Labour's facade might be cracking just a touch.
On Thursday, Mr Joseph Cuschieri, Manwel who inspires him's brother, was on BondiPlus and he let slip a couple of phrases that were telling.
He tried manfully to keep to the party line that we'll be told what they're going to do in Government "at the right time" (he was referring to his plan to shorten waiting lists, which he intends to achieve from the European Parliament when he eventually takes his seat) At this rate, they'll be going to tell us what they intend to do after the election, which if they're elected will be instructive, to say the least, and if they're not, amusing.
But Cuschieri's valiant attempt slipped a touch when he let it be known that he thinks maternity leave should become an entitlement of twenty weeks on full pay and that he will be campaigning for it to be included in Labour's manifesto.
Finally, something concrete, a measure designed to have employers country-wide simply panting for Labour to get elected. Or avoiding employing women, depending on how they look at it.
There was more, and more important, too. Apparently, when Doctor Alfred Sant led Labour into smashing into yet another electoral defeat, the party was in danger of splitting up and Cuschieri took it upon himself, in concert with others, to ensure that this was not the case.
Interesting, this, because it allows us to pose the question as to whether Labour under the chap eventually anointed is any less fractured than it was just before the anointing. The PN's trials and tribulations have been grist for the gleeful mill of Labour's bimbettes and chorus-boys, it's a bit of a change to be able to wonder if the same dramas aren't actually being put on within the other camp.
Cuschieri also had a poignant little story to tell about the failure of some unknowns to back him in his quest to have a seat for his MEP posterior. He tried, understandably, to say that it was the Government and the PN's fault, but it was clear that he was also referring to people from his own side of the fence and he made it equally clear that he would be spilling the beans and naming the names when the time is ripe, and red faces all round were promised.
Asked if he included Joseph Muscat in the list of people's whose complexions would be rendered red, he responded "God Forbid", which taken in the context of the fractures he told us about, about which one has to wonder how much has been papered over, really makes one wonder who is on whose side over Mile End way.