The prime minister with a general election imminent – and my crystal ball tells me it is more imminent than they will have us believe – is certainly not going to flush anyone out of the cabinet at this stage. Or ask them to pursue alternative careers in the café business perhaps or the law. These were my thoughts at the kitchen sink last night. There is no Europe this time round to lure the electorate, but scandal and slippery fish who are determined to stay in power. After all we can understand that after 20 years of running a country down they must yawn at the thought of being merely shadows in the cabinet.

The ADT scandals were eye catching enough but before we could regain our breath – whoops! – we hear the news that the minister asked for a presidential pardon on behalf of the two miscreants. Mr Mugliett, suffering from amnesia with all the dust from the roads he is building clogging his brain cells perhaps, is now saying that this was agreed upon collectively. But there goes Joe Gerada denying it while the leader of the opposition is saying that the minister lied to Parliament. And Mr Speaker, buddhla-like, refuses to budge while Tonio Borg says that the prime minister will come out with a statement if and when he likes. Phew! Isn’t the weather hot enough? Do we need all this?

‘What next?’ we told one another, spluttering into our mugs of coffee, aghast at the very cheek of it all. ‘A presidential pardon too?’ we repeat with ironic amusement. But then, the sudden revelation that indeed, a presidential pardon had already been granted to yet a third of these licence-for-cash givers, to the very first miscreant. The story goes that someone above had ordered him to do just that. But nobody can oblige anyone to follow higher orders if he feels that those orders are wrong. One can challenge these orders even if one is threatened with the loss of one’s livelihood. Rather lose the job than live with a sword of Democles on your head and with an uneasy conscience. But you will find that people like this have no conscience even if in church they sit in the front pews and are probably warbling in the church choir as well.

One of the two men involved in the latest scandal is Mugliett’s canvasser and he depends on Mugliett’s survival for his own. It seems that being a campaign manager, a canvasser or the driver of a minister are much sought after jobs which carry a number of perks. Campaign managers are given high ranking and sometimes even glamorous jobs for helping an MP to win an election which, perhaps, even without him, he would have won anyway. If the MP becomes a minister then they will be rewarded with some well paid post within that ministry. Is the minister in education? Then the campaign manager will be catapulted in some high job in education and it doesn’t matter whether he is qualified for it or not. Qualifications have nothing to do with it. If the minister then moves, the campaign manager will move with him and he will be provided with another sinecure. Such largesse and all paid for by the taxpayer.

It is the same for canvassers. Ministers and parliamentary secretaries will cook up jobs for them. That is the way this country is run. Merit is far from being the only criterion and guilt-by-association doesn’t exist. Someone is bound to say that these shenanigans are attributable to nothing more than sour grapes. But who wants to be in the position of these people? What astonishes me is that while certain columnists conduct vendettas and savage certain people they are wholly uncritical of these ministerial scandals. The government can do no wrong.

The prime minister will not come out with a statement about this licence business (or indeed about the Mater Dei one as spelled out by the courageous Frank Portelli.) Mr Speaker refuses to comment in parliament and the request for a presidential pardon has been archived but for how long? They hope these scandals will all go away like so many others; that we shall forget about them and vote the Blues in with an even greater majority next time round.

But it is evident that these latest scandals are merely the tip of an iceberg. The rest have simply not been caught.

The Mater Dei scandal is another one they hope we shall dismiss from our memories. But just because 80,000 who have nothing better to do with their lives went to visit the new hospital, does not mean that we have forgotten about the scandals associated with it. How can we?

Sant may not have the allure of a Mugliett or the angelic look of Censu Galea but at least we know he is squeaky clean. And please, stop saying that if Labour win the next general election it will be by default. What exactly does that mean? If they do, which they may or may not, it is because people are tired of the same faces, the boldness and arrogance and the corruption and ministerial sticky fingers where they should not be and a change in itself would be like a breath of fresh air.

And while I am on this stream of consciousness, let me say that having a beautiful hospital is far from being the most important consideration when it comes to health care. It is the people who make or break a hospital and government needs to look into the salaries of doctors and paramedics and give them their due. They requested a revision years ago. They work in an environment where competence, compassion and patience are needed; where you cannot watch the clock because there are times when they are dealing with life or death situations. We don’t want our doctors and paramedics to start looking for jobs oversees, so that we then have to pay foreigners with odd accents and no Maltese handsome salaries to take their place. This would be madness. You cannot expect a doctor who has studied for years to get a first degree and who has so much responsibility, to be paid a mere pittance by today’s standards. These are the people who make any hospital or clinic worthy of its name and not fancy furniture and gadgets. Let us look after them and they will look after us.

Thank goodness that there is more to life than scandal. I was invited to the good-bye lunch of that charming couple – Maria and Christophe Laure who have been here for three-and-a-half years at the InterConti where Christophe was manager. The lunch was at the Paranga, with its feet in St George’s Bay which now looks so much better with its sandy beach.

The invitation said ‘a light lunch’ and we started off with an excellent antipasto of delicious bits and pieces. I honestly thought that that was going to be the lunch, with perhaps a fruit salad thrown in. So I helped myself to thick slices of smoked salmon, grilled veggies, very fresh salad and Parma ham…and then took a second helping when suddenly, the entrée arrived. Happily it was fish…and lovely looking French fries to which Vanessa and myself helped ourselves generously. When do I ever make French fries for myself? I bought some frozen fries you can put into the oven but they are not the same as fresh spuds.

There on another table was the photographer Amelia Troubridge who had just got married to Guy Davis and who were on their honeymoon. She told us how at their reception, she threw the bouquet to the bridesmaids and it hit the eye of one of them and a doctor had to be called.

Christophe is joining the Hyatt hotels in a resort in Spain. This popular couple will be missed but good luck to them. They are both lovely.