I suppose I'm expected to blog about Cyrus Engerer and his rat leaving a sinking ship act, but that pre-supposes that the former is a rat and the latter is sinking.
About the former, perhaps more in due course, when I've dredged up a few choice snippets of his public utterings. I'm told that these indicate that the dear fellow's u-ie is of greater neck-wrenching dimensions than those of his new best, best friend, but we'll see.
About the latter, it is true, however much the folks down at PN HQ (can't call it the Stamperija any more, really, that legacy has evaporated) try to say that it isn't, that if an election were to be held today, the Nationalists are looking at a vote-deficit of something in the region of ten thousand or more and a seat-deficit that is probably giving Joseph Muscat dreams of the exciting kind.
Is this justified, in the light of reality as opposed to perception?
I think not.
The economy, which is what it is/should be about, stupid (can't remember who said it, was it Clinton?) is not in bad shape at all. Yes, power bills are high, but we don't, last time I looked, have an oil-field anywhere close (and if we did, no doubt the FAA would object) and we don't control the price of oil, so there's not all that much we can do about it, however much people bleat. And utility bills are not the be-all and end-all of people's personal budgets, bleating aside.
Tourism, a pillar of the economy, is coping and while redundancies are being mentioned here and there, and not insignificant ones, either (and I'm not trying to make light of the fact that people are going to lose their jobs) by and large, there is work available and long-term mass unemployment is not looming.
So what's pissing people off?
Apart from Arriva, that is, which needs a good long look as to who did what and who failed to do what and to whom – but that is for when the dust settles.
The PM voting "NO" certainly annoyed plenty of people, especially those whose knees jerk to the tunes called by those who have suddenly discovered that you shouldn't really ignore the electorate (are you listening at PN HQ?) but in truth, what actually happened? The will of the electorate is being respected, as the PM promised just after the result was made known but individuals, including the PM, are voting as their consciences dictate on a private member's bill foisted on the country in circumstances that we know perfectly well. Are they wrong to have a conscience and to respect it? Actually, not really, even if it would have looked (but only looked) a bit better if they didn't do that little thing.
And then there's the famous pay-rise farce, which has receded a bit but will no doubt come back to haunt the PM in due course. Yes, it was abysmally handled, yes, it gave ammunition to those sad individuals who care more about what their neighbour has than about what they have, and all in all, it was quite a mess, but hey, in the greater scheme of things, who cares?
There's plenty more that's wrong with the Government, to be sure, and three years into a legislature, it would be surprising if people didn't whinge and whine, but is it really the sinking ship people like Engerer make it seem to be when they scuttle down the mooring lines into the waiting arms of a gleefully smirking Joseph Muscat?
Go on, fill the space below with comments, you know you want to, but try to be original and/or coherent while you're at it.