I've never come across the Leader of the Opposition's twins, but I'm sure they're a perfectly cute pair. I'm also sure that they're the apples of their parents' eyes, and that the latter want nothing but the best for them. Joseph and Michelle Muscat are no different in this to any other young couple, apart from the slightly idiosyncratic names with which the little girls have been lumbered (and even here, there's not much to say compared to some others)

The twins, of course, are off limits when it comes to the cut and thrust of political debate: it's not their fault that their old man is a politician and it would be unconscionable for them to be chucked into the arena, at least until they're old enough to take care of themselves and then only if they've opted to join the fray. Taking the mickey out of them, or using anything they do (and for sure, as they get older, they'll be doing things that will be the despair of dad and mum, as kids do) as a political club to be deployed against Joseph Muscat would be wrong and there's an end to it.

In fact, it would be as inappropriate as an English comedian's recent attempt to use children with Down's Syndrome as subjects of humour. I'm all for black humour, it's my favourite type, but it should only be deployed, as someone put it during a radio debate on the comedian's act, against someone who – if he or she were present – would be in a position to whack the user across the heads. The Leader of the Opposition's kids are not in a position to hit back, so they're off-limits, as I've said.

If, of course, they were to be dragged into the political arena by their parents, then many would be tempted to make a target out of them, which I think would also not be an entirely great idea. To be fair, Joseph and Michelle haven't given any indication that they're prone to trying to curry the “oh, how cute” vote, not any more than every other politician, anyway.

This does not mean that no reference at all should be made to the children, however.

Tony Blair, some years ago, before he decided it was time to lumber Gordon Brown with the chore of trying to steer GB through the economic and political storms that broke, had got himself tangled in the debate about whether or not the MMR injection was a good idea and the debate, some of it in the tabloids, had involved reference to what he had decided to do with his own kids.

No-one was particularly exercised by this, as it was a pretty natural consequence of the way the debate developed. When Blair's older son, Ewan (if that's the right spelling) was found in Leicester Square mildly “tired and emotional”, there was something of a media storm, and again, no-one got too hot under the collar.

What is my context, you might ask?

Well, there's been quite a flurry of screeching and “shock, horror” posturing recently by this new group of Lil'Elves, who have manifest themselves on a website dedicated to Daphne Caruana Galizia, on which I also get a passing mention every so often.

There are, as it happens, echoes of this screeching on other manifestations of Lil'Elfitis, such as maltastar and the print media that is sympathetic to Labour, and the general trend is that DCG is a nasty witch for daring to attack the poor defenceless little kids and – as always – GonziPN should ignore any tenets of freedom of expression and clamp down on the lady instantly if not sooner.

Leaving aside the disquieting evidence of the way Labour's public voices, albeit officially unofficial ones, look at basic freedoms, which really takes us back to the good old days, and ignoring the pretty obvious point that the PM has no control over DCG, given that he doesn't employ her, Mrs Caruana Galizia is not attacking said poor defenceless little kids.

All she has done, in her own inimitable style, is make some pretty caustic comments on the choice that Dr and Mrs Muscat made when they put their girls' name down for the Church Schools Lottery. This is not an attack on the twins and it is not an invasion of the Muscats' private life. A politician's public preferences, especially in the field of education, where Labour's shadow is a heavy one, are fair game for comment.

But this was of no relevance whatsoever to the Lil'Elves, whose hysteria and venom was only exceeded by their crassness and by the incompetence they showed in the manner in which they deployed their limited vocabulary and peculiar syntax.

All they did is come across as vicious little gits and if these people think they're doing Labour any favours, they really need a reality check. The problem is, no-one seems to be able to give them one and they don't seem to have the necessary IQ levels to take it on board anyway.