Although I am a supporter and have been a paid-up member of the Nationalist Party for 43 years, I cannot forget the speech Dom Mintoff made in 1976 about Malta and Europe. Mintoff was not only intelligent, he was brilliant. You could love him, you could hate him. But you have to call a spade a spade.

During the public meeting held near the Auberge de Baviere, also known as Il-Baviera, in Valletta, he had warned that there could never be peace in Europe unless there was peace in the Mediterranean.