But there must be something wrong with a person who happens to be running the country to keep on committing such blunders and always taking weeks to react, possibly after having been pulled up by his own media gurus and in-house polling, for having yet once again shot himself in the foot… publicly.

Had the PM apologized within minutes or hours after having made such a statement I would have rested my case there.

But as in the case of the famous no regrets issue about the scandalous BWSC contract, what I found most shocking in both instances was not only the gravity of the statements originally made by Lawrence Gonzi but two other important factors:

• the lame excuse that the PM’s words were both taken out of context and misunderstood – something which stretches credibility beyond snapping point;

• the fact that in both instances the PM also took weeks and not hours or days to react.

Compounded with this is another observation.

That while the BWSC disclaimer came about after his media gurus evidently arranged for it to be airbrushed from the screens of PN friendly online newspapers, in the case of his disease comment the PM seems to have only decided to absolve himself of this jarring claim after Joseph Muscat went for the jugular on this issue, during his blistering attack and solid performance on the budget Monday week.

That the PM would try to talk up the economy can be expected of him, particularly when there are hardly any budgetary measures that may be inclined to actually do so.

Where the PM was rich indeed in his comments was when he tried to do the unthinkable and the incredible – by trying to justify the fact that once again, in yet another budget, he had refrained from implementing a measure – the famous tax cuts that contributed immensely to the PN’s last electoral victory – by claiming that he had held back from doing so, out of a sense of deep responsibility towards the country.

If Dr Gonzi thinks that only the Opposition had seen through him on this issue he must be very mistaken.

I am sure that unless he had read the article himself – which I am almost sure that he did – his media gurus had long drawn Dr Gonzi’s attention to the excellent article by Lino Spiteri on the said subject called : Taxing For Political Convenience.

As Mr Spiteri pointed out although it was evident from the word go that the PM’s electoral promise was pure electioneering and had nothing to do with the state of the economy, when the promise was given it had been accompanied by the assurance that it made deep economic sense. And that it would have left more money in people’s pockets.

Lino remembers the PM saying so in all earnestness.

In fact he had also added that although confronted by an argument by some economists that the public finances could not as yet afford such a cut in potential revenue, Lawrence Gonzi had then not only insisted that he was right and that they were wrong. But he had also contradicted the economists, by saying that the measure, to implement in his government’s first Budget if it was re-elected, would boost the economy.

The bottom line of it all as Lino explained is the following:

‘He (Dr Gonzi) even put a figure to the cost of the cut – Lm12m in old money. Well, the PN was elected and three Budgets have been presented. The promised cut has not materialised.’

One might have forgiven Dr Gonzi had Malta been experiencing a gold rush in those days, but as our collective memory surely will recall, the global situation was already on the skids at the time of the 2008 general election and it was already evident that the budgetary balance could foresee tighter times ahead of itself.

And yet Dr Gonzi and his team had persisted with their fervent fiscal promise to the people.

Who is being irresponsible: Dr Muscat for insisting that such promises should be kept or Lawrence Gonzi for resorting once again to yet another convenient and expedient U Turn?

Many observers noted the patchiness of Dr Gonzi’s performance which started off with an over doze of hot air, strong and generous enough to send pigs flying in the open skies like inflated zeppelins.

His silly and childlike comments about the fountain in St George’s Square were risible to say the least. We cannot stop thinking of Lawrence Gonzi and snigger every time we walk past it in future.

It was a slice straight out of hoary old ‘teatrin’ time.

Those who must have felt impressed by such a performance must have a problem themselves. Possibly one of inferiority complex.

Media experts were quick to speculate that the usual suspects are most likely to have been the invisible hands behind such a performance.

Primarily – the same team who have hogged state television on the same day that Joseph Muscat gave his most mature and statesman like performance in the House so far.

The few witty comments which some speculate could be attributable to he who may by now be occupying the formal role of consultant to the PM on audio visual affairs.

I will also venture to guess who might have been behind the dramatic bits. Someone who is close to the PN and former PN General Secretary Joe Saliba since time immemorial; who is well familiar with drama, who used to sit in on PN strategy sessions and who once claimed to have voted PL in 1996. Far more recently he showed his true colours when in an interview in another newspaper he was asked to compare Joseph Muscat with Lawrence Gonzi. His reply sounded like something straight out of NET TV’s newsroom.

He claimed that both politicians were seasoned and experienced communicators but that while Gonzi had substance Muscat had style but little substance.

No matter how hard Gonzi might have tried to put on the mock modesty act, his political arrogance seeped through on many an occasion. Making it even more difficult for him to try and eclipse the frank manner in which Muscat pledged to build on the achievements of all his predecessors, Gonzi included – if he ever won the confidence of the electorate as Prime Minister.

What surely struck a note after the theatrics by Lawrence Gonzi was Muscat’s direct accusation against the PM of conveniently adjusting electoral promises to meet his ends.

When a Prime Minister addresses the nation and tells one and all that promises may be adjusted one need hardly add more.

As for the two leaders’ recent performance on Xarabank while Joseph Muscat showed himself well in command of the agenda he also drove home an important point for the benefit of the viewers watching – that he can beat Gonzi right and proper on ‘his own turf’ and that Gonzi’s former cutting edge of projecting himself as a leader of ‘experience’ and ‘maturity’ has already been confined to history. The PM’s dismal performance on transparency and whistleblowing put paid to that.

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Leo Brincat is the Shadow Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development & Climate Change