Noddy tries his hand at international diplomacy. Not likely to try again.

Owen Bonnici is not going to be headhunted by the United Nations to resolve the Middle East conflict any time soon. In entirely unjustified supreme self-confidence he flew into the 100,000 person Dutch town of Leeuwarden somehow expecting the community there to be impressed by him the way his mother and several hundred Facebook fans that tell him what a smart boy he is, are.

Only the fact that he thought that cultural leaders, politicians and journalists in a civilised European city would somehow be talked out of their indignation about the public official of a democracy mocking a journalist after she was killed in the line of duty shows just have utterly disconnected Owen Bonnici and his colleagues are from the democratic universe.

Owen Bonnici has clearly never in his life had a conversation with a journalist, an artist or a public administrator who was not an incompetent sycophant entirely undeserving of that job title.

Owen Bonnici thinks all artists are like Mario Philip Azzopardi, that would laugh at a bawdy joke, nudge, nudge, wink, wink with the lads and deliver Labour Party propaganda for money.

He thinks all public administrators are like Jason Micallef, that would ignore the responsibilities of their office if these somehow hinder the interests of the Labour Party.

Owen Bonnici thinks all journalists are like Janice Bartolo, that would get on all fours if he grins inanely at them.

With that frame of mind he flew to the Netherlands thinking that if he continued to say Jason Micallef had “the right” to mock Daphne Caruana Galizia after her killing, his audience there would applaud him for his logic as his audience here does.

Of course an idiot is an idiot is an idiot. And the first rule of Being a Complete Idiot 101 is not to know you’re an idiot.

So this trip, which you paid for by the way, leaves Owen Bonnici exactly where he was before he made it. Leeuwarden will continue to boycott Valletta 2018 and Valletta 2018 organisers are not welcome in Leewarden.

You might think this is civil servants missing reciprocated cocktail parties. It is that. But it’s your city, Valletta, no longer recognised as a European city worthy of the courtesy, the dignity and respect of other cities.

If your pride is not hurt by that, you have none.