Tennis fans will recognise John McEnroe's petulant outburst when some line judge or other had called his ball out, or in, or whatever, nasal whine and all. 

Never, though, has such an ejaculation been more apt than today, Thursday, April 28 at 5pm In Malta.

Premier Joseph Muscat - "the Prime Minister who decides", according to his oafish sycophants - has announced a Cabinet reshuffle.

Well, that's what he called it, others have called it a farce, a sick joke, an astounding raspberry in the general direction of the Great Unwashed and a simply appalling piece of political shysterism.

PanamaHats Konrad Mizzi is no longer Minister responsible for Health and Energy, the former hat being plonked onto Chris Fearne's hapless pate. The latter hat, probably with a strong element of Panamanian style to it, has been perched on Premier Muscat's own sparsely thatched nut.

PanamaHats hasn't been fired, oh no, no, no, he's been retained in the Cabinet but without the bother of having to be accountable for anything. 

He's become a Minister Without Portfolio, responsible, Premier Joe tells us, for "projects".  

PanamaHats won't stay on as Labour's Deputy Leader, like anyone outside that sorry party gives a rat's ass who deputises for Premier Joe when he isn't laying down the law as to how the party has to be run, so there.

Leo Brincat, one of the few Old Labour fogeys still rattling around Premier Joe's cupboard has been neatly trussed up and sent off to the Court of Auditors, where one assumes mercy will be shown on his soul and he will be given an easier ride than the previous nominee. 

Premier Muscat's two wing-men, both implicated beyond rational belief in murky stories that will not be put to bed by any ineffectual audit, by whoever carried out, remain firmly implanted as his right and left hands, carrying on with their activities as if nothing had happened

Jose' Herrera will transition from something or other to something else or other, to replace Brincat.  I challenge anyone to put their hands on their heart and say they would have noticed any difference at all had it not been announced by Premier Joe.

Herrera will be replaced by - wait for it - Manuel Mallia, whose triumphant return to the Cabinet has long been on the cards.  I suppose the only consolation is that in Herrera's former ministry he won't have a hand in appointing the new Commissioner of Police, though with this bunch of clowns, nothing would surprise me.

Dulcis in fundo with cherries on top, Keith Schembri reigns on supreme as Premier Joe's gate-keeper, confidant, Chief Bottle Washer and Consiglieri, because, don't you see, he still retains Premier Joe's trust and he's not a political figure.

I mean, seriously, are we now supposed to think that Panama Gate is all over, done and dusted and we can all live happily ever after because Premier Joseph Muscat has "decided"? 

I don't think so.  It has long been the word on the street that although it was blindingly obvious that Konrad Mizzi just had to go, Premier Muscat was in some way beholden to him to the extent that he simply couldn't tell him to take a long walk on a short pier.

This farce, this sick joke of a reshuffle only goes to give strength to these scurrilous rumours. 

Premier Muscat's two wing-men, both implicated beyond rational belief in murky stories that will not be put to bed by any ineffectual audit, by whoever carried out, remain firmly implanted as his right and left hands, carrying on with their activities as if nothing had happened, which it hasn't. 

At this point, all that we can say is that it's now clear, crystal and unequivocally clear, that Premier Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister of Malta, is simply unable to rid himself of these two characters.  If he had been, he would have done it weeks, months ago, but now, he's simply confirmed it, once and for all.

His position, already so far gone down the road of untenability that it was surreally unreal, is now just that: untenable.

Go, now, for the good of the country.

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