Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was yesterday in London, where he spoke during an Anti Corruption Summit organised by his counterpart David Cameron.

The PM’s speech could have very easily been one of those that we hear routinely during a Sunday political activity, or on the Labour Party’s radio station.

Dr Muscat waxed lyrical, and said that he had “taken decisions” when one of his ministers – Konrad Mizzi – was mentioned in the Panama Papers. The PM then went on to attack the Nationalist Party’s loan scheme. Really? Should this be happening? The Government has often accused the Nationalist Party of sullying Malta’s name in the international media. How does the Prime Minister think his statements about a rival party went down among the world’s elite? Many probably shrugged their shoulders and wondered why this Prime Minister of a modern EU member state was not concretely addressing the fact that his right and left hand men had companies in Panama. All bearing in mind, of course, that all other PEPs that have been exposed within the EU (and further afield) have stepped down.

Dr Muscat said that he “had to take decisions” and that some people thought he was too tough, while others thought that he was too lenient. He continued “one of the points that came out of the debate was that actions which are not illegal might still not be correct”.

Then, we ask the question again: What decisions has the Prime Minister taken, aside from retaining the two men and effectively given one a promotion. We ask again, why was no concrete action taken? Why are Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri still part of the government? Why were they not unceremoniously booted out of office? Why did the Prime Minister not address the serious issues that took place in a suited international forum, such as the one in London? Why did he try to brush the matter under the carpet? And more importantly, where did he find the brass neck to get up and actually speak about weeding out corruption when there were two very topical cases in Malta that the government has not dealt with in a satisfactory manner. This is not Ghargur or Siggiewi or Bahrija, this is London, for goodness’ sake, one of the global financial centres that really matter. The influential UK newspaper The Guardian picked up on what was going on and mentioned the fact that the Maltese Prime Minister kept two of his staff on, despite their owning companies in Panama. Yet, although our nation cringed at the rebuke, it was like water off a duck’s back for Dr Muscat. There is a very fine line between confidence and arrogance, and it seemed that that same line was crossed a long time ago.

The Prime Minister seems to think that this furore will all eventually die down. But it will not. People are still angry and more will surely be revealed in the future. This is most definitely not the way to do politics.