A few days ago, our prime minister insisted on TV that Malta had the highest vaccination rate in the world. It doesn’t. We’re not doing too badly but he spoils that with vacant hyperbole. Yesterday, at an umpteenth gala event to “launch” roads that have been in use for months and have already been “inaugurated” [...]
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every [...]
Photo: Polish MEP Robert Biedroń (S&D) covers his mouth with a sign reading ‘Free Media’ during a European Parliament debate – © European Union 2021 As parts of the independent press are getting switched off in Europe, Malta should be on the lookout for any symptoms of the spread of this contagion. The [...]
I’m just putting this quote spoken twice today by the Deputy Attorney General prosecuting the case against Yorgen Fenech, out there as a headline. Because it needs to be registered. It clarifies, as Inspector Keith Arnaud also tried to do today, that remarks by the police chief Angelo Gafà the day the Maksar brothers and [...]
Mark Camilleri is the Executive Chairperson of the National Book Council. The National Book Council is an agency set up by law, specifically the National Book Council (Establishment) Order which is published under the Education Act. The regulations define how the Executive Chairperson is appointed. They are appointed by the prime minister upon the recommendation [...]
A political storm is raging in the UK over a lobbying scandal. The former prime minister and leader of the party in government, David Cameron, texted the health minister asking him to meet a client of his who was offering something to the health service for free. No rules were broken. This was a free [...]
The Maltese government will have a tough time convincing the European Commission to allow it to subsidise Air Malta for the next five years. As with any other airline, covid had a devastating effect on the national airline. But Air Malta recorded disastrous results before the covid pandemic hit. In fact, sources from within the [...]
A man was desperate to travel to visit his elderly mother. Travelling is not easy these days. He needed a covid certificate and he could not find a clinic open on Sunday in time to get a result before travelling. He thought he would get away with changing some information on an old certificate he [...]
Updated, 14 April 2021 07:33 Adds reply by Alexander Fenech. Last Sunday I wrote about the new laws restricting donations to NGOs ostensibly to fight money laundering. I commented on how the new laws made the act of a little old lady approaching you on Republic Street with a poppy appeal jar a criminal offence. She’s [...]
During the 2013 election, the general line was that it was ‘cool to be Labour’. You were either ‘in’ the ‘moviment’ or you were a Nationalist laggard. The famous ‘Dad, jien ħa nivvota lejber’ video incarnated the message that the thing to do was to bring Labour in. Apologists for the Labour Party will now [...]
Can the government please stop double-speaking? Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo yesterday categorically assured us his government, including the tourism agency, are not "blessing" mass activities over the summer. Certainly not until the public health authorities tell us that it's safe enough to party. Now, look at this "glitch festival". It's being advertised for this summer [...]
The first entry on the first day of this blog was an analysis of the 2017 election written two days after the result came out. Labour was in the throes of irrepressible celebration. And the taunts of vindication were everywhere. The trolls were all over the place. Daphne’s lies and Simon’s lies strengthened us, they [...]
The Toni Bezzina situation is weird. Let’s first speak about the facts. The PN club of Żurrieq is a ramshackle Lego of two and a half rooms on top of each other. The half room at the very top had been a disused dump until Toni Bezzina, an architect working at the public works department, [...]
The national airline Air Malta has sold its name and its brand to its shareholder, the government of Malta, for €21 million in a series of transactions seen as a likely last-ditch attempt to cover up state aid to the ailing airline. Now that Malta’s government owns the Air Malta brand it should also be [...]
Births, for the most part, are a cause for celebration. A brand-new start. A fruition. Today marks the birth of PEN Malta. We should be celebrating this achievement. But really, shouldn’t we be crying that such an organisation is born? That we need to have an organisation to fight for freedom of expression? In an [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "The official reason for the new law is that there are money launderers who create voluntary organisations you never heard of to wash proceeds of their crimes. It is true. These phantom organisations exist. But they are not your local band club, the karate nursery where your [...]
Repubblika reported Carmelo Abela to George Hyzler for spending public money on government-paid adverts sporting little more than a glamour shot of himself. Newsbook yesterday reported that the report found Carmelo Abela in breach of ethical rules. The Labour participants of the committee George Hyzler reports to are protesting that Newsbook had seen the report. [...]
Manuel Delia · Viva l-lejber mela (after James Debono) James Debono catalogued reactions to Marie Louise Coleiro Preca’s plea for forgiveness for the actions of some, from within the Labour Party, over the last few years. The first category of reactions he referred to was mine, which he portrayed as extreme. Rather than think up [...]
‘It’s there,’ Robert Abela declared yesterday. ‘Black on white. The inquiry declared Egrant Inc belonged to Brian Tonna.’ The Egrant inquiry is more than 1,500 pages long. Robert Abela’s interviewer yesterday did not have a copy handy. Mark Laurence Zammit did recall the inquiry report was concerned with establishing whether Egrant belonged to Joseph Muscat [...]
I must make a note of moving to the 4th district. You never go hungry or thirsty there. Before the last general election, Konrad Mizzi and Chris Fearne went into a bidding war on who would make their constituents diabetic or alcoholic first. Now that Konrad Mizzi is unlikely to be on the list of [...]