The government has now touched the bottom of its box of tricks. And nothing has worked.

When the Panama Papers case emerged, the government played dead for some weeks. But then the force of the facts as they emerged and the public reaction forced the government to come up with something.

Need we go over the whole sorry story? It unfolded something to a friendly media then got caught out it was not the whole story.

Since then, it has always been the same template: caught in a corner, the government and its manifold allies unleash personal attacks on those who carry the story and who question the government’s actions and those of its principal exponents.

Time and again the government and its principal exponents have been outplayed and shown up for having many things to hide. Time and again the issue has been discussed in Parliament where the government’s huge majority holds sway. All it has done is to lock down those in the government majority who would have voted otherwise and force them to vote for the majority, much against their convictions.

So far, the government has survived. It has won the repeated votes in Parliament hands down. It has not even felt the need to make some of the principal characters resign, except a token resignation that does not change things.

The government may think the worst is over. It repeatedly appeals for the population to look ahead. It gives huge importance to figures of economic growth, which are all true and impressive. It now says, after three years in office, it wants to tackle the remaining pockets of poverty.

It still plays deaf to Panama Papers and its consequences. However, it has not erased the memory of the Papers from the consciousness of the Maltese population and it may soon find that fellow governments in the EU have not been taken in by talk about economic growth either.

On the contrary, Panama Papers keeps spawning more and more scandals as subordinate minions in grace learn from what their superiors did and do likewise – turn opportunities into money, big money, and hide it.

So what does the ever-inventive but repetitive government do – it latches on to a Facebook post of exasperation by a PN mayor (and former Parliamentary Secretary) and an expression of exasperation from a former MEP candidate and creates an almighty story that the Opposition is breaking down. A normal meeting to prepare for the coming political season and the coming Independence celebrations is turned to an urgent last gasp meeting to stave off disintegration.

Those who did not believe the government when it pooh-poohed Panama Papers will see through this ruse and smile bitterly. If they did not believe before, they will not believe now.

The government keeps digging itself deeper into the ground.