What would politics be without its own particular peculiar sense of humour, even if it is not quite funny, ha ha.

Muscat has a way to go in crafting a team that, along with new blood that could come along through the next general election, could take up the task of governing the country with confidence

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.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi prefers smelling roses than removing thorns

With one side of his mouth the Prime Minister Gonzi tells the Leader of the Opposition to take his questions of corruption to the Police Commissioner. With the other side he denies the opposition the proper working of the mechanism of the Public Accounts Committee. Something's beginning to rot, somewhere.

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.