This is “Freedom” Square this morning just outside Parliament. I was in the room when Renzo Piano sketched with a green crayon his idea to lift the Parliament chamber on stilts so that an open square could be left underneath it. His idea was that Parliament should not be squatting in the space of the people. The entrance to Parliament should be transparent and the agora undisturbed. He had an idea to use architecture to represent freedom and democracy. But he did not account for Joseph Muscat and his Sancho Panza in the shape of the Speaker of our Parliament, Anġlu Farrugia.
Now every day they add another layer of barriers squeezing people out of their square. Someone quipped this morning we’re now up to Level 23 on Super Mario Bros.
Not to worry, Mr Speaker. Our voices reach. And you don’t yet have enough barriers to prevent an egg or a juicy ripe tomato from flying the distance.