As my granny used to say, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” I don’t think she knew the next line, which is: “Fool me three times, shame on both of us.”

But that’s what happened here. Without shame, the Maltese have voted for more of the same.

I am not saying that the other lot would be much better. In fact, having seen both in power a few times, I wouldn’t give two-pence for either party. But they don’t let me vote so I can look on as no more than an interested but disinterested taxpayer.

And what I deduce is simply this: that the Maltese do not give a fig about their politicians being bent as soviet sickles; that they fully expect their MPs to be in it for what they, personally, can make out of it; that they are happy for millions to be siphoned off into personal offshore accounts whenever tax money is spent on massive government deals and for so-called ‘top’ people to be immune from prosecution…

Because, bottom line, they believe that if they need to convert a remote farm hut into an apartment block, or build a penthouse on a bungalow, all that’s required is a phone call to the MP for whom they voted.

They pretend to believe they are like their Sicilian cousins with Mafia blood in their veins. ‘Friends of friends’ will get things done. You are one of us, or one of them. ‘Them’ are not eligible for favours.

Truth is, Malta’s politics are more like Nigeria’s than Sicily’s – except that a guy in their London embassy told me he couldn’t remember any time in his life when there wasn’t an ongoing trial for corruption in Abuja.

Many PN supporters had clearly concluded that there was little point in voting again- Revel Barker

So, we have (literally) hundreds of government, un-sackable and pensionable, non-jobs for the otherwise unemployable (or workshy) party faithful. If your child wants to be a nurse or a teacher or a policeman they don’t apply to a hospital or a school or a police station – you, the parent, ask your MP to fix it. And he – it is invariably ‘he’ – will arrange it if you are a party supporter (and he will know whether you are).

As a result, we have an inadequate education system, a frustrated police force and disenchanted nurses.

What your MP will not do, however, is finish half a mile of road where work started five years ago, or keep any of the promises made 10 years ago for, say, a necessary breakwater, or a promised ring road (because he ‘can’t find the workforce’). Sadly, there’s very little to be made on the side, for that sort of work. I would like to think that Maltese MPs are so badly paid (about €21,000 a year) because that is all that they are worth but I suspect it’s because of the extra opportunity of backhanders from punters. Otherwise, why would there be about 10 candidates for every seat?

At the beginning of this year I forecast (not difficult) that Labour would be re-elected and suggested (sort of jokingly) that the prime minister would declare himself ‘Prime Minister For Life’. He might as well do that.

Many PN supporters had clearly concluded that there was little point in voting again, having accepted well in advance that they were not going to be on the winning side. PL people had concluded that government was rightly theirs in any case.

The spirit, the fun, such as it was, in waiting for election results has become a thing of the past. The spirit has gone out of the occasion. It is going to be far more interesting to watch Vladimir Putin’s next election, if he ever gets the will (or the opportunity, come to that) to hold one.

Three times, dear readers, you have voted for this. Shame on them, shame on you.