In more innocent times, when Evarist Bartolo didn’t himself cover up for corruption under his watch and when not even he, the old fox, realised Joseph Muscat was in on it with Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri, the smooth-talking wise guy dared to say on tape Konrad Mizzi should have quit politics when his Panama company was discovered.
He didn’t know then what he knows now. That Joseph Muscat would not fire Konrad Mizzi if his fingertips were dripping in blood and a cat lay eviscerated at his feet. That Konrad Mizzi didn’t just set up a Panama company but also owned a company that contracted with a Dubai company owned by the energy company he bought electricity from. That Keith Schembri was part of the same scam. And that he would live to see an Iranian guy rush out of a bank a witness said held physical evidence another Panama company was owned by Joseph Muscat.
So try to forget all you’ve learnt since that first day when the Panama Papers confirmed Daphne was right: Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi set up companies in Panama in their first week of government.
What did Evarist Bartolo think of that? He reverted to form and said that’s just unfair. It’s not right that the wealthy and the powerful go round the world at best to dodge tax while the rest of us pay every penny? He wasn’t even thinking of the unfairness then of the powerful going around the world to stash money they skim off the electricity bills the rest of us pay. He didn’t know that then.
So this is what he said then.
He won’t say what he thinks now because a court has reprimanded him for covering up corruption himself. He is tainted as the boss he works for who in turn covers for the people he criticised in this video.
But this video tells us what he would say if he could. And there are many others in the Labour Party just not tainted in the same way. It’s time for them to speak up.