February 2013
1 post
Reminder about your invitation from Joanna Agius
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January 2013
2 posts
Reminder about your invitation from Joanna Agius
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Invitation to connect on LinkedIn
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January 2012
6 posts
The irony is lost on them
Last Sunday, during his sermon to the followers, Joseph Muscat explained how his candidates for the forthcoming election are exceptional (and by inference different to the PN candidates) because they are accomplished people who ‘ma ghandhom bzonn xejn’.
The irony, of course, is that most of these new candidates are in their 20’s, 30’s & 40’s and have been...
If ever you doubted the sincerity of the PL
I have been forwarded one of the first missives of the electoral campaign before an election has been announced. It is clear from this email that the PL will continue to defy ‘is-sewwa maghruf’ to cast their own version of facts simply beause they have no alternative answers.
It is easier for them to re-invent history than it is for them to use their intellect to come up with...
It's no longer about Franco frankuni
Yesterday’s Bondi+ was well timed as it probably signals the end of Franco Debono and the start of the election campaign. It seems highly likely that by week’s end we will have a dissolved parliament and the campaign by the main parties will be in full swing.
Franco let down his constituents, his party, his fellow Nationalist parliamentarians and ultimately himself. It was never...
Democracy .... Franco's version
Our interest in all things political is such that we are now being force fed Franco Debono on virtually all local stations of an evening. It is our choice to watch even if its effect on the stomach is none too healthy.
In the last couple of days (the ‘crisis’ started on Friday evening and it is only Tuesday morning now) there have been numerous calls on Franco Debono to resign from...
Is Franco chicken?
Well Franco has certainly managed to grab all the headlines and push that terrible tragedy off the front pages. For that I salute you. You did good!
You gambled that the PM would split the Ministry and appoint you Minister for Justice. You miscalculated. You assumed that by painting the PM into a corner he would appease you and appoint you as a Minister. You think you are a leader and that...
You lied to the nation Franco ....
Thank you Franco. First you blackmailed the Prime Minister into splitting the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry for Internal Affairs and then you proceeded to withdraw support anyway.
You must feel really proud that the PM has taken your advice but that parliamentary vote is still a bargaining chip with multiple lives.
You may well think that the country has suffered needlessly because it...
December 2011
10 posts
Just wait till the going gets tough!
Yesterday was a good day for the Partit Laburista. Yesterday Super One showed the BMA’s instead of Inkontri and did the PL a big favour. Yesterday they missed the chance to make fools of themselves once again.
They have been consistent - the various episodes of Inkontri; the various PR opportunities on Bondi+ (Anglu, Karmenu and Marlene immediately spring to mind); the protests of the PL...
Why is Joe Grima not accountable?
Silvio Parnis will be appointed ‘Ministru tas-South’ according to an interview highlighted on Malta’s leading blog site.
This evening on Inkontri we met the Mayor for Dingli - a certain Ian Borg. Judging by his performance on Inkontri - I didn’t understand anything he said - and the fact that he hails from the North (it is not in the PL vocabulary to use Tramuntana and...
Cheaper or cleaner? Show us the beef!
This evening I watched Joe Grima’s Inkontri on Super One. Strange as this may sound it should be compulsive viewing for anyone that is considering voting for the PL at the next election. It highlights everything that is puerile, superficial and propagandistic about the Labour Party.
Joe Grima’s style is to present the negative view and put words into his ‘guest’s’...
The unfairness of repeating accusations after...
Yesterday Michael Farrugia repeated his allegation - already once invetigated and dismissed - that Claudio Grech (resigning?) chairman of MITA has a conflict of interest by virtue of his position as chairman of the Govt entity and by being active within the Nationalist Party. He did this in parliament where he has protection.
No matter for him that the Commissioner for Data Protection...
Il-kunsill lokali ta' Malta
I watched with fascination, last Thursday’s edition of Bondi+. Am I alone in thinking this man is a lone crusader in objectively exposing the PL for what it is? Let’s leave that for another time.
What is it about the amateurish PL that gives me the feeling that if and when they are in Government they will run the country in much the same way as a local council ‘runs a...
The Creative Architect
I have just finished watching a very confusing Bondi+. At the start of the programme the objective was to enlighten us on Joseph Muscat’s 51 ‘proposals’ by the architect of the PL electoral programme Karmenu Vella.
At the end of the show we are none the wiser.
What we witnessed was a slippery eel who’s only countenance to all the challenges on HOW the PL will better...
Sexagenarian for a Finance Minister
Edward Scicluna has announced his candidature for the next General Election as the Labour Party pulls out all stops in an attempt to find some talent within its ranks. Edward Scicluna is best known as the man who predicts election results using his own team and techniques, and usually predicting a Labour Party win only to then explain the problem with statistical variances.
Finance is not a...
Its about what has never been said....
This week the PN are remembering the sad events of 25 years ago. The repression and culmination in murder and frameups. Many are saying that the PN are digging up the past but the truth is that those events are as significant to our democracy as Independence Day and Republic Day.
Those events were all turning points that contributed to our democratisation.
The younger generations cannot imagine...
Is it just about PR?
I have just read a blog from a former ‘independent journalist’ who comments as follows ….
“Let’s say it like this – when it comes to marketing itself, the Nationalist Party is tops. Which often makes me wonder why they cannot apply the same fervour, professionalism and extreme efficiency to the way they govern. (Now, that would really make Malta a great place to live in...
