Jason Azzopardi is frequently scorned, derided and opposed by his own side, let alone the other one.

Years back, a cabinet colleague of his showed me a spoof video someone had made, dressing him up as a pope (and he bore a remarkable likeness to Pope Pius) which they had aired on the television monitor in the Cabinet Room, just before a Cabinet Meeting.

Nor did he have an easy time in his own constituency, especially among fellow candidates.

But many of his former Cabinet colleagues are now has-beens or on the way out, as are many of his former constituency rivals, but he is still there.

I do not know from where he gets his energy – you meet him trawling on Facebook, sharing posts from very divergent sources, popping up here, there and everywhere and, at the same time, taking care of his legal studio and appearing at his leader’s side at press conferences and court appearances.

I admire his industriousness, his persistence and his tenacity. That does not mean I share all his views.

He has been the target of a long and planned onslaught regarding the sale of a property on the St Julian’s seafront – during his time as being responsible for the Lands Department – from which the government received the princely sum of €35 (we later learnt that the church received the bulk of the proceeds). This long drawn-out story has damaged Jason but it has not curtailed his combative character.

This time last week, he suffered another blow: in the course of the Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, he lost his Justice portfolio and was given the one for the Environment instead. We were also informed (by this paper) that one of the objectives of the Shadow Cabinet reshuffle was to smoke out those who leaked inside information to the media – though there was no inkling, of course, as to whether this referred to Dr Azzopardi or indeed to those who were moved to lesser posts in the reshuffle.

Then on Monday night, Dr Azzopardi spoke on the Adjournment in Parliament and let rip. (His speech can be found on his Facebook wall and elsewhere). He spoke about the Pilatus Bank actions against media houses and against Daphne Caruana Galizia, the so-called SLAPP, which could have led to punitive measures that no media house in Malta could sustain.

He was one of the very few in the Maltese Parliament to take up this challenge (along with David Casa in the European Parliament) and, in the circumstances, it was a very bold and courageous speech.

But it may have had another aim: the subject matter was justice, which used to be Dr Azzopardi’s beat but which is now Adrian Delia’s. Jason was thus technically trespassing on Dr Delia’s patch. It was his two-fingered salute to what had taken place over the weekend.

He was not alone: two days later Ryan Callus, now relegated to Sport and the fight against obesity, went back to his original beat – which was the Planning Authority – and spoke against land being taken from farmers who had been working it for many years and handed to cronies.

One eagerly waits to see how Simon Busuttil will work out as being responsible for good governance and what further reactions (or slaps) there will be from those who have been demoted. And, of course, one waits to see how Adrian Delia will work out on Justice and whether he will keep to the path taken by Jason Azzopardi.

The reshuffle seems to have been unable to shift the two former deputy leaders from their respective perch: Chris Said from Gozo and Claudette Buttigieg from Deputy Speaker. In other words, it was work in progress. The main impression is that it was dominated more by toppling some uncomfortable MPs with maybe some settling of accounts thrown in.

Aside from the hurly-burly inside the party, Edwin Vassallo sails on, toeing a line that is not the official party line but definitely appeals to the conservative soul of the party that he alone seems to reflect. Most of the others fade in anonymity.

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