Labour: the most feminist dorks in history. Week in, week out, they just have to prove it.

This week it was Evarist Bartolo's turn. Wanting to insult the Nationalist Party, he drew a vulgar analogy that showed contempt for women. Of course, he refuses to apologise.

A crass man is in charge of education. Is it surprising that Jason Micallef is in charge of culture's showpiece, Valletta 2018? Or that V18's designated artistic director rants against all Muslims?

The prime minister laughed it off, saying that we're in Europe, after all. In the Labour Bluffer's Guide to Europe, chauvinism is okay.

We shouldn't expect better. Muscat is the same man who used his budget speech to give us a homely explanation of hedging: not hedging, says our prime minister, is like a young woman who doesn't understand the point of car insurance. In the bluffers' Europe, women need everyday things patiently explained to them.

Bartolo has tried to justify himself. He says he cracks jokes equally about men and women. Does he mean he's equally vulgar about men? Well, that's all right then.

He says his record is one of commitment to equality. For the sake of argument, let's say that's true. Is he saying that therefore he should enjoy a special licence, once in a while, to be vulgar and crass about women?

Bartolo just doesn't get it. The jokes you crack are part of your personal record too. Being committed to equality doesn't give you a special licence. It adds to the burden of your responsibility.

If someone with a record of commitment to women's equality cracks a joke, publicly, at women's expense, that kind of joke is given a nod of approval it otherwise wouldn't have. "Look, if he's cracking that kind of joke, so can I. It can't be wrong."

All this is apart from the special responsibility of being education minister. It's one thing for a stand-up comic to say something like that at a club. It's another for the education minister. If Bartolo can't see the difference, he has a poor sense of the dignity of office.

But isn't that the problem with Labour? They have no sense of office. How else could someone like Mario Philip Azzopardi, of V18, survive?

Azzopardi ranted publicly against all Muslims. To top it all, he said he'd be prepared to use violence to stop them occupying positions of power.

Yes, the artistic director of V18, our once-in-a-generation opportunity to be a platform of cultural dialogue, endorsed selective violence against Muslims.

We're expected to believe that it's okay, however, because the government has distanced itself from his comments and he's kind of apologised for them. In fact, it's not clear whether he's actually admitted that what he said was wrong or whether he's only said that he was wrong to say what he believed publicly.

In the bluffers' Europe, it doesn't matter. In the real Europe, the government distances itself by sacking the author of such a rant. That's what distancing means.

It's clear he's not fit for purpose. He protests that he's ready to work with everyone. That's not the point. Is everyone now prepared to work with him? He has damaged our credibility as a European platform for cultural dialogue.

In all of this, the watchdogs of equality have been quiet. It had to be me, an Opposition MP, to file a complaint with the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality about the behaviour of Bartolo and Azzopardi.

Real equality before the law is ignored but the government pulls out the stops to make sure some are more equal than others. So Manuel Mallia has an orchestrated hero's welcome in St George's Square, where the "general public" does not see fit to ask him a single question about Malliagate. In the front-row was someone strongly associated with the Leisure Clothing factory, which is being investigated for the virtual enslavement of some of its workers.

Labour thinks our lives are a game it can bluff with. For the bluffers, this is Europe. For the rest of us, it's Pyongyang.

Taghna Lkoll Hit Parade

This week Manuel Mallia spent more time discussing the Eurovision song contest than Paul Sheehan's shooting spree and the subsequent cover-up by the authorities. Could it be the minister thinks that many Eurovision winners were written prophetically for the characters in Malliagate?

1.Boom bang-a-bang - Paul Sheehan

2.Fairytale - Kurt Farrugia

3.Why me? - Silvio Scerri

4.Après toi - Manuel Mallia

5.Every way that I can - Joseph Muscat

Keep your suggestions coming. Warning: Nul points for anyone proposing Like a Virgin.