Some mothers do have them and when they grow up they become all sorts of things. Even prime ministers. Even tycoons. As well as the two together.

Take Silvio Berlusconi. He is a media billionaire - in good new-fashioned euros, not just defunct Italian lire. Once he had made his fortune he became hard pressed about the legality of some of his commercial transactions. So he entered politics, became Prime Minister of a once-proud country, and set about changing the legislation to suit his own dubious ends. Some leading newspapers in Italy and elsewhere dubbed him a 'clown', and worse.

Nevertheless Berlusconi evolved into a quite successful politician. He did not do badly in terms of his personal agenda - to change legislation such that the large legal net thrown out to catch him was very substantially reduced.

He did not achieve the same success with the Italian economy. He blamed his failures on the fact that another Italian government had decided to take Italy into the eurozone. He used that as an excuse for rising prices and falling economic activity. Everyone was to blame, except himself and what he stood for.

At the last election he was narrowly beaten by a coalition led by Romano Prodi, among other things an esteemed economist, but as dull as Berlusconi is flamboyant. Predictably, the Prodi government was defeated still short of its second anniversary. Fresh elections are now being held and Silvio Berlusconi is strongly tipped to win back his coveted post of prime minister.

He will not be a reformed man. He is his old tasteless self, if anything much more so. Months back he was publicly taken to task by his wife over his blatant sexism. He is at it again.

Some weeks ago he gave Italian women a bit of personal advice. The best way an Italian woman can secure her financial future, he said, was to marry his son. He did not mind flaunting his money in the face of the female sex in Italy, where life is getting tough for everyone. He did not mind clowning about some more.

And, just in case anyone thought the great senior citizen was running short of trick turns, last week he sallied forth once again with a new one. "The Left has no taste, not even when it comes to women," he declared. "As for our (women) candidates being more beautiful, I say that because in Parliament they have no competition."

The people who should have been aghast at such crassness, turning politics into a beauty contest, are his female political colleagues. But, if they were aghast, they kept it to themselves, unlike his far more forthright wife. The tycoon-politician projected an image of female politician which all self-respecting women do their utmost to ditch. A woman is fit to run for parliamentary office not because of how her picture looks between the ears, but because of what she has in her brain and in her heart.

Politics are far more substantial than the toothy, fake, ready grin which is Silvio Berlusconi's trademark. It is much more than lascivious sub-consciousness which invariably brings some sexist aspect to the surface to indicate very strongly that the man who professes to want to save Italy has sex on the brain. It is much more than the mushy song which an amateur wrote for Berlusconi - Thank goodness for Silvio - which has become the clowning politician's personal anthem.

Italy, a respected member of the European Union, is going through another rough time. It requires politicians of quality to analyse what is going wrong and to define and propose what is to be done about it. That is also what the EU requires of one of its top members. As part of the EU family, it is what we must surely wish for as well. Instead, the coming week is set to see the return of the sexist cowboy to the top post in Italian politics.

Going to Italy might not remain the sort of pleasure it has been for ages, given that beautiful country's multi-fold attractions. It is likely to come to resemble a bit like going to the circus.

Berlusconi is a case study that offers lessons for would-be politicians, as well as for electors. He is what he is because he chooses to be so. Because it pays him. He made his money and he ladles it across his politics to be able to be as self-seeking as no representative of the people should be. He grins and jokes and spouts sexism without caring about the anger that generates among serious females and males alike. He wheels and deals with gusto towards his own end.

But he does not elect himself. He will become prime minister once again next week because a relative majority of Italians will vote for him. Sadly, people who close their eyes to monkeying about get the result they deserve.