I  recently watched a video of a former adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologising for her flippant remarks to Downing Street staff over a Christmas party that took place last year. Not only was she contrite, but she even offered her resignation. After what were probably years of her battling for that role and dozens of sleepless nights to carve out a political career, she had to give it all up because of a Christmas party.

While all this was coming to light, a very different story was unfolding just a few thousand kilometres away on a tiny island in the middle of the Med. Only in our case, the sin is far greater than a few bottles of Shiraz and some Waitrose cheese, and as has become standard procedure, there will probably be no resignations to be had here. We don’t even get an admittance of fault. There will be the usual sound and fury from two or three of our media houses, and in the end, it will signify nothing.

There has been a slew of scandals that have rocked our islands so much that we are starting to look like a 1950s dance hall. I don’t think the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life has ever had his hands so full: it can’t be easy trying to set parameters when most of the public doesn’t seem to demand them. Even accepting money from dodgy sources gets you a caress on the wrist instead of a smack. That said, this week’s scandalous offering probably took the cake.

The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life has described our education minister’s actions as an “abuse of power” after she handed out a three-month €15,000 contract to someone she is allegedly close to and made an effort to hide the fact that he didn’t have the credentials for the job. Even as I write this down, I can barely believe that no apology or statement has been released.

Our teachers are disrespected and underpaid; our education system is in crisis with its outdated way of conveying knowledge. Almost 50 per cent of the population do not even have more than six O levels, and while all this is happening, our education minister seems to be more invested in making sure her nearest and dearest is catered for.

It can’t be easy trying to set parameters when most of the public doesn’t seem to demand them- Anna Marie Galea

In a sense, I don’t blame her for thinking that this kind of behaviour is normal. Both sides of the house have been bringing in their besties for tea and crumpets for decades. Nepotism is not only rife; it is the golden standard of the way things are done here. That’s why you usually have one bright person carrying an entire government department on their back – the others usually have neither the experience nor the mental aptitude for the role that has been found for them.

They spend their days perpetually worried that someone will steal their job from under them and that they’ll be shown up because they know that they can’t fill the shoes that they have been given.

It would be nice if, just for once, we got an apology, but I won’t be holding my breath. Why would anyone be willing to call this kind of behaviour out when they took part in the same system to get their own jobs? Most of us can’t even spell integrity, let alone try to live it. Integrity may not make you rich, but there is nothing poorer than a country devoid of moral standards, fairness or justice.