-a on the teatro project-a. I already took it off-a de roof-a and make-a it as cheap-a as possibile. What-a more you wanna me to do?"

"Some of us... well OK, I... have been wondering if we need that open-air theatre thingy at all. I mean, the arty-farty types don't like it cos it's got no roof, no wing space... whatever that is - and will apparently have no atmosphere. So... it occurs to me that we could in fact do away with the whole thing - and nobody would be too bothered."

"Huq! If that-a what you want-a, for me it's easy-a. But since-a already-a we reduce the teatro to... how you say-a... bare bones-a, we ain't gonna save-a much money if we-a don't do nutting there."

"You mean - "

"The teatro already cost-a peanuts."

"So - ?"

"So-a let's-a forget about the teatro and budget another 20 million for-a your room-a"

"Tough but... OK"

"And another 40 million for me-a!"