Well, here’s another fine mess they’ve gotten themselves into: a leadership election that isn’t; a leader that doesn’t; and a road to compromise that is paved with as many land mines as good intentions. How is it that after already seven years in opposition, the Nationalist Party still manages to get things so wrong?

A fish rots from the head down, they say. So let’s start from there:

Margaret Thatcher in 1990. Fearsome reputation. Won three elections, her last by a landslide. Living legend in the British Conservative Party but her national appeal was in irreversible decline.

When her once vanquished rival bruised but failed to knock down the Iron Lady after forcing a leadership ballot, she misguidedly said she would “fight on, fight to win”. Nemesis inevitably followed hubris, as support from her cabinet colleagues evaporated. She played no part in the second round even though she was fully entitled to do so.

Using Thatcher as a comparison with Adrian Delia’s predicament is as odious as the state of the Nationalist Party itself but to anyone with an iota of knowledge about politics, it should provide a salutary lesson:  Careers of political leaders almost invariably end in tears – she certainly shed a few as her official car pulled away from Number 10 for the last time – but if a formidable figure like her could grudgingly acknowledge her time was up, why is Delia insisting on prolonging the agony for himself, his party and ultimately the nation?

The opposition leader resorting to official and legal mechanisms within the PN structures to cling on – still risking humiliation – is not just an exercise in futility, but a gratuitous indulgence in the art of putting yourself before all else when you took a solemn vow to serve others and your party. He cannot win a general election. He cannot bring his party together. And he cannot make any impression at all on a nation that has bigger priorities right now than his career prospects. It is not too late to show a shred of dignity: get off the stage before you’re pushed off it.

A combination of Delia and the rebel faction’s actions have robbed the party of what it truly needs: a genuine leadership election

But fish aren’t just made up of heads. They have bodies too. And whatever one’s opinion of Delia, one cannot help feeling that those within the party opposing to him contributed in no small part to the PN’s pitiful predicament.

First off, they were never willing to give him a chance. It was hate at first sight from the moment Daphne Caruana Galizia took her pen to his reputation. And rather than provide a moment for potential rapprochement – even if only temporary – her unforgiveable assassination served only to drive a deeper wedge between those who thought Delia could provide fresh direction to a party that had suffered two pummelling defeats and those who claimed to be its moral minority.

They couldn’t agree even on the most uncontroversial of issues.

Pique set in and hatred festered. This culminated in the so-called rebel faction and their vociferous (not to mention vitriolic) social media supporters deciding it was time to take him on – ironically after Keith Schembri of all people dropped a very effective smoke bomb in his court testimony alleging that the PN under Delia had accepted €50,000 from murder suspect Yorgen Fenech.

Yet, even here, they got it wrong: going for a coup with their chosen one, Therese Comodini Cachia, rather than seizing the momentum to bring down Delia – a succession of resignations from key positions would have paralysed him – and then going for a proper leadership election. This faux pas presented Delia with the opportunity to outmanoeuvre them and, though his victory is pyrrhic, he has seized it with both hands; effectively eliminating their chosen candidate(s) from the contest.

More importantly, however, a combination of Delia and the rebel faction’s actions have robbed the party of what it truly needs: a genuine leadership election with more than two contenders.

I do not know Bernard Grech – he may be the ideal candidate – but what I do know, and already in evidence, is that elements of this faction will not be satisfied with the outcome and, if past performance is anything to go by, they will not give the party an opportunity to start a much-needed healing process. So unless they finally learn from past experience and prove us wrong, I hereby declare Labour the winner and Malta the loser.

Steve Mallia, former Times of Malta editor-in-chief