I quote from Tuesday's timesofmalta:

"Resources Minister George Pullicino has been awarded damages of €5,000 after a court found that comments made by Jo Said, who drew comparisons between the minister and Lorry Sant, implied that the minister was corrupt."

I wonder, will Labour's bright young things get it? They have many of them, nowadays, such as Deborah Schembri, who got whupped on Bondi+ by Beppe Fenech Adami and got so confused about Labour's past that she started condemning it, before forgetting who she is and looking like someone who wished she was anywhere, but there.

Then they have Cyrus Engerer, who up to a cosmic nano-second before becoming one of Labour's star turns, was a fervent, hand-on-heart Nationalist.

Do luminaries such as these get it?

And what about the ones who troop dutifully up to salute the late Mr Sant's monument, in his home town? Do they get it? Do they have the slightest interest in getting it?

What about the respected ranks of the entrepreneurial types, or the mittel-klass, ghala le, the Marlene Mizzis, the Sandro Chetcutis and all those other shining stars of the business world , do they get it? Does Angelo Xuereb, latterly gravitating towards Labour, or at least an admiration of the Leader thereof, from being a Nationalist, though his route is via the Alleanza Nazionali, for the love of all that's beautiful, get it?

And what about the Soldiers of Steel, the ones who stood shoulder to shoulder with Mr Lorry Sant, some colleagues in Mintoff's Cabinet, others party functionaries or stalwarts?

Do they get it?

Does the Leader, bless his electric blue tie and quizzical look up at the ceiling of the Burj Al Arab, get it?

What's to get, you might ask?

Well, here's what's to get, folks, it's simple. When you are ranked as equivalent to Lorry Sant, that is libelous, which is not very nice, now, is it?

And the supreme irony is that this whole thing was brought into stark relief by someone of whom Labour made such a hero, that Jo Said person, who became something of a cult figure for them.

They really should stop hitching their wagon to such strange ponies.