Prime Minister Joseph Muscat chose a very unfortunate phrase in the Labour Party’s first mass meeting of the election campaign in Zabbar on Sunday.

“Your children are my children,” he told the crowd.

No, Mr Prime Minister, my children are not your children. And I definitely would not want you as their godfather either.

Your values are different from mine.

For one thing, I value honesty, but I don’t see it high on your priority list, if it is there.

A father takes care of his children’s interests first, not his, and I do not see you doing that. Your main concern is yourself, and a father who is selfish is not a good deal for his kids.

Let me explain myself. I wanted my children to be European Union citizens, but you did your best to keep them out. You worked hard and invented stories to instil fear, and then, when you lost, you flew straight to Brussels on a good salary to cheekily represent us there. A father needs to be consistent, and should not be opportunistic and take advantage of others. A father should stick to his principles, not change them around to fit his purposes.

A good father leads by example, but your track record is not something I would be proud of. I do not tell my children one thing, and then do the opposite.

You do not keep your promises. You pledged meritocracy before the last election, but then you chose to appoint incompetent people to key positions and give them lucrative salaries, and this simply because they voted Labour or appeared on a billboard.

You promised transparency, but when we asked to see documents you signed on our behalf – spending our money – you redacted the parts which were inconvenient to you. A good father must be clear with his children, as otherwise they will quickly start to distrust him.

Children should be treated equally. But you have shown signs that you are not capable of treating everyone the same. You discarded people whose sins were venial when compared to the obscenities that your closest allies are accused of doing. And you keep defending them and say they are on the right side. When a father fails to reprimand his children for doing wrong, it is like giving them the green light to do even worse.

But most of all, Mr Prime Minister, you have instilled in our children the false impression that money can be easily made by selling one’s own identity. I do not want to give my children the idea that they need to sell themselves to prosper.

There’s another thing. I do not want my children to have Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri and Brian Tonna as their uncles.

You have surrounded yourself with people who do not inspire confidence, and I do not want my children to be anywhere near them.

No, Mr Prime Minister, I do not want my children to be yours.