I am continually accused, along with some others (the co-conspirators in Rm 6 at Castille, for those who'd like to continue the joke from my Beck column) of harping back to the past, as this is the only weapon in the PN's arsenal against Labour.

The past is also invoked, negatively of course, when the PN's detractors take the floor, continually harping about Governments past their sell-by date and so on.

It would be funny if it wasn't so hypocritical. If there is anyone who is harping back to the past at every opportunity, it is Labour, with its leader's references to soldiers of steel whenever the fancy takes him and with the political dinosaurs with which its ranks have been packed. The strategy is clear: pretend to be all modern and clean, but appeal to the roots, making sure that they remain strong and eager to spread the word to the new voters. It is a pincer movement almost worthy of the greatest generals, aimed at snaring the new voters who know nothing about Labour's past, using troopers from that very same past.

Almost but not quite, actually, because there are still enough of us around who remember the past and the people who were involved in it, many of whom are still being held up in reverence by Labour.

So when Dr Helena Dalli writes a chunk of column inches about public broadcasting, bewailing the depths to which it has sunk, people like me have to look on in something approaching awe at the breathtaking effrontery of equating media training by someone who earns a living out of it with ignoring any sense of decency, not to mention the law, in the way public broadcasting was carried on when Labour were in power (not including the 1996-98 blip when they didn't have time to get to grips)