The video of Brian Hansford advising Delia supporters on how to put pressure on PN MPs is, if nothing else, evidence of his pathological stupidity. The case that he’s a Labour Party tool with a platform on national TV to serve his party’s interests has long been made. Now we know that his eagerness to [...]
A strange thing happened in court yesterday. Lawyers for Yorgen Fenech said there had been a tape that Melvyn Theuma had recorded but was never heard in court. Yorgen Fenech’s defence team knew about it. The scene in court looked like nobody else did. As it turned out the tape wasn’t heard because the audio [...]
Manuel Delia · Playing Boċċa Andrew Borg Cardona needs no defending. More often than not I need him to defend me from touchy politicians who sue me for libel or lying politicians whom I sue myself. He does it for free. If he didn’t, I would have stopped doing this a long time ago. I’m [...]
In 2017, Adrian Delia came out of the blue to contest the leadership of the Nationalist Party. He was a good lawyer with corporate clients and a former president of a football club. Nobody knew him. His campaign was aggressive and many thought that he could be the answer to the PN’s woes. Then Daphne [...]
The ‘foreign interference’ narrative will become a new front to portray activists and journalists as collaborators and traitors. I mentioned in an earlier post that after Simon Mercieca’s Mintoffian and Putinesque tirade about “foreign interference in civil society”, I got questions from l-orizzont about how I respond “to Simon Mercieca’s allegations”. Expect screaming headlines on [...]
Watch this clip of historian Simon Mercieca on national TV last Monday. The show was discussing Adrian Delia. Simon Mercieca, a big fan, was looking for reasons why Adrian Delia was not much loved. And he came up with this. Let’s leave aside the absurdity of the notion that anyone needed to pay money so [...]
For now, we sit around wondering at the psychopathic tendencies, the megalomaniac delusions, the obliviousness to reality and Ċensu l-Iswed. For now, Adrian Delia insisting he will fight on limbless is a strange spectacle of a man in denial. But there will be a time when we will wonder less at the man and more [...]
Adrian Delia’s senior consultant who was brought in by the ailing leader last year to advise him on reforms for the PN, has this morning called on the PN leader to resign. The call followed two votes in PN organs in quick succession that declared the party’s parliamentary group and governing committee have no confidence [...]
I asked former Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano to comment on the President's decision yesterday to retain Adrian Delia as opposition leader. Here are his answers: Q. The constitutional text seems to require the president to remove a leader of opposition that is not supported by a majority of opposition MPs. And yet President George [...]
Statement by Repubblika issued earlier today: Repubblika is very concerned with the current situation in Parliament. Unfortunately, our Constitution seems to provide the opportunity to people in power to act outside basic rules of democracy and in defiance of common sense, ironically justifying their actions on the Constitution itself. We are disappointed that our Constitution [...]
The worst nightmare is the nightmare that continues even when you wake up! – Mehmet Murat Ildan Late last Monday evening, President George Vella issued a statement. In it he said that although he had evidence that the majority of Nationalist Member of Parliament declared that they do not have confidence in the Leader of [...]
My grandfather was a great fan of cowboy movies and my siblings and I were regularly treated to matinee shows watching John Wayne, Alan Ladd, Robert Mitchum, James Stewart, Kirk Douglas and others outdrawing, outshooting and thrashing sundry villains like Eli Wallach, Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine. According to my grandfather, until Sergio Leone and [...]
The constitutional rules about what happens when a leader of the opposition no longer counts a majority of opposition MPs as his followers have been on our statute books since independence. They’ve never been used before now. They’re a bit like the fruit juicer your mother bought you when she thought you needed to change [...]
A thousand days ago today Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by car bomb just outside her Bidnija home. A formidable journalist trusted by sources who risked much to help her do her work and followed by thousands of people in a country that depended on her to know what its government was doing. She published [...]
In this interview recorded earlier today, Kenneth Rijock speaks to me about the impact of Malta's passport-selling, money-laundering and corruption. He provides analysis on the outcome of the Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad case and why people in Malta - particularly corrupt politicians - should be anxious about travelling. Manuel Delia · Kenneth Rijock Interview
Manuel Delia · A Test For The Presidency Occasions when the president has to take decisions without instructions from the prime minister are rare. Our president acts in place of the Queen of England. And the Queen of England can only take initiatives on her own personal affairs and not without restrictions in that case [...]
A US district court judge has ordered the release of Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad ending restrictions on his movements in place since his arrest in February 2017. Ali Sadr’s travel restrictions and house arrest have been dropped and his bail bond of $38 million dollars has also been released. He will now be given back [...]
The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life threw out a complaint that alleged Jason Azzopardi behaved unethically when he acted as Repubblika’s lawyer when the NGO asked the police to investigate the death of migrants at sea over the Easter weekend. The complaint was filed by an anonymous individual who claimed he was the father [...]
90. (4) If, in the judgment of the President, a member of the House of Representatives other than the Leader of the Opposition, has become the Leader in the House of the opposition party having the greatest numerical strength in the House or, as the case may be, the Leader of the Opposition has ceased [...]
What is FATF? The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was established in July 1989 by the Group of Seven (G-7) countries, that is, the World’s top economic countries which determine world economic policy. The initial motive of FATF was to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering. Since 1989, the objectives have progressively widened [...]