And it came to pass that Joseph Muscat brought his ambulant circus of Lil'Elves and other assorted clowns to Gozo to continue mapping out their road-map or whatever it is that their Congress is seeking to achieve.

I'll give erudite consideration to the wisdom of the entrepreneurial class some other time, if the whim takes me, though I have to remark on the awesome brains that must lie below the remark made by Mr Tony Zahra of the MHRA, when he decreed that a national effort must be made in respect of utility prices for the commercial sector. When we all know that the prices are, in fact, already lower than harsh realities would dictate, one wonders how Muscat is going to appease Zahra and his ilk - perhaps by charging us, the consumers, more in order to charge the entrepreneurs less, thereby achieving his empty promise of lowering the rates (he never said which or how or in respect of who, after all) and sucking up to the commercial classes.

But back to Gozo, where I wish I was.

From the news reports, a concerted effort to make nice to the Gozitans has been made by Labour's movers and shakers. When you think about it, this is not surprising, given the major concerns voiced during the Congress held in Gozo. One of them, which I am told was symptomatic of the level of worry expressed during the event, was uttered by a mother, who told the assembled multitude that she had dedicated her life to her son's education (laudable in the extreme, of course) and now he was at Uni in Malta, due to which, horror of horrors, he was having to cook for himself and wash his own clothes, and something should be done about it.

No mention of free Uni education, no mention of enhanced stipends for Gozitan students, no mention of subsidised transport, none of this, the poor lamb was missing his dear mum's cooking and slaving for him and therefore something should be done.

Flipping hell, in an international context where in the real world, people are struggling to get a place at Uni and pay for it, living away from mummy by many, many miles if they manage it, we get this sort of entitled pettiness. And then to put the cherry on the cake, Labour are now crowing about "the great policy guideline adopted for Gozo", viz. and to wit, "Jobs in Gozo for Gozitans." This cosmically important dictum was taken up by a show of hands, just to show us how democratic Labour has become.

Make no mistake, Gozo does need special consideration, even if there is a limit imposed by cold realities on the extent to which rural, geographically isolated regions can expect to have everything their population wants. In an ideal world, every Gozitan who wants to live and work in Gozo should have the opportunity to do so, but mere raising of hands and spewing slogans won't get them this.

In fact, all this sort of cheap electioneering does is raise expectations without the slightest basis for it, which is typical of the emptiness of Muscat's vessel, for all the tinny noises it makes all the time.