Like most humans I have some trusted friends, the ones you listen to because they tell you the truth and the whole truth with no colouring or chiselling.

Strangely they have told me very worrying stuff.

One actually said that the PN, with its insistence on Sai Mizzi and the way the government went about this débacle, was wrong. Wrong, he reasoned, because by insisting on such things the PN is not winning ground.

Proof of this was that the MEP election resulted in a straightforward knockout by the PL. Interesting.

Before I analyse this friend’s observation—and cry myself to kingdom come—let me say something else about friends and their ideas.

Another friend told me—on seeing how aghast I was at David Cameron’s opportunistic cabinet reshuffle—that the British PM did the right thing. He will win another election because he did exactly what the electorate wants, or wants to hear, and so by winning votes and by ensuring he will be in power again he is making sure his way, the right way, will prevail.

Both ideas were very unwelcome news. And the worrying bit is that this reasoning is getting ingrained in us and in right-thinking minds. And for this I blame mainly Joseph Muscat and his new-style politics.

My two friends are hardly switchers—both in fact are hardened blue and bemoan the fact that Labour and their ways are so much the flavour of the time. They both hate Joseph Muscat’s grin and can’t stand the arrogance of the rest of his team and affiliates.

So what is so bad in this reasoning and why is it all the fault of our dearly beloved Prime Minister? Is it because, like some bird-brained fool, I blame the government for all that happens, including whether Malta wins the Eurovision or whether it rains or shines?

If we reason that we do not need to criticise and harp on the holy mess regarding the Sai Mizzi contract then Joseph Muscat’s way wins all the way. Be positive—when it suits you—and march on not thinking at all what sins of commission or omission this entails.

We are so immersed in this obsession with positivism  that government—through its official information service, the DOI—has also commented pejoratively on Simon Busuttil’s negative attitude. How perverse is that? How utterly undreamt of in normal democracies.

And yet we move on, reasoning that it’s useless to point these things out because people are fed up of hearing about Sai Mizzi’s incredible contract and even more bored of hearing that the Prime Minister was rather spare with the truth and only decided to publish Sai Mizzi’s contract when he couldn’t evade the issue a second longer.

But all these slippage and positive versus negative stands have also affected the way we perceive David Cameron’s ways. He hails from Britain, long our master and master of democracy and the proper ways of conducting politics.

His decision to axe some ministers and demote others purely to be seen in a good light is horrendous. He did not do what the country needs but what the people expect., This is all in the name not of moving on and getting the country going but all in the name of the most selfish  ‘I-want-to-win-at-all-costs’ philosophy ever invented. I know all politicians do it but hey I thought Cameron and the Brits do it differently.

I thought principles were more important than votes, than elections, than being prime minister.

And back in Malta thousands of people thought the new kids on the block had newer, more intelligent, more transparent ways of doing politics. So far the only remarkable thing they have done is affect much of our reasoning and how we evaluate politicians’ antics.