Jason Azzopardi and Jason Micallef have gone head to head in a Times Talk debate that will be released Thursday.

The heated, 80-minute discussion on the most divisive political issues of the moment revealed that the lawyer and the PL stalwart share little beyond their first names.

The discussion ranged from Azzopardi's social media claims, libel cases and requests for magisterial inquiries into powerful people, to Joseph Muscat and the Vitals inquiry and court case, personal attacks on politicians, and national reconciliation on the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Micallef is the PL's special delegate on the implementation of the electoral manifesto while Azzopardi, although having bowed out of political life in 2022, remains one of the government's harshest and most outspoken critics - a quality that has made him the target of Labour pundits and which has arguably led government to fast-track a magisterial inquiry reform into law.

The bill proposing changes to how citizens can request a magisterial inquiry was tabled in parliament by the government last month.

If approved, citizens will have to first approach the police before filing a request with a judge six months later.

Azzopardi insists the law was designed specifically as an attempt to shut him up and curb citizens' freedom to call for investigations into politicians. Micallef disagrees, saying it will strengthen the rule of law and the only thing it will curb is abuse.

That is just one of the issues the two disagreed on during the debate.

The episode will be released on Thursday on Times of Malta, YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.