The refrain of the unthinking and self-deluding that "all politicians are the same" has always annoyed me, mainly because it demonstrates a shameful level of reluctance to get involved and exercise their mental faculties on the part of those adopting it as their signature tune. It's a tune many used to justify voting this bunch in, and it's one many still use to salve what's left of their consciences, even in the fact of incontrovertible evidence that they dropped us into it and no mistake.

It is usually accompanied by a secondary chorus "we do the same to them", lastly used with me in the context of a conversation on the vicious, ad hominem and often misogynistic and homophobic rubbish that comes out of the Office of the Prime Minister. I was joking with the spouse of the person spouting the line that it was better not to be seen with me, as no doubt a blurry picture would be uploaded soon.

Sad, really, that someone of such perceived intelligence even thinks that way, but there you are, this is why standards are not kept and the country has been allowed to plummet to the depths Premier Muscat's little minions have taken us.

Clearly, Premier Muscat measures everyone by his own standards

For completeness' sake, it should be recorded that this "plague on both your houses" position has been adopted to the point of rendering them totally irrelevant by the Greens, sadly for the international Green Movement, in their embodiment here, the AD, as evidenced by the way their figurehead, Arnold Cassola, expresses himself on Facebook. According to this gentleman, whatever the Government does that is wrong (and there's plenty of that, anyone can see) is attributable also to the PN, even though they paid the political price three years ago and they're not, actually, in Government at the moment.

Premier Muscat gave his Imperial Seal of Approval to this line of reaction (you can't call it a line of thought, because that would necessarily imply thinking, which is clearly not the case) when he said that the PN's idea of having ODZ Projects subject to a two-thirds' majority in the House was a "recipe for corruption" and consequently to be dismissed, contemptuously.

Clearly, Premier Muscat measures everyone by his own standards. He ignores the fact that at no time in the conceivable future will there be a situation where a single party controls two-thirds of the House.

The less charitable amongst us might come to the conclusion that he doesn't want this level of veto imposed because that way, his insouciant manner of granting ODZ-related favours will never be allowed to be effective again (the Francis Urquhart response applies here: you might think that, I certainly couldn't say it) but he didn't put it that way.

Instead, he insulted all politicians, irrespective of their position on the corruption spectrum, by lumping them all into one homogenous mass, saying they're all corrupt and will vote in the House to allow ODZ projects without a thought to the national well-being or their obligation to run the country in the country's interests, rather than their own.

That his own devotees vote that way has been demonstrated as true beyond any shadow of doubt when they all pushed the "right" button to protect his Super Minister and his Chief of Staff, flying in the face of their Ministerial or Parliamentary obligations to protect the country.

The party line must be toed, willy nilly, if Premier Muscat decrees it so, and the party line was toed, and there's an end to it.