The opinion survey published last Sunday by MaltaToday confirmed the swing away from Labour of the past months.

It is now estimated at a majority for the PN of some 11,000, still a very slender and thus reversible advantage.

One has to look back at the figures of the past months and the pro-Labour majority of something like 15 months ago to see how Labour's advantage has crumbled over the intervening months till it disappeared and PN went on top.

There are two factors to keep in mind. On the one hand the number of those who say they will not be voting has continued to increase.

And Bernard Grech remains far less popular than Robert Abela.

Yet the Opposition's rise is unstoppable and offers great opportunities of increasing further.

There are things that the Opposition can and should do and things it must not do. It must remain active and then again it must not keep silent.

There are still unsolved issues but the Opposition must not shy away from not discussing them always keeping the party's credibility in focus.

Lastly, a word of advice: it must not copy the party in government. It must understand that corruption does not pay nor does bending to those who shout louder.

Revel's revels

The death was announced last week of Revel Barker, who after a lifetime editing British national papers came to end his days in sunny Gozo. And even here he could not stay quiet as his letters to Maltese papers can witness.

I choose to salute him with parts of a book review I wrote in 2017, based on his very enjoyable autobiography.

"I was sprawled diagonally across a double bed in London's Tower Hotel, when Helen Morgan, who had been crowned Miss World only six days earlier, announced that she was taking her knickers off. I pretended not to hear.

"I screwed up my eyes so that she could see I wasn't peeping.

"'What about you, Revel, are you going to keep your pants on all night?'

"She had a beautiful Welsh accent. It's the sort of quote that, when uttered in the illicit atmosphere of a hotel bedroom by the recently crowned Miss World, stays with you for the rest of your life."

Thus began the most uproarious chapter of Revel's autobiography.

Just to set the record straight - this was no lovers' elopement, and Miss World did not have sex in mind.

Her intention was to run his knickers with her things under the tap. But quoted out of context, the words sound different.

Helen Morgan had just been crowned Miss World. The organisers knew she was a single mother but now they had found she could be named as the other woman in a divorce case. She had to go.

Thus began a long tug of war between The Daily Mirror represented by Revel who wanted to hold on to Miss World in view of the exclusives this would give them and the organisers who wanted to shut her up.

The rest of the British tabloids joyfully joined in the chase. The BBC kept the chase on as its main story for days.

Revel's book tells how he began as a cub reporter in his native Yorkshire before moving to London.

Ironically, one of his best scoops regarded the Gozo Hospital. He found out that the new hospital was very late, that nothing had been built so far and the foundation stone was badly located in what would have been an operating theatre.

He passed on the message to Buckingham Palace. Angered, the Queen cancelled the ceremony and sent back the trowel.

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