It seems that Santa has been carrying a bag full of goodies for journalists and one full of coals for the general public.

Generally this is the time of year when hard stories become hard to find. Journalists have to make do with human and good feel stories which sometimes they have to scrape from myriad sources. This year Santa decreed that things should be completely different. The judiciary, politicians and the underworld were harnessed so that journalists would be spoilt for choice.

Just have a cursory look at this week.

• Parliament has been dissolved after Government lost a money bill. Government and the Opposition were miles apart. You say yes, I say no syndrome. But the man who carried (or run away with) the day was Franco Debono who has since been given the title as The Most Irrelevant One.
• The date for the dissolution of Parliament was set for January 7 and that for the election has been set for March 9 – coincidentally the birthday of the Lawyer from Hal Ghaxaq.
• The ink had not even dried on the edict to dissolve Parliament when the Prime Minister hinted that Parliament could reconvene to consider an impeachment motion against Judge Ray Pace who has been arraigned in Court (on Republic Day to boot) charged with a number of unsavoury acts which he allegedly committed. The Opposition will vote for that motion, we were told. But the Opposition will not vote for the impeachment of Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco unless this is proposed by the Commission for the Administration for Justice. The Opposition believes, we were told by Dr Jose Herrera, that a judge should not be impeached for acting unethically. The mind boggles! Does the Opposition really believe that it’s wrong to have judges committing crimes but ok if they act unethically? Something does not add up.
• There was a tiff between the Ombudsman (and former Chief Justice) Joseph Said Pullicino and Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco. The Ombudsman quite rightly and courageously said that Judge Farrugia Sacco should be relieved of his duties while the shenanigans about the Olympian ticketing scandal are being investigated. Farrugia Sacco, who showed the Commission for the Administration of Justice the middle finger when he was censured for being unethical, has since asked the police to institute criminal libel procedures against the former Chief Justice. The mind boggles once more. Is this guy (Farrugia Sacco not Said Pullicino) serious? 
• As if this is not enough, two persons were murdered on the same day earlier in the week. Between the investigations of Judge Pace and those of these murders would the police have enough time to waste on the capricious request of Farrugia Sacco?

All this provides journalists with juicy headlines; the reason why I described them a goodies for journalists. But it is just coals for the common man and woman of this fine Isle.  This is bad news for all of us. More and more people are unfortunately reaching the conclusion that our Courts are not to be trusted. Who can blame them? (I will discuss this in my commentary of the coming Sunday Times).

This is the worst kind of news that we have had for a long stretch of time.

Meanwhile some still wait in earnest for December 21 for the end of the world, according to the Mayan calendar. There is just one consolation: journalists would not be able to report it, if it happens.