I don't imagine anyone is under any illusion that I think that George Abela is the right choice for the leadership of the MLP. Contrary to what Labour's Little Elves think, this is not because Abela being leader would favour the Nationalists.

According to the Elves' logic, if we ("we" being the columnists who the Elves are convinced are part of the PN-sponsored conspiracy to keep Labour out of government) prefer Abela, then Abela must be wrong. These people, sadly for them, don't seem be able to comprehend that I (I'll speak for myself only, the other columnists are quite capable of sticking up for themselves) don't view the prospect of Labour being elected with horror.

Labour under a decent leadership would be just as good for the country as the PN has been for the last couple of decades, Sant's blip-in-power aside.

The problem is, Labour hasn't convinced the country that it had a decent enough leadership to gain (and maintain) power for more than a couple of decades now.

While I don't have blind faith in the judgement of the massed ranks of the great unwashed, I have to accept that the relevant majority can't have been wrong every time it voted to defeat the MLP. And that ignores the objective evidence that's been in front of my baby blues for the last 30 years or so, which has proved to me beyond reasonable doubt that Mintoff, KMB and Sant, individually and as the embodiment of the Malta Labour Party, were not fit to lead the country.

If you want to have a look at the evidence for this indictment of the first two on that mercifully short list, read John Manduca's book, as I suggested in my Saturday column. If you want evidence on Sant, just think back a few months to the campaign and analyse, even superficially, the mess he made of that.

But my distaste for Labour as served up to us by these people does not translate to my ignoring, or even being mildly worried about, the fact that there's no reason why Labour shouldn't be in power some day. And this being a given, it is equally a given that I want the best possible leader to be in place when they are.

This is not to say that my views on George Abela being the best man for the job are shared by the other candidates or, more relevantly, by the MLP administration. It's perfectly understandable, of course, that the other candidates think they're better (they're in it to win it after all) but what's becoming fun for the rest of us is watching the dirty tricksters who are starting to raise their heads above the parapet.

It all started with Jason Micallef (to whose name, with any luck, we'll start adding "remember him?" the way we'll soon start with Sant's) jerking his knee at the mention of Abela on Xarabank. It was clear, if anything was ever clear, that Micallef didn't feel anything like unbounded joy at the idea of Abela becoming his boss, even for a few minutes.

So as soon as Abela suggested that, just maybe, it mightn't be such a bad idea if the power to elect a leader were to be devolved away from the party "elite" (a word used somewhat loosely just then, I admit) the machine went into block mode.

Straight out, the media ban was put into place by the commissars charged with ensuring that the leadership contest was "fair". That piece of mild insanity was soon reversed, when someone bothered to think the thing through, but not before the damage to the machine's image was done.

No wonder so many people don't like the idea of them in government. Which is all a pretty convoluted way, on my part, of coming to the point. What the heck was Mintoff doing at George Abela's public meeting last week?

There are only two explanations, really. Either Abela thinks being associated with Mintoff will get him the votes he needs to be elected or someone else thinks the opposite.

At first blush, I thought that the latter was more likely: someone thought it might be a good wheeze to foist Dom onto Abela, to ruin his image. A bit of judicious sabotage never did anyone any harm, after all, except for the person who is being sabotaged. Ask Lino Spiteri.

But then I tried to think this through a touch further. It's by no means a given that anyone but the party delegates is going to be admitted to the hallowed chamber to cast his or her vote on the question as to who is the best leader for the MLP. This being the case, and the delegates not being - how can one put this? - your average floating voter (hardliner Labourite, more like) it is not inconceivable that a less shallow consideration would lead to the thought that being associated with Mintoff would do a candidate no harm at all. Quite the contrary, maybe.

Perhaps Mintoff turning up, then, wasn't a dirty trick designed to scupper Abela but an exercise in real politik by the guy, a wooing of the voters, if you like. After all, Abela isn't a wide-eyed innocent relying on his boyish good looks but a politician just like the rest of them, albeit one who falls squarely on the positive side of the equation.

Whether being associated with Mintoff will be beneficial to Abela in the long run (that is, if and when he becomes Prime Minister in Waiting) is debatable - in politics, the short term is way more important than the long term and the short term requires, from Abela's point of view, that the delegates see him as a staunch Labourite.

That was one theory.

Then of course there's another. A deeper analysis of the whole affair actually leads the more thoughtful analyst towards the notion that planting Mintoff in Abela's domain was more akin to a cunning plan on the part of someone unknown who wouldn't want Abela to prevail.

Don't forget, the delegates in place are, more likely than not, the sort of people who are less than unsympathetic to the Sant camp - the very camp, mark you, that was sacked and desecrated by Mintoff when, in what many classified as a lucid moment, he stood up to Sant and brought down his government. If you were to stick a gun to my head and demand that I come out with it, I'd have to say that I don't believe that George Abela is dumb enough to risk being associated with Mintoff.