Accepting Robert Abela’s behaviour in his profession is unacceptable. There’s a line that Joseph Muscat, apparently without irony, had a habit of echoing: “those who do not fight corruption are corrupt”. I regret he is right. Which means that Labour Party MPs, the party leadership, party employees, and all those (likely a considerable majority of [...]

I often express disgust on this blog at hero worship of politicians. I think it’s undignified and undemocratic and often based purely on loyalty to colour rather than the expression of preference for policy or even management style. But in this moment of crisis when the peace we took for granted on the European continent [...]

Look at this screenshot from Facebook. Scroll down for the explainer unless you don't see my point in the picture before I even make it and follow that up with despair and moving on to the next reminder of, as the Maltese idiom puts it, what sort of people Christ died for. Still don't see [...]

There’s a story on today’s Times of Malta about “a senior police inspector previously tasked with investigating major organised crime in the country” who has now been reduced to doing clerical work in a police station. The Times quotes sources saying that Inspector Kevin Pulis is being punished for “insubordination” in a high-profile case he [...]

The European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Canada, and the United States issued a joint statement yesterday announcing their common position in response to Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. One of the points they make is that they “commit to taking measures to limit the sale of citizenship—so called golden passports—that let wealthy [...]

Someone must have told Robert Abela he needs to avoid improvising on the campaign trail. Beyond the stump speech about how proud he is, and how optimistic he is about his future, frozen in the drunk aftermath of being chosen to deliver the little boy’s sermon before Christmas mass, he’s been putting his foot in [...]

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "And are we truly neutral in this new world that Dom Mintoff, the architect of our constitutional neutrality clauses, could never foresee? Are we seriously ambivalent in the current scenario?" Read my full article here.

Watch this video filmed by someone who stayed behind after last night’s protest outside the Russian Embassy in Kappara. The police are picking up and binning candles, flags, and posters. They treat the stuff as one would treat debris left behind after some street party. There should have been a lesson learnt from the constitutional [...]

I kept thinking and reading up after the post I wrote yesterday reacting to Jeremy Camilleri’s remark that when he was a journalist (he worked as a producer in the early 2000s for Lou Bondi’s TV show broadcast on the public TV station) “the Nationalists” wanted to send him to prison for 6 years. Admittedly [...]

This is the text of the letter handed yesterday to the Russian Ambassador in Malta by civil society activists who protested in solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian community living in Malta. 25 February 2022 H.E. Andrei Lopukhov Ambassador of the Russian Federation “Ariel House”, 25, Triq Antonio Schembri Il-Kappara San Ġwann SGN 4239 Re: [...]

Here’s what you don’t do when the roof over the house two doors down from yours collapses killing everyone inside. You do not organise a party to celebrate the fact that your roof is still standing. And you especially don’t go to your neighbours to tell them how pleased you are that unlike them you [...]

Labour is running a campaign video with “ordinary Maltese people” saying how much they love being ruled over by Robert Abela. One of the endorsers is this guy, a restaurateur who operates the Gillieru restaurant in San Pawl il-Baħar. His commitment to Labour is legendary. Look at this series of Labour Party events hosted in [...]

Repubblika statement this morning: Repubblika will be holding a protest tonight Friday 25 February 2022 at 8 pm in front of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Triq Antonio Schembri, Kappara, San Gwann. The protest is being held to appeal to the Russian authorities to immediately order the stoppage of the military invasion and [...]

Updated at 09:02 with the story behind the "wanting to send me for 6 years in prison". Scroll to the bottom for an update. There’s this article on Lovin Malta reporting on a statement given by one Jeremy Camilleri at a Labour Party event. He is introduced as “a well-known political commentator” and quoted saying [...]

I’ll just leave this here. Perhaps you want to suggest they drive by Pilatus Bank again for a street party. Or St Luke’s Hospital. Or the Dellimara Power Station. Or Satabank. Hop aboard on the themed ride of Labour’s glory.

I’ve seen remarks by some civil society advocates reminding the government of our neutrality obligations and insisting Malta refuses to take sides in the conflict in Eastern Europe. People who make these remarks studiously avoid identifying Russia as an aggressor. They falsely equate “the two sides” and urge Malta to remain equidistant from them. For [...]

This is what passes for political discourse on the eve of a general election. This headline translates as “Payment cheques all year round if you vote to get them”. Robert Abela, addressing the elderly, sums up his political stump speech to what elections should never be, a transaction. Social services and support are presented as [...]

Joseph Muscat is nowhere to be seen (yet) at formal Labour Party events. But apparently, he’s very much in demand at constituency events organised by Labour Party candidates. And he’s obliging. There’s something profoundly disturbing in this. Labour Party candidates continue to consider a friendly relationship with Joseph Muscat, even the public reception of his [...]

Scandals have emerged in the last few months of traffic fines issued by traffic wardens thrown in the fire of oblivion to help someone dodge the law. In one case it appears to have allowed a business tycoon (and suspected criminal) to profiting from a racket of charging their clients for traffic fines that are [...]

I chose that title because I want to push back on some of the headlines that covered yesterday the announcement that someone that is supposed to answer to the name “Fr David Muscat’s sister” is contesting the upcoming general elections. Fr David Muscat is the rabid racist who says grace at the fenkati presided by [...]