Hurry up and wait

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2019-08-26T09:33:35+02:00Mon, 26th Aug '19, 09:33|

The Criminal Court, after no less than four weeks, is still to decide on the appeal filed by Ministers Konrad Mizzi, Chris Cardona and Edward Scicluna from the decree by the Duty Magistrate on Repubblika’s request for a Magisterial Inquiry on the hospitals privatisation. The law expects such decisions to be decided “with urgency”. To [...]

Granaries

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2019-08-26T17:42:22+02:00Mon, 26th Aug '19, 09:15|

Whatever ‘reach out’ or ‘healing’ the PN leadership intended to start the night Adrian Delia was confirmed by the General Council as party leader does not appear to have started working. There is no significant change in the leadership’s attitude. There does not seem to be any new industrious energy coming down from the top. [...]

Do not mention the war!

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2019-08-25T11:29:50+02:00Sun, 25th Aug '19, 11:29|

Are you offended by this? Or this? Or this? Then listen very carefully. I shall say this only once: you’re probably a Nazi and should fuck right off. Or else you work for it-Torċa. Or you are a Nazi who works for it-Torċa and should fuck right off in any case. The mock shock scandal [...]

Not just a racist. A hypocrite as well.

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2019-08-23T21:55:10+02:00Fri, 23rd Aug '19, 21:55|

I was sued once for calling someone else a hypocrite. Justin Schembri can’t possibly sue me for calling him a racist since I did so at his own explicit invitation. Let’s see what he says to being branded a hypocrite, which he is. Justin Schembri spoke on behalf of the PN as “PN Education Spokesperson” [...]

STAR COMMENT: Politicians limbo dancing beneath principles

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2019-08-23T21:21:38+02:00Fri, 23rd Aug '19, 21:21|

Sent in by David Thake under the earlier post on Justin Schembri's eulogy of Matteo Salvini: This bag of rubbish is a reflection of what the PN has become. A bunch of amateurs who think politics is a limbo dance beneath principles, diving below the acceptable without falling. I remember when I was sitting waiting [...]

‘Can the last one leaving turn off the lights?’

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2019-08-23T21:08:05+02:00Fri, 23rd Aug '19, 21:08|

Emmanuel Galea finished his Times of Malta article today about the PN’s decision to scale down its yearly Indipendenza festivities with the words in this post’s headline. For him, a former long-time activist of the PN, the relocation to Pieta’ is not merely a cost-cutting exercise. Rather it is a result of the fact that [...]

Call me a racist, PN spokesman says. OK.

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2019-08-23T20:42:14+02:00Fri, 23rd Aug '19, 20:42|

It is sickening that a senior politician in the PN speaks of Matteo Salvini as a model that needs to be emulated. It is revolting that he charges volunteers saving people’s lives at sea as “organised crime”. But you know what’s far worse? This poor excuse for a politician’s day job is as a school [...]

Where’s the beef?

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2019-08-23T13:08:01+02:00Fri, 23rd Aug '19, 13:08|

Gaming companies licensed here are generating for themselves tens of billions of euro in turnover. The revenues they attract are truly mind-boggling. They pay little tax and dodge regulatory bullets like they were made of water. The technology designing games has a moderate recreational value but they can hardly be said to be enriching the [...]

Italian anti-mafia journalist wins New York award. Dedicates it to Daphne Caruana Galizia.

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2019-08-22T15:33:54+02:00Thu, 22nd Aug '19, 15:33|

Paolo Borrometi is the winner of the 2019 Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism. The Peter Mackler Award honours reporters and editors who have demonstrated a commitment to fairness in the story well told and a matching commitment to defending the right to publish and air that story. This is what Peter Mackler [...]

If it’s green, kill it

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2019-08-22T10:32:29+02:00Thu, 22nd Aug '19, 10:32|

The organisation that manages the Saluting Battery under the Upper Barraka Gardens in Valletta has finally had its way and will be removing the grassy lawn that has been a feature of the view from the garden terrace for over a decade. The lawn is believed to be the cause of water seepage down the [...]

Fresh evidence of links between Joseph Mifsud and Russia

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2019-08-22T08:56:15+02:00Thu, 22nd Aug '19, 08:56|

Alexey Klishin (standing) with Vincenzo Scotti, Joseph Mifsud and Stephan Roh to his left. A team of investigative journalists have found links between the lawyer and friend of ‘Mystery Professor’ Joseph Mifsud and a senior Russian lawyer who advised the Kremlin. Forensic News has also reported that Stephan Roh, who is based in [...]

INTERVIEW: The man who came in from Baku (3)

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2019-08-21T15:33:03+02:00Wed, 21st Aug '19, 11:06|

Part 3: ‘A Serious Academic Institution’ An Interview with the AUM’s John Ryder This is the third and final part of Lizzie Eldridge's series based on a 2 hour recorded interview with Professor John Ryder, recently retired Provost of the American University of Malta. Part 1 is here. In what was described ‘as the biggest [...]

GUEST POST: Egrant Revisited

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2019-08-21T08:22:57+02:00Wed, 21st Aug '19, 08:22|

For legal reasons we remind readers that the quotes in this piece are wholly imaginary. When the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia first hinted that there had been a breach of security at Mossack Fonseca, the conversation must have gone something like this: JM: “This is serious but lets’ wait and see how much is [...]

INTERVIEW: The man who came in from Baku (2)

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2019-08-19T11:08:28+02:00Tue, 20th Aug '19, 10:57|

Part 2 Hello John! Got a New Visa? An Interview with the AUM’s John Ryder This is the second part of Lizzie Eldrige's series based on a 2 hour recorded interview with Professor John Ryder, recently retired Provost of the American University of Malta. Part 1 is here. Funny how things happen by chance, isn’t [...]

Who’s the Sisyphus?

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2019-08-20T09:41:53+02:00Tue, 20th Aug '19, 09:41|

Whenever someone pops in from the outside to look at what’s happening in this country, we are reminded we’re not entirely mad. Because sometimes that’s how they make you feel.  Last Friday Ann De Marco proudly outed herself as the woman responsible to restore the Daphne Caruana Galizia protest site in the Great Siege Square [...]

The PN’s deputy leader sent me a message

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2019-08-19T11:24:19+02:00Mon, 19th Aug '19, 11:24|

I got this now from Robert Arrigo. He sure works hard on his location scouting. Montekristo Estates. Seabank Hotel. I suppose Robert Musumeci would call these 'moral integers'. As opposed to moral fractions? Moral decimals? Moral percentiles?

INTERVIEW: The man who came in from Baku (1)

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2019-08-19T10:57:09+02:00Mon, 19th Aug '19, 10:56|

An Interview with the AUM’s John Ryder Part 1 This series of articles by Lizzie Eldrige is based on a 2 hour recorded interview with Professor John Ryder, recently retired Provost of the American University of Malta. The interview was conducted on 23rd July 2019.                 Imagine you [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: In praise of the PN

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2019-08-18T07:59:42+02:00Sun, 18th Aug '19, 07:59|

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "The sophistry that Hermann Schiavone’s actions were not illegal is familiar. We get it all the time as the central justification of the snorting at the trough that Labour has developed into a system of government. "But is that not the point of ethics, to judge between [...]

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