That politicians can't resist the temptation to resort to little gimmicks come election time is a given.  

Babies are kissed, ties and funny hats are donned and doffed depending on the expected audience and little islands with three inhabitants are visited as if for a polar expedition, with outdoor gear and emergency rations carried manfully a la Putin.

But that's all in good fun, adding to the jollity of the occasion and allowing the other side's media to take pot-shots.

Joseph Muscat has gone beyond that, beyond the pale.  He has shamelessly used a woman's personal tragedy to shore up what many call his irresponsible arguments in favour of a new power-station in the South, opportunistically grasping at the visceral fear we all have of cancer to make a cheap political point.   

This is not to make light of the woman's sad story: someone in her position has every right to make her voice heard and she deserves every iota of sympathy and comprehension we can muster.    

Joseph Muscat, however, did not demonstrate any such emotion: he may have tried to, he probably looked suitably moved when she spoke at in his presence, but he took note of the anecdote and he used it in his speech to the Mass Meeting in Gozo on Sunday.

By so doing, he gave proof, if any proof was needed, that comments that he is not fit to run this country are justified.    

Quite apart from the fact that a single story, tragic and moving as it is, does not form the basis for economic and financial planning, the fact that Joseph Muscat seized on it to justify a policy that is illogical, unattainable and downright dangerous to the country is incontrovertible evidence of the fact that this man will do and say anything to persuade people to vote for him.  

Consider these facts.   

He has no compunction in using people like Andreas Gerdes (ask about him in commercial circles and see what credentials he has to talk about power generation and high finance) Cyrus Engerer (yes, we all know about his way of doing things) and Jesmond Mugliett (until not so long ago branded as incompetent and worse by Muscat's own media) to give a patina of respectability to his proposal.   

Now chuck in Edward Scicluna's co-director Tony Zahra, who seems to have an inside track on what Labour intend doing, and the building contractors and Konrad Mizzi's dad.

Now do the math.   

You can only come to one conclusion: Muscat's incomprehensible, inept and downright cock-eyed energy policy is nothing more than a cynical grab for power, based on nothing other than his conviction that it's his turn now.    It's no wonder that his side-kicks, the Toni Abelas and the Zammit Lewises of this world, get themselves tied up in knots and worse when they try to talk about it.