So what’s changed?

Jason Micallef is still insulting Daphne Caruana Galizia’s memory. He’s still wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer euros on burying grassy picnic areas under tonnes of gravel. Yet he’s still Chairman of the Valletta Cultural Agency and Labour’s special delegate for implementation of the manifesto.

Johann Buttigieg is still at the Planning Authority despite his compromising links to the man acquitted of masterminding the brutal assassination of a journalist. Buttigieg, who begged Yorgen Fenech, “I might come to Level 22 with my female friend [ħabiba], maybe you can get security to help me jump the queue”, is still shamelessly CEO and executive chairman at the Planning Authority.

Marvin Gaerty is still being funded by the taxpayer as a government-appointed director at the company Roderick Galdes bankrupted – Malita Investments. As tax commissioner, Gaerty told Yorgen Fenech in one particularly troubling message, “tell me what you need, and I will sign off on it”. Gaerty reassured Fenech over 17-Black: “don’t worry, brother”. In his exchanges with Gaerty, Fenech referred to Daphne Caruana Galizia as “that witch”.

The disgraced former Police Commissioner who secretly leaked sensitive information to the murder middleman’s close confidante still hasn’t been indicted, six years after the Court asked the current police commissioner to investigate him. Lawrence Cutajar, who colluded with il-Gojja to co- ordinate their sworn testimony, is still meddling in the course of justice, turning up at the hotel where jurors were accommodated.

Anglu Farrugia is still on Labour’s gravy train. The serial bungler and notoriously spineless speaker who defended Keith Schembri to the hilt has now been rewarded with the specifically created role of Malta’s first Consul General in Catania, Sicily. Despite his utter lack of prior diplomatic-service experience, he’ll be supposedly heading a newly created Maltese Consulate- General in Sicily where he conveniently owns a holiday property.

Silvio Valletta is still a free man, evading justice for his alleged role in leaking key information to his close friend and travelling pal Yorgen Fenech. Valletta concealed his close relationship with Fenech when the latter was the main suspect in the investigation Valletta was leading. Valletta failed to divulge his overseas trips with Yorgen Fenech to watch Champions league football matches when the AG appealed the court’s decision to remove Valletta from the investigation.

Konrad Mizzi is still enjoying his life away from the public’s gaze as the glacial pace of Malta’s justice conveniently fails to catch up with him.

And Keith Schembri is still calling the shots. He’s still flaunting his power telling the jury how a court employee went up to him in the middle of his testimony to ask him to help him get a job transfer.

Schembri is still reaping the profits from government contracts and direct orders. He still wields enormous power, knowing full well that the secrets he is privy to are his insurance policy. He feels so secure that he can defy Robert Abela, exposing their close relationship and openly contradicting the Prime Minister’s attempts to distance himself from the former Chief of Staff.

Glenn Bedingfield is still defiantly doubling down on his bullying and intimidation of Daphne  Caruana Galizia’s memory years after her death. He’s still justifying his monstrous depiction of the journalist as a witch, claiming that it all needs to be seen “in the context”. He’s still reducing his disgusting harassment of the journalist on his blog to simply being “occasionally rough”. And he’s now police minister, overseeing the very institution tasked with examining the witness testimony, including Keith Schembri’s, to determine whether third parties should face criminal charges.

And Rosianne Cutajar is still a member of parliament.

Indeed she’s now a Minister, despite her serious infractions documented by the National Audit Office and the Standards Commissioner. She was spared sanctioning by the Council of Europe through Abela’s deft intervention – removing her from the Parliamentary Assembly. Yet she’s still draining tens of thousands of taxpayer euros, this time to reward another of Yorgen Fenech’s sycophants, Edward Zammit Lewis.

The Minister who famously told Yorgen Fenech “I miss you” is still skulking around trying to find himself some new position. Now that he’s been rejected as Judge on the General court of the European Union in Luxembourg, he’s having to contend with being part-time consultant to another of Yorgen Fenech’s friends.

And Neville Gafa, the man Robert Abela reinstated at the OPM, is still spewing his unique brand of monstrous cruelty, uploading a photo of the assassinated journalist’s children looking distraught after the inexplicable verdict, with his callous comment: “Have they seen a ghost?”

And Joseph Muscat is still moaning about the gravel in his shoe. He’s still manoeuvring and scheming in the shadows, putting pressure on a witness at the trial to contact the defence lawyers to help the man accused of masterminding the barbaric murder of the journalist who brought about his downfall. The man who pathetically emblazoned his skin with his self-glorifying “Invictus” is still desperately seeking revenge from the woman who single-handedly defeated him, from her grave.

He’s still holding an entire party and the whole nation to ransom with his comical press conferences. At least this time it’s not from his washroom or his taxpayer-funded Sa Maison offices. Instead of hiding away in shame, Muscat is still defiantly denying the truth. And his Labour Party still applauds, still idolizes him.

And Robert Abela is still refusing to implement the recommendations of the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry from five years ago. He’s still communicating with Keith Schembri. He’s still chatting and meeting with Joseph Muscat. He’s still insisting that we let the institutions work after giving them nine long years to work, and instead of coming up with the goods, they delivered an utter mockery of justice.

Nothing’s really changed.

Labour is still pursuing Muscat’s famous roadmap. Labour cannot change its course, even if it wanted. That rotten web at the heart of Labour’s power is far too tangled.

It will take far more than an acquittal to dismantle that sinister structure.

Come to think of it, you know what’s changed? That sense of optimism that boosted a tiny nation as it proudly joined the European Union is now shattered. It’s gone. And replacing it is a growing rage, a burning fury over the rotten injustice Labour keeps fuelling.