The court judgement on the sale of the three hospitals to Vitals has now become known to all Malta (well, to those interested) and people have been drawing their own conclusions.

But many conclusions are skewed – the way we think about many things is influenced and distracted by those who are put there precisely to persuade people to think one way rather than another, the influencers or the many Facebook pundits.

So we are already seeing people going off in their preferred direction – the Nationalists held one protest outside Parliament and will hold another today, trying to bring some credibility to a party that has lost its way. It had left its former leader all alone when he took on the government. And even he was riding on the coattails of her who he had called ‘bicca blogger '.

Repubblika targeted Joseph Muscat and fixed a poster to the office he has been allowed to use.

Otherwise silence. Silence from the constituted bodies, usually so ready to express their authority on anything. Silence from the opinion leaders from whom people expect to hear.

So the people are led astray. Those who side with the Nationalist Opposition would be against the government in any case. Those who build their lives around One News see nothing wrong and not even Joseph Muscat is to blame.

That’s why we can never move on.

Judge Francesco Depasquale is very clear in his 140-page judgement. The deal was the wrong one and it has to be scrapped.

So far, so good. Was it criminally wrong? If so, there must be criminals to be arraigned and eventually punished. This was not in the judge’s remit but it is inconceivable that such a mammoth heist of Malta’s finances is allowed to slip by without those responsible being investigated and arraigned.

And as was pointed out this week the circle of those who must be investigated does not include only those who were in Cabinet at the time but also what have been called the enablers, ranging from the Minister of Finance at the time to the various permanent secretaries.

Either they did not exercise due diligence or they went along with what their superiors wanted. I call this the Nuremberg excuse. And then it is inconceivable that such a badly-structured deal did not lead to someone somewhere making a packet.

All this should lead to wide-ranging investigations but we have not heard of anything so far.

The deal was no mistake. It was a well-structured heist and some people somewhere got rich as a result.

We are being fed specious rubbish in an effort to distract our attention. What was said in Parliament on Monday as PN protesters shouted abuse outside, by the government speakers especially by the prime minister beggars belief.

It was only “I wasn’t PM then”. No sign of regret or any contrition that a deal had turned to be so wrong. Or even regret that a Labour government had made such a mistake. The “continuity” PM tried hard to slip away from any blame even for the fact that his government continued to bankroll Vitals since he entered Castile.

What seemed to energise some supporters was that an Mgarr restaurateur was caught shouting abuse as a result of which a boycott was called for.

Otherwise you could see the MPs exiting from the House at the end of the sitting with no signs of humble contrition.

Malta must continue to hold every one of them as collectively and individually responsible for such a loss of national funds. Crime must be followed by punishment.

The government might be tempted to distract attention by providing information how the three hospitals will now start getting funds to make badly needed repairs and maintenance. That would be welcome news but (and this goes for all governments and all the time) but the crime must be followed by punishment.

At some point we might even consider making politicians personally and individually responsible for the squandering of national funds just like board directors can be held responsible for losses sustained by their companies.

Karistu

The news that jovial Karistu has died saddened those who knew him including those of us at the Independent who remember him working here.

He was a man of many talents, not least as a local councillor at Rabat and also always working on the Maltese spell checker.