I have never seen anyone under such stress as Lawrence Gonzi. It is making him express such outrageous thoughts.

Is he going nuts? Or is he there already?

Jekk il-bagit ma jghaddix, mhix se taqa’ d-dinja (if the budget vote is defeated, it will not be the end of the world) the Prime Minister told listeners just last week, after Tonio Fenech had made his unsuccessful pitch for the party councillors’ vote.

How about that! Six months or more of work by who knows how many highly paid wizards thrown down the drain, and it does not matter. So much thinking and so much planning rejected by Parliament and it is as if nothing has happened.

Why have a budget at all? I thought budgets gave direction to a country, and reflected a government’s philosophy.

If the budget vote is not that important, why in heaven’s name was Dr Gonzi warning Franco Debono of hell to come if Dr Debono voted against?

But a matter of days after Dr Gonzi’s astonishing assertion, the Chamber of Commerce put him to ridicule. Not by naming him, of course, for friends do not hurt friends, but by saying in a statement that “the Malta Chamber is extremely worried about the consequences that would result should the national budget not be approved in Parliament”. The Chamber was seeing the end of the world.

Why is this concern being expressed now, I wonder. The prospect of the budget being voted down has been there for months. Franco Debono was always clear. But the Chamber never expressed itself on this. Now, suddenly, it sees a national interest to raise the issue. But it is not only the national interest that is involved. Rather it is the PN interest, for Dr Gonzi may suffer a repeat of the humiliation of losing a vote.

And, indicative of the Chamber’s leanings, in its statement the Chamber did not call on Dr Gonzi to bring his house to order, which is, after all, the reason for matters having reached this pass. The Chamber would not dare appear to be criticising a PN PM. And nor did it call on Austin Gatt to resign, to clear the way for Dr Debono to vote with the government.

What it did, as I understood it, was to imply that the Labour Party should vote for the budgetary measures, which makes you wonder what the purpose would be of having a government and an opposition.

Really, on the PN side, everything seems to be going haywire.

Then there was that other remarkable remark by Dr Gonzi, uttered within hours of the other, or before the other. I can’t remember the sequence.

Jekk ma temmnunix, ma jimpurtax, he told his listeners. It does not matter if you do not believe me, he said.

Well, no one can say our Prime Minister is very particular. He seems to have a very thick skin. You can call him a liar to his face, and he won’t mind, he says.

Now if it had been Austin Gatt who made such a declaration, it would have been par for the course. It would not be out of the ordinary, coming from him. Today, no one believes him, anyway. Not since his buzullotti prediction, especially.

But from Lawrence Gonzi?! Since when does he not mind being disbelieved! Is he meaning to tell us that his word is just hot air? I hope he will find time to tell us when we should take him seriously.

So what is it which is putting Dr Gonzi under such unbearable stress? Is it that, perhaps, he has seen the writing on the wall, and that the writing seems to be indelible, in spite of having Simon Busuttil for a new deputy?

Perhaps that is why the PN is taking the election campaign to abysmal lows, by trying to frighten civil servants, for instance. Desperation makes you desperate!

Perhaps Dr Gonzi has realised that Dr Busuttil, too, comes with some heavy baggage of his own – Dr Busuttil, too, is burdened – with his record at MIC. Where wild promises were made – to the hunters, to the trappers, to pig and chicken breeders, to those working in agriculture, for instance – which turned out to be just hot air. Dr Busuttil’s extravagant promises have not materialised.

They did materialise for Dr Busuttil himself, of course. Brussels is a lucrative experience.

The fact is that, even without his own baggage, Simon Busuttil has an uphill task to win back the lost sheep.