Now that the Franco, Jeffrey and Jesmond boil has been ever so dramatically lanced, it is as though the spell cast by the Wicked Fairies, at this government’s cradle back in 2008, has been lifted. Ding, dong, the Wicked Fairies are dead – or rather, putrefying on Super One television and no doubt also on Malta Today.

The change in the prime minister’s bearing, speech and behaviour was immediately noticeable. On television after Monday’s events in parliament, he seemed like a man who had shaken off his chains at last. Instead of being demoralised by what transpired, he was galvanised into action, free of the need to be cautious lest he inadvertently push any nutty buttons.

The contrast between the way Lawrence Gonzi and Joseph Muscat speak, not just because of their respective levels of eloquence but also because of the difference between them in terms of intellectual depth and political experience, has never been more obvious than it was over the last two or three days. One prominent Labour MP said to somebody close to me about Lawrence Gonzi, “There is nobody else in parliament who can rival him for the way he speaks.” And yes, that was a Labour MP.

It is quite clear that the Opposition has been unsettled by this sudden and entirely unexpected bouncing back of the prime minister’s spirit, which has in turn led to a much-needed renewed enthusiasm in the Nationalist Party itself.

The Nationalist Party has been severely browbeaten by three of its own horrible members of parliament who are not Nationalist by conviction (hence the way they doth protest too much) but by the default situation of their circumstances in life, who are indeed closer to the Labour Party in behaviour, attitude, political beliefs and general lack of ethics and manners (which is why they feel so much at home on Super One and talking to or living with Laburisti).

This weakening of the spirit from within made the Nationalist Party vulnerable to the ceaseless onslaught by Labour’s considerable media machine. All of this fed into and fed upon the general ennui, which had people speaking against anything to do with the government and the Nationalist Party as though the last four or five years were somehow equivalent to the awfulness of the Labour governments we knew and hated.

The whole sick experience has twisted people’s perceptions of reality. So much time has been wasted screaming about the fly in the ointment, or to use the Maltese expression – the hair in the dough, that we have barely paused to notice how lucky we have been, that we are happily in clover not by chance but through the specific choices made over the last several years by various Nationalist governments, despite the considerable obstacles put up by Labour, not least the war against EU membership.

It is such a relief to see Lawrence Gonzi fighting fit again. He has allowed himself to be treated like a doormat by those three wretches who now face a life of oblivion once Super One has no further use for them post March. Loss of morale among political leaders causes loss of morale among the rest. The Barbarians are the gate once more, and even if they cannot be held off this time, we would at least like to know that those in charge are ready, able and willing to fight them to the death on our behalf.

As for the switchers who are preparing to vote for the Barbarians, who are ready to open the gate and let them through to over-run the place, what can I say? Each to his own, but it’s difficult in this case not to mind the difference. Voting in a general election is one of those rare situations in which the choice you make affects everyone and everything else, the entire country. And that’s why other people’s choices come to be seen as of interest and contentious.

I just find it terribly sad, tragically perverse even, when supposedly intelligent and rational people talk about the many shortcomings of this government (as they see them) and then conclude with a decision to vote for the very man who tried so hard to really destroy their hopes, chances and opportunities by keeping Malta out of the European Union. Joseph Muscat is the man who worked like a dog to deny us all an EU passport and now some who would be horrified to be deprived of that passport plan to reward him by making him prime minister.

I find this as unbelievable as the suggestion that anybody would ever want to vote for those three wretches again after what they have done. But there you go – there’s no accounting for the strangeness of human behaviour.

I will certainly never help make Joseph Muscat prime minister. Apart from the frighteningly obvious fact that neither he nor his party are in any way fit for the purpose of government, and not even fit for the purpose of Opposition, were he to have had his way, my passport would now be about as useful as a Libyan one. So like hell am I ever going to thank him with a vote for what he tried to do to us all, and almost succeeded in doing.