What could have been perceived to be a huge contradiction turned out not to be in Valletta, with the recent relocation of a commemorative slab from one side of Great Siege Square to the other.

The slab is in fact a commemoration of the paving laid down in Republic Street by the Labour government of the day. It used to be inconspicuously located by the old fashioned red phone box just opposite the Law Courts, but has recently been moved to the opposite side of the road near the law courts side entrance.

I saw the slab and I must say from the start that the situation it finds itself in now is just a temporary one, with work scheduled to start soon. The paving under the slab was obviously ripped up and, to say the least, looks quite untidy.

Being in the business of journalism I feared the worst, that this was the be all and end all, that it had simply been moved and left in that state. The contradiction that sprang to mind was that the slab was a commemoration of the paving being laid, and that it had been broken up and left in a mess in the move.

Further enquiries established that where the slab was originally placed was simply concreted over.

My fears were, however, unfounded as mayor Paul Borg Olivier explained to me. “That is just a temporary measure. We still have a good deal of the slabs in storage and work is due to start Monday to tidy it up,” he said.

I was about to bring up the small matter of the concrete on the other side of the street, but Dr Borg Olivier pre-empted me: “Once that is done, the same contractor will build a small platform where the slab’s original position was and we are going to put up the bust of Pope Pius V, which used to sit atop the old City Gate,” he said.

Dr Borg Olivier said everything was being done in stages due to the constraints of Valletta. “The first relocation phase took place at three in the afternoon rather than late in the evening when there are less people because there was a demonstration that evening,” he said.

Dr Borg Olivier also pointed out that jury trials were scheduled that week and the council was trying to be sensitive to the courts’ need for quiet during a trial. The courtroom does actually face out onto the square and various trials have been disrupted by bands, protests, marches and many other similar interruptions in the past. He said that the work is expected to take about three days to complete and the bust of Pope Pius will complement the commemorative plaque of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Malta. Not all is always as it seems at first.