As I have now made amply clear to anyone with even the meanest intelligence, I will be voting "yes" next Saturday, even if this might make the Bishop of Gozo's face look as if he has taken a whiff of something particularly nasty.   And if you think I'm being facetious about that, I know of what I write, having been in close proximity with the high-ranked cleric recently.

I will be voting "yes" despite and not because of the arguments put forward and because I am ignoring the way the whole issue has developed.   For instance, the least annoying of the pro-divorce movement's spokespeople,  Dr Deborah Schembri, was trumpeted across a number of columns on Monday saying that the use of children by the antis was "despicable".

What the dear lady failed to realise in saying this was that she would be the subject of sarky remarks by people such as I or by that master of sarky remarks, Fr. Joe Borg, whose review of the press on Campus FM is an object lesson in how to comment on the media rather than merely regurgitate what it is saying. 

Dr Schembri, as Fr. Borg delighted in pointing out not once but twice, failed because in characterising the other lot as "despicable" she promptly tarred her lot with the same brush since it was they who had used kids in their campaign, even attaching the less than complimentary epithet "bastards" to a poignant picture on a billboard.

I will be voting "yes" despite the Leader of the Opposition's missus getting involved in the (so-called) debate.  As unelected as her hubby's predecessor but one, she is eminently unqualified to participate in political debates (for that matter, all politicians' wives are, Mrs Gonzi please note) and her failure to appreciate the meaning of words marks her out as being even more unqualified.

She said, for Heaven's sake, that she was going to vote "yes" for the sake of tolerance, failing to realise (as the Labour Party has failed, to be fair) that you only have to tolerate groups that are somehow negatively out of synch with the mainstream and need special consideration. Separated individuals are not untermenschen, to whom we have to extend a pitying hand from our lofty positions in society. 

This applies, it goes without saying, to all members of society who are not of the majority and a rabid hate of intolerance and bigotry, which is what inspires me much of the time, does not make me "tolerant" but merely not intolerant or bigoted. 

There is a difference, and it is the reason I am voting "yes" despite the pro divorce lobby.  I want to live and let live, not scream blue murder at anyone who does not agree with my take on life.