It is clear that Premier Muscat thinks he's got away with it: the population at large has forgotten all about Panama and assorted other incontrovertible pieces of evidence of Taghna Lkoll having become Taghna Kollha u Taghna Biss. 

This is perhaps because it's summer and the living's easy (unless you hate the heat) or simply because as long as they're alright, Jack can do what Jack is enjoined to do in the time-honoured phrase. Whatever the reason, Premier Muscat continues to ride high on a trust rating that is as inexplicable as it is nonsensical. 

Premier Muscat continues to ride high on a trust rating that is as inexplicable as it is nonsensical.

At the same time, his attack mongrel keep bullying anyone who dares raise a peep in protest and no-one gives a toss. Worse, the downright lie that Premier Muscat's employee can carry on with his loathsome tactics because the Nationalists used to do the same is given oxygen, not least by the employee himself, and even Nationalists MPs, targets themselves along with their boss, fall for it. But that's as may be: the dead sheep can go on dispensing his slime and venom all he likes, frankly, because apparently no-one cares.

The truth of the matter, many will tell you, is that Premier Muscat is only still on the positive side of the equation (from his point of view) because the solid economy he inherited is still trundling on. 

But if this is the case, why are we getting these strange signals from the mouth of Premier Muscat himself? 

If the economy is booming, which people who know more about these things assure me that it is, why do we need those horrendous towers in Mriehel "in order to generate employment in the area"? This is something Premier Muscat himself said when he was justifying the unjustifiable. 

If things are all hunky-dory, why is Premier Muscat suddenly finding it incumbent on him to try to prod the banks into being less parsimonious with their money? 

What does he know that we don't? Or is it the case that his many and varied friends in business are calling in some more of their markers and he's having to give them a fillip when they sit down with the steely-eyed bankers?

One of the reasons that there's lots of lovely lolly swilling around the economy is that we've got all this development and construction going on, and that handy little economics concept "the multiplier effect" is doing its thing for that self-same economy. See, taking pesky MEPA out of the picture has its uses, if you're running the country and want people to forget all about foreign bank-accounts and shady companies in even shadier jurisdictions. 

Don't worry about what will happen if, hopefully never, the construction bubble bursts and we're lumbered with a shed-load of empty towers and mouldering projects. It happened in London, it happened in Spain and it will happen elsewhere, there's no reason to think we're immune. 

In the meantime, with things going so well, it's no surprise that Premier Muscat sees nothing in trotting off on a jolly to Singapore with his two side-kicks, the very two whose dealer-wheeling and Panamanian shenanigans would have got them fired in short order in any other EU country. It's a measure of the man, and not a complimentary one, that he doesn't give a gnat's widdle about that hoary old chestnut about birds, feathers and flocking. 

Getting back to the economy, and its effect on the Great Unwashed's perception of Premier Muscat, I wonder if anyone can explain why things are actually going so well, leaving aside the "anything goes, we're business friendly" effect that is starting to become apparent. 

If, as Air Malta itself is saying, October rolls around and Alitalia don't take the bait, then what? Premier Joe said something on the lines of "oh well, there's always Plan F" but what is "Plan F", is he going to tell us? 

And what if, God'elp Us, the EU gets over its Brexit shock and continues with its plant to shut off the tap on financial services? Premier Joe's good buddies have already administered something of a hefty does of poison here, is it going to have to be "Plan J" or what? 

Is this why Premier Joe is leaning on the banks, to try to create an environment to bring "Plan J" or "Plan K" or whatever to some form of fruition if the brown stuff hits the revolving blades? 

I'm not holding my breath waiting for Premier Muscat to tell us anything concrete, and with the standard response to the media rapidly becoming "it's not in the public interest to reveal that which it is in the public interest to reveal", nor should anyone else. 

Coming on the heels of an earlier response that said that it would be de-stabilising to the economy for the Government to spill the beans about the deals made in smoke-filled rooms about the power-station which we didn't need in the first place, you have to wonder whether, as I theorised above, Premier Muscat doesn't know something about the economy that we don't. 

Something tells me that if this is the case, it isn't something that would fill our hearts with confidence and good cheer.

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