And at the end of long days and nights counting votes, it was time to get ready to go home. But before they left they had to give credit to the man who had made all their countless victories possible. “Delia! Delia!” They shouted. This is not a fantasy in my unfulfilled dreams of glory. [...]
The government goes to the Council of Europe with 50 amendments to a report that finds the rule of law in Malta is such a disastrous state that not only was it unable to protect the life of a critical journalist but it seems unable (or unwilling) to find and punish the culprits not to [...]
This is Alfred Grixti, a Labour Party activist of many years. He's seen here taken off a screen celebrating with his Labour mates some crushing electoral victory of the many they celebrated these last few days. And here's Alfred Grixti's Facebook sporting as a profile picture what Ranier Fsadni described as an Austin Powers touch [...]
Who needs friends? The editorial of l-orizzont once published a hit list of people it despised because of their real or perceived association with the interests of the Nationalist Party. It had said it had marked these people for elimination. Today they also target someone in the Nationalist Party but they seek their preservation. L-orizzont [...]
This photo was going around yesterday snapped off the screen showing PN lead factotum Pierre Portelli (the more important one) having some form of conversation with Konrad Mizzi. The reason people shared it is that they were uncomfortable with it. People who are angry that Konrad Mizzi persists to survive with impunity with so much [...]
Sent in by someone known to me. The article refers to a "Manuel Delia readership base". By publishing this article I do not mean to suggest I believe such a thing exists. But the author does, so there. Hope is the last to die. Or so says the optimistic. With all the events and negative [...]
It is rare for a former PN leader to dish out advice to his successor. They’ve been in the job themselves and they know that a meddling retiree is unhelpful, whatever their intentions. I don’t think Lawrence Gonzi’s comments to Times of Malta yesterday were necessarily meant to be helpful, at least from the point [...]
The counting of Local Council votes over three days is like Chinese torture for the PN. You have to admire those volunteers who go up to Naxxar every day. They’re like the Light Brigade, fully aware they are fodder for the roaring cannons. The way Local Council vote counting works gives those perspex-bashing Labour partisans [...]
I have just finished scouring through my customary news portals in the hope of finding something to cheer me up, giving me some hope that our republican system has still some life in it. Sadly, all I could find was news about the latest trashing of the PN in the local elections. This is surreal! [...]
Let’s get a few things straight, and the assorted columnists in today’s Times of Malta can put this in their assorted pipes and smoke it if they are so inclined. Yes, I voted ‘tactically’ for the “detestable” David Casa and for Roberta Metsola, as I said I would when I spoke at the monthly vigil [...]
In a way, the Valletta Local Council only has a symbolic significance. In electoral terms, it is actually not that big of a town and in terms of any influence on national affairs the town council of our capital city is just as limited as all the others. It still rankles though. Ultimately it was [...]
From a report in The Atlantic today covering the Council of Europe's findings on Malta: "If the report had been about any other country in western Europe, heads would roll, governments would collapse, and the international community might consider the country a pariah. Instead, the report was about Malta, the smallest member of the European [...]
Euronews ran this news report of this morning's Council of Europe meeting where Pieter Omtzigt's report on Malta has been adopted in spite of Manuel Mallia's less than subtle attempt at subverting the process with over 50 proposed amendments, all over-ruled. The government this evening issued an iron curtain statement that makes no attempt to [...]
Luigi di Maio didn’t do well in the elections. That’s hardly bad news. If I had a vote in Italy I would have sooner chewed glass than consider voting for his party, never mind the bear that has swallowed him from his right flank. But Di Maio is grown up enough to understand that he [...]
Another old timer who is also younger than you imagine wrote in this Guest Post: I waited a couple of days before I started jotting down my thoughts on last Saturday’s EP Elections. In the run-up, I’ve had the opportunity to meet several people who know me and my active past within the PN. When [...]
Sent in by guest writer known as 'Lake'. As the dust slowly settles, all that remains are the numbers and their subsequent analysis. This previous guest post by a former PN strategist lays down an impeccable explanation of the PN HQ maneuvers and the subsequent PN voter behavior. My previous posts focused on how the [...]
Malta’s government has just been horribly humiliated by the Justice and Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe that considered and rejected some 50 amendments Joseph Muscat's government presented to change the meaning of a report by a Dutch MP that found systemic failures in the rule of law in Malta. The report by [...]
Martin Bugelli is full of arcane and beautifully fascinating trivia. He counts columns of fields of knowledge in his arsenal that make conversation with him particularly fascinating. Not for the first time, I learn a new word from him. Apparently, or so I discovered today, rabbits eat their own shit in order to survive giving [...]
David Stellini said he resigned his seat in Malta’s Parliament because he was tired of the divisive tribalism of Maltese politics and felt he couldn’t do much good within it. He’s not wrong about the fact that Maltese politics is counter-productive, frustratingly petty and a space completely unsuitable to articulate any materially useful vision of [...]
David Stellini’s resignation from MP (more on that later) creates a vacancy in the PN Parliamentary Group. David Stellini was elected in a by-election when Marthese Portelli renounced the seat after being elected from two districts. This means that empty seat will be filled by co-option which in practice means an MP is handpicked by [...]