Don Rafael Vasquez-Montoya, leader of the Nationalist Party, published yesterday an op-ed in La Voz del Reino calling, against the twin backdrop of the Kethara closure and the quarantine at the Vella, for what he termed discipline — in the Chamber, in the port, and in the household.

The piece, circulated also in pamphlet form at the steps of the Cortes, argues that the Kingdom's present difficulties are not the work of foreign powers alone but of a political class that has forgotten how to govern in bad weather. It names no minister. It does not need to.

Don Rafael's readers will find the cadence familiar. Those who have followed his interventions this season will note that the argument has been sharpened rather than extended: the frame is the one he offered the Chamber two days ago, trimmed for the new facts. Whether the Nationalist benches will press the point at Monday's sitting, or hold it for the Subcommittee the Cardenal has requested, is a matter his whips have not yet decided.