The issue surrounding Minister Evarist Bartolo ended up dominating almost all of today's parliamentary sitting which discussed the proposed law regulating the political parties.
Opposition leader Simon Busuttil kicked off with a speech that ended up repeating what Dr Busuttil said on Sunday and since then on Minister Bartolo.
Minister George Vella chided the Opposition for channeling the discussion into an attack on Minister Bartolo and rehashed the reasons for the proposed bill. It is in line with improvements in parliamentary business as carried out when parliament gave itself the Public Accounts Committee and the like. Dr Vella however pointed out that the situation in the House has deteriorated ever since television was introduced.
Minister Bartolo was the last speaker of the day. He began his speech with many references to the Bible, the Pope and religious authors. Then he switched to attacking the 'Pharisees' on the other side. He attacked those who had attacked him, from Simon Busuttil and his treatment of the whistleblower, Beppe Fenech Adami and the many cases in which he was mentioned, Chris Said, ditto and the rest.
Parliament will meet at 2pm tomorrow to vote all the Budget chapters and to take other votes that have been left bunched together.