When Labour came to power in 2013, they put the civil service to the guillotine putting all but two of its top managers out to pasture. The top civil servant and almost all ‘permanent’ secretaries were removed in one of the first government initiatives that would demonstrate the utter contempt this government would show to [...]
Edward Scicluna is fighting for his political skin. His article in today’s Times of Malta is an attempt at survival by resorting to some classic right-wing Labour rhetoric of ‘my country right or wrong’. It took him some time to say it because of the residual embarrassment that comes with education and the majority of [...]
There has been some discussion on the comments boards of this blog about the nature of fascism and whether the unpleasantness around us fits that description. There are no goose-stepping armies and Poland is not likely to be partitioned soon. That much is certain so you may want to find other names for what is [...]
Let’s be clear about this. The government’s action to remove protest banners moments after they are put up on the basis of planning or environmental laws it habitually ignores in all other cases is the illegal abuse of basic civil rights. Yesterday an angry and annoyed man was filmed going down Saqqaja Road removing small [...]
MFSP, the investment management company that handled large deposits from Keith Schembri without checking where he got the money from appears to be managing the risk it may be forced to close down. It has already been punished significantly by the anti-money laundering agency, the FIAU, who has imposed fines on MFSP though, interestingly, not [...]
The following is the speech by Petra Caruana delivered at yesterday's vigil in Valletta: Good evening everyone, my name is Petra I was a friend and great admirer of Daphne. Through her courage, integrity, work and stories, Daphne has taught me many lessons. One of my fondest memories of Daphne is sitting in her living [...]
Joseph Muscat was at his wife's all white fundraiser a few days ago and had to make conversation. Here's one chat he struck up. Madame goes by the name of Tatyana Malinova. Here are some of her Instagram pictures. Хороший был вечер ? About last night ? Party it’s good but football more important ???? [...]
The following is the statement by #occupyjustice at their action at Castille today: The World Cup of Corruption The football World Cup may be over, but here in Malta the World Cup of Corruption is still ongoing. We still have three key players who have been shown the red card over and over, yet [...]
Mustafa Cetinel, still at present a director of Pilatus Bank, is being indicted in the United States federal courts after an FBI investigation. In April, the Financial Times reported that Mustafa Cetinel had been investigated by the FBI, but no news of an indictment has emerged since. A physical inspection of the records at the [...]
Times of Malta has been carrying a series of stories about public procurement that should, under normal circumstances, be raising serious alarm. The almost universal indifference to wrongdoing is just what allows the government to ignore rules or to turn them round to seem like they are following them while they really frustrate the reason [...]
On his way to work this morning, Joseph Muscat would have driven by these notes left for him by Il-Kenniesa. Just in case they were taken down before his drive, here they are for another view.
Jonathan Ferris lost his job a year and a month ago. You will remember Edward Scicluna, before his famous last known words ‘u ejja come on’, telling the camera he wondered if the FIAU reports into Pilatus Bank ‘were written to be leaked’. Less than a week later Jonathan Ferris and Charles Cronin were told [...]
See you at the Great Siege Memorial tomorrow. We're meeting early to make way for the other activities in the city tomorrow. But until justice and truth are served, justice and truth must continue to be demanded. The photo is by Jonathan Borg, Times of Malta.
Do please go to The Irish Times to read this article by Fintan O'Toole. We need to recognise what is happening around us.
Matthew Pace is one of Keith Schembri’s bankers. He is one of the surviving directors of MFSP and has handled Keith Schembri’s deposits from mysterious sources conveniently neglecting to ask questions on provenance and cleaning them through an amenable Bank of Valletta. Read more on that here. Matthew Pace is squatting and holding up [...]
I kick myself as I do this. I'm qualified to be no one's image consultant. If I were, I'd do well to be my own. But have you seen Owen Bonnici's tie as he was running the gauntlet in Leeuwarden yesterday? Did he think it would disarm the artists in the audience?
Hugo Chetcuti died from complications from the wounds he suffered in a stabbing attack a few days earlier. And on cue the outpouring of grief on social media. Some with the obvious: he didn’t deserve to die this way. Of course not. No one does. No one is qualified to dispense death as judgement on [...]
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 [...]
