So what goes as independent media in our society, shoestring funded for the most part, thought of enlivening the dark days of winter with a dose of speculation, which never did any harm.

Will the rebels of the last PN administration, Franco Debono and Edwin Vassallo, return to the party fold now that there is a new kap (and also, one may add, now that the party is looking good in the polls)?

There were other rebels in those turbulent days - Jesmond Mugliett, JPO - but these two aren't seen as likely to rejoin the party.

That Franco and Edwin were eager to return and that each of them come with their bands of followers, seemed rather clear from what they've been saying. In the bars and committee rooms the matter was discussed and calculations made. And as usual, hope sprang eternal.

But outside these bars and committee rooms, saner minds were asking themselves if bringing back the memories of those days was such a good thing.

For one thing these memories of the 2008-2013 legislation brought back thoughts of an administration that however good was also authoritarian and rode roughshod over people. That was one reason why the voters of 2013 threw it out with such a large majority.

Since then the party has never asked pardon for treating people like it did. Nor, come to think of it, did Debono and Vassallo. 

On the other hand, can a party just change the people at the top and imagine it has sloughed off the bad memories just like that?

It is typical of Malta, and of this party in particular, to see things in terms of personalities rather than focus on trends, issues and policies.

Take Edwin's favourite theme - overpopulation - which he blames for all that's going bad in Malta. He keeps mentioning the word without analysing the situation or offering a solution.

The result is that he paints himself into a corner without coming with a solution.

Then you find that the only solution on offer to tackle overpopulation is the one embraced by the State of Malta and financed by hefty backing of EU funds to promote integration. Which are mainly managed by State-connected bodies.

We can all look around us and we can see the results - some areas of Malta have become no-go areas for the rest of the people. Small shops for this section of the population have flourished but otherwise the area in itself has visibly deteriorated. 

Previously untenanted or rundown properties especially in the no-go areas are suddenly getting rented out though there is little checking how many persons are being allowed to reside in one property. No wonder we begin each day stressed out with traffic jams, delays, etc.

Now compare Vassallo to Hungary's Orban and you will see the difference.

For starters, Orban is fiercely critical of the EU but the party in Malta will surely not allow Vassallo to follow Orban and be critical of the EU.

Nor does Vassallo have enough clout to get the party to change.

I note in passing that the EU office in Malta has been one of the backers of a conference in recent days favouring integration and the assimilation of refugees. 

I don't know about Vassallo himself but I am certain many of his backers support Orban rather than the EU's softer stance.

Will the party allow him to be critical? Whatever Vassallo might say, nothing less than a national drive against illegality and prompt action by the forces of law and order will do. 

Nothing less than a strict and credible approach will show up Robert Abela's ineffective and compromised approach. 

It's not enough to mouth slogans unless one is ready to go the whole hog. While we as a nation have been shouting out the slogans of integration more and more asylum seekers have been coming in and we are now bursting at the seams.

There are TCNs and there are TCNs. Many are regularly employed, hold down jobs and care for their children. But there are others who are without a stable job (and sometimes without a stable residence) who cause trouble.

Vassallo is thus being challenged to either flesh out his claim on overpopulation or else accept the EU's (and PN's) more nuanced approach. Is he out to regain a place inside the party or does he want to move the party to a more Orban-ist position?

That's as regards Edwin Vassallo. My position regarding Franco Debono is much simpler. I do not think there is space within the party for the man who brought down the party and who celebrated this by joining in the Labour celebrations in Ghaxaq after Labour was returned to power.

Not even if he was a legal eagle.

History note 

Devrim Atauz

8,000 years of Maltese Maritime History 

Reviewed by Timothy Gambin on Journal of Maritime Archaeology 2009

The author's main focus seems to be the period under the Order with 100 pages while the remaining 7732 years receive just 67 pages.

The date of Malta's independence is 1964, not 1974. This is but one of the many factual errors.

To plot underwater finds around Malta and Gozo the author uses what is known as the Scicluna map published in 1968 by an amateur diver and no effort is made to update information which has been available for 40 years.

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