The land maybe his ( Victor Scerri Gonzipn - Nationalist Party ex-President), but the country is ours.

The role was carved out for government backbenchers purely for Nationalist Party reasons, not to satisfy any constitutional and public need, as in the case of Cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries, who head the Executive according to the democratic separation of powers.

The central theme of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, was that the country is not in crisis. Parts of it are, parts are not. Taken as a whole it is certainly not relaxing on a bed of roses.

Malta: our superior nation, where parliamentary democracy has advanced to such an extent that the general public itself rightly insists on never being informed of anything whatsoever... least of all what its own government gets up to in private, and how it spends their hard-earned cash.

Partisan party considerations and public funds and cost should not mix.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi prefers smelling roses than removing thorns