The talk of the town is the court case involving a lawyer and former police inspector, allegedly a Mafia wannabe, involved in a series of heists and who allegedly plotted “vindictive attacks” on former President and Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami, former Commissioner George Grech, Police Commissioner John Rizzo and Attorney General Peter Grech in connection with his dismissal from the police force.

Considering the botched ‘jobs’, I was amused at the allegations of mafia-like rituals. It has been another news-packed week, with, unfortunately, more violence, doom and gloom.

A woman was murdered in cold blood because she had broken off a relationship with the alleged assailant and was seeing another man.

It was concerning to read that investigations showed there were various instances during which the accused had harassed the victim.

Furthermore, police reports had been filed days before the murder. It is about time that the police take cases of harassment very seriously.

I know that the police are overstretched and are under-trained in such matters and we cannot expect them to keep an eye on all the people who have been reported for harassment.

But that is why training in recognising the signs when someone is potentially dangerous is urgent. Had this case been given the urgency it deserved, the lady in question would still be alive.

Men who threaten violence should be kept on a tight leash while they undergo anger management and counselling on how to handle broken relationships.

Of course the lawyer representing her, or the police officer, in the harassment case, should have made the judge aware of the volatile situation. Maybe s/he did and it was the judge who misjudged the situation.

Meanwhile, some moron, trying to put the clock back, gave us a hotchpotch of what ‘women really want’ and spouted, “In simple terms, women are programmed to feel dependent on men... When it comes to relationships men still hold the trump card...”

He quoted an unnamed psychologist, “Females are smaller in size and weaker than males, so, in prehistoric times, women and their offspring were prone to being victims of predators and violence. They needed the protection and support of men either because of their brute force ...”

Yeah right, even today we really need the protection of some men because of their brutishness, especially when it is turned on us because of prehistoric possessiveness.

Women being dragged by their hair by Neanderthal men swinging clubs is just what we need. The Times should think again before publishing such twaddle.

As for the gloom, Eurostat has claimed that that 59,000 Maltese were at risk of poverty and this according to 2008 figures, before the hikes in utility bills and the banking crisis.

And a new Eurobarometer survey, released in Brussels on Thursday, claimed that the number of Maltese people constantly struggling to keep up with bills rose by six per cent over the past 12 months.

According to the Malta part of a EU-wide survey, held in September, 31 per cent of the 500 Maltese respondents said they were struggling “all the time” to make ends meet. A similar survey in 2009 gave the figure at 25 per cent.

Contrary to what some people like to think, the people who are struggling are not work-shy scroungers and they certainly have no choice in whether they can hold on to their job.

The world is in financial crisis; as much as this government deserves criticism the people using the predicament as a partisan football are playing in the wrong field, the game is being played away.

Now for the doom bit. The mishandling of the aftermath of the power station contract among other major misjudgements is costing the government dearly.

And it is all of us who are doomed unless we get some serious Opposition before the next election. Maybe, now is the time for Alternattiva Demokratika to make hay, perversely when the sun ain’t shining.

But back to this government’s woes, Austin Gatt filling news pages with full-page adverts, incidentally paid by us, the taxpayers, has certainly not gone down well.

Besides, we are being bombarded with articles penned by the Minister almost daily. Why is the Minister going to so much trouble? Surely if the case is so clear cut it would not need reams and reams of a repetition of clamorous counter claims ad nauseum by him and the PM.

And why all the fuss about calling the witnesses who were not forthcoming with information when interviewed by the auditor if all was so above board?

It would be interesting to know what made Dr Gonzi change his mind, since, as he said during a radio interview, “The Auditor General said some witnesses did not cooperate enough and I am not ready to let this be. Therefore, I have told the government MPs on the PAC to call witnesses during the next stage.”

Well, hello, the PM knew full well that some witnesses had not cooperated enough with the AG on the release of the auditor’s report.

And the media had hammered that point in quite strongly, so why was he “not ready to let it be” then and at the initial PAC meeting when Austin Gatt created such a to-do about the witnesses being called?

Criticism of the government’s dismissal of any hint of wrongdoing was widespread at the time of the report’s release and its aftermath.

There has also been extensive disapproval of how the government has handled this affair, including the press that normally supports the government, except of course its own media.

Dr Gonzi has now said that some questions remained unanswered, even after the Public Accounts Committee questioned the Auditor General.

Frankly, what did he expect? The AG could not give answers that he had been unable to obtain from the witnesses.

The PL said it was a pity that his (the PM) conversion had come so late, because witnesses were now aware of the questions they would be asked since these had now been put to the Auditor General.

Watching the UK news after the student riots in London, I was interested to hear the TV anchor say that Home Affairs Minister Theresa May was to be “grilled” by the Parliamentary Home Affairs Committee.

He further said that the questions she would be asked could not be revealed since that would give her prior notice of what she would be expecting. Our PAC is meant to be modelled on the UK system.

In one of his articles in this newspaper, Austin Gatt referred to the claim that BWSC had access to insider information through a contact Joseph Mizzi had in the Department of Contracts and another one at Enemalta. “Both persons indicated by the Opposition were interviewed by the Auditor; both denied (one of them under oath) and the Auditor concluded that there was no evidence to corroborate the Opposition’s claims.”

Not quite, this is what the Auditor concluded and told the PAC meeting “there were a series of coincidences throughout the tendering process, which favoured the eventual tender winner, the Danish company BWSC.”

A coincidence he mentioned was that in a series of technical meetings, Maltese agent Joseph Mizzi, a former Enemalta employee, managed to “arrange for BWSC to always have the last meeting, between the Corporation and the bidders, after Enemalta met the other bidders”,

The implication is that favouritism had been acquired through Mr Mizzi’s contacts at Enemalta. Mr Mizzi (BWSC agent) is the person who the auditor singled out as being the most uncooperative witness.

At a PAC meeting the AG, while being grilled by Minister Austin Gatt, was told, “You found no evidence of corruption, no evidence of any of these persons having been corrupted, no evidence of trading in influence, and no evidence that anyone accepted to use his influence, right?”

To which the AG replied “that was the case, in view of the information available to the Audit office” and he again pointed out, “there had been lack of cooperation from some people who the NAO had questioned.”

As I have previously opined, this is the crux of the whole shebang. The AG’s investigation result was misty, hazy and grey due to crucial people withholding vital information.

The penny has finally dropped with the PM.

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