Modern, progressive and intolerant
The Labour Party have got their way. They incessantly hounded Lou Bondi until he gave up on blogging. His blogs had an edge but they just couldn’t handle it. The modern, progressive government in waiting just cannot take criticism.
Lou Bondi, along with other bloggers, said it how he saw it - we all do. We blog because we care and want to make our opinion known. We do it because we have a...
November 2011
16 posts
You can never trust Labour
I have just watched the Super One news bulletin. Knowing that Lawrence Gonzi was first Prime Minister to be invited to Libya I watched with interest their item about Super One in Tripoli and Misurata. Obviously they were there with the Prime Minister. But do you think they mentioned this? Of course not. Instead we had one of their intrepid reporters explain (!) the hardship of the people having to...
Hawduni ha nifhem
This morning on TVAM they hosted Marlene Farrugia (previously Pullicino Orlando) to discuss the problems of Enemalta and the electricity tariffs. Ms Farrugia is the PL’s Kelliem ghall-Utilitajiet.
Anyone who has listened to Marlene on TV will know that she isn’t exactly the model of clarity and structured thinking and discussion. She gets ahead of herself talking and gasping for...
When I catch the guy that just farted.....
“When I catch the guy that just farted ……
Scratch beneath the surface of the PL and you will find a vacuum. This is a marketing charade they are hopeful will con the Maltese public into voting them into power.
To be fair to them their campaigns are somewhat successful. All you need to do is listen to people speak and they say “imma iz-zmienijiet mhumiex tajbin”....
Dead in the water
The single premise upon which the PL has proposed its economic revival plan is centred on:
an energy plant that no one else has, in spite of it being proposed to Malta 4 years ago - anyone seen any photos of these magical plants?
even if this plant was viable then it won’t see the light of day until just before the election after next - what happens before that?
reducing the electricity...
Joseph Muscat's hidden 21% VAT rate
The Leader of the Opposition has made a fundamental mistake in his pronounciations last Monday. Let’s not get into the 51 thoughts - the superficiality of those thoughts is ‘car daqs il-kristal’ to quote his deputy. Other bloggers and the Prime Minister made short shrift of analysing those statements and rightly dismissing them.
The only pronounciation that remained are the ones...
The chasm that separates
Labour had its shot at convincing us that it has the right credentials to lead this country and blew it. On Monday night we had the Leader of the Opposition present a list of 51 thoughts that it is packaging as its policies. It is not coincidental that Joseph Muscat also mentioned “Gvern immexxi minni” 51 times and 51% is the magical number all parties aim for - as it scrapes them past...
How puerile .....
pu·er·ile [pyoo-er-il, -uh-rahyl, pyoor-il, -ahyl]
adjective
1. of or pertaining to a child or to childhood.
2. childishly foolish; immature or trivial: a puerile piece of writing.
Courtesy of dictionary.com
How very appropriate!
That is the only way to describe the Leader of the Opposition’s address, in response to the Budget, last night. I wasted two hours of my life listening to an immature...
This is not a competition
Reading through the STOM comment boards in reaction to the story about Lawrence Gonzi’s 10 questions to Joseph Muscat, you would be forgiven for thinking that we are embarking on a competition about the biggest or best. It beggars belief that so many in the anti-PN camp are so naive as to be totally uninterested in what is being promised or how it will be funded.
Leaving aside the questions...
Your opinion is not mine...
A few weeks ago, a PL supporter posing as a journalist, one Josanne Cassar, found herself without a job. From a personal point of view I feel sorry for her because being unemployed is no joke - I have been there myself and I can say it was singularly the worst period of my life. The Malta Independent must have their reasons.
She has now turned to blogging and her most recent blog takes dig at...
The stark difference
I can quite understand the hype that accompanies our national budget. In spite of it not being a big deal in recent years - just another working day - you really need to go back to the Socialist days to understand the national fixation that is Budget Day.
The Ministry of Finance was a fortress - those involved with formulating the budget, and journalists were locked up in the Ministry for days on...
They have the cheek to say the Govt is 'vague'
The Government in waiting has steadfastly refused to divulge any information about its’ policies if elected to govern this country yet they have the temerity to suggest that budget measures announced this week were vague!
We all know the reason Labour is keeping its cards close to its chest is because it has almost nothing and the ones that saw the light of day were smashed...
Impeccable timing
The radical reform in the public transport sector reached its inglorious peak with the implementation of the bus reform in summer. To say that it was mishandled is an understatement; though to be fair it was probably not half as bad as one particular sector of the media made it out to be.
Losing half your drivers on launch day was no coincidence. One sector of our society says it means well but...
... detached from reality
This is the Editorial of Maltastar.com - the official online magazine of the Malta Labour Party. My comments are italicised in bold.
“The PM and those paid out of our taxes to prop him up, clearly think the Budget is not an economic tool, but a PR exercise to help Gonzi stay in power. This is really rich coming from party that has undergone a ‘revolution’ by changing its logo,...
The morning after the day before
Having listened to our leaders and the various commentators from various strata of our society one cannot help but conclude that Malta is far too polarised for there to be any hope of dispassionate, independent comment.
We keep talking about the blue camp, the red camp and the mysterious ‘floating voters’. Yet everyone that is wheeled out to provide comment is so obviously in one...
Come clean or shut up!
This evening I followed, religiously, the monotonous budget speech by our Finance Minister. As a parent who is considered to be ‘middle class’ in my country I welcomed the Government budget because it brought in some tax relief - not enough to make a difference but enough not to put me in a worse position than I am - without going overboard to buy votes before an early election.
...
