A good day

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2023-01-16T14:57:46+01:00Mon, 16th Jan '23, 14:57|

It’s a good day when a mafia boss in hiding for 30 years starts his first day of the rest of his life in prison. Matteo Messina Denaro, boss of bosses, has already been convicted for some of the many murders he is personally responsible for. He managed to live in hiding for 3 decades. [...]

Dilute to taste justice

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2023-01-16T10:02:13+01:00Mon, 16th Jan '23, 10:02|

Last year alone 8 people died on construction sites. During the preceding 3 years, 17 people died on construction sites. There were only two other deaths at work in that period that did not occur on a construction site. Each one of those deaths was followed by a magisterial inquiry to gather the evidence which [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: The rules of the game

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2023-01-16T07:58:53+01:00Mon, 16th Jan '23, 07:58|

From my article in The Sunday Times: "Is it difficult in this polity of two, and only two, sides for both sides to agree on a referee? Yes, I suppose, it is harder than the power the prime minister enjoys to appoint any unqualified idiot to most posts in his government. But it is not [...]

If our children could see us

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2023-01-13T08:59:48+01:00Fri, 13th Jan '23, 08:59|

If we are to remain in touch with our humanity, we cannot let exhaustion and the intuitive need to soothe our frustration, numb us to the cruelties of the government that works for us. This is especially so when our government’s victims are children. To say that it is inherently human to take care of [...]

Can someone tell the government they’re the government?

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2023-01-12T17:31:03+01:00Thu, 12th Jan '23, 17:31|

Junior minister Rebecca Buttigieg criticised the rabid fanatics of “River of Love” for filing a criminal complaint against Matthew Bonanno for writing on Facebook that the neighbourhood of the sect’s offices should be “carpet bombed”. He was writing after news emerged of their proximity to the killer of Paulina Dembska. From Times of Malta’s report [...]

I’m not too keen on that headline

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2023-01-10T11:11:36+01:00Tue, 10th Jan '23, 11:11|

“Trial starts for 2005 murder of prostitute found in Marsa” was the headline on this morning’s Times of Malta’s front page reporting on the start of the trial of two men accused of killing Sion Grech nearly 20 years ago. One of the men had been her lover. As a matter of fact, their victim [...]

The right to offend

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2023-01-09T16:12:52+01:00Mon, 9th Jan '23, 16:12|

Matthew Bonanno is funny. His Bis-Serjetà posts are comical, smart, and provocative. They amount to a considerable share of all that can be called satirical in this humourless country. He works from within a transparent ideological frame which is a job requirement for anyone who is going to make fun of the ideas and actions [...]

Clayton the Pointless

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2023-01-09T08:31:56+01:00Mon, 9th Jan '23, 08:18|

Much has been made of Clayton Bartolo going to a football match between a team in his constituency and a team from Manchester, England and him wearing the kit of the Manchester team like an incontinent fan boy. The incident was analysed to death. Many pulled out of the drawer the well-thumbed explanation for everything [...]

Cruising on a rescue boat

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2023-01-06T08:47:51+01:00Fri, 6th Jan '23, 08:47|

Bryon Camilleri never lost sleep because I called him fascist. It’s not going to change now. And yet I feel that the moment his fascist speeches and his fascist conduct go unremarked will be the time when his creed wins. Consider his remarks yesterday commenting about the draconian laws being introduced in Italy to discourage [...]

Honey, I shrunk democracy

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2023-01-04T09:04:46+01:00Wed, 4th Jan '23, 09:04|

Robert Abela is going ahead with his threat. Read my comments from when Robert Abela first warned the opposition that they either agreed with his choice of Commissioner for Standards in Public Life or he’d change the law to go ahead and appoint his choice without their help. I will not repeat the objections to [...]

Bismarck’s sausages

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2023-01-04T10:00:07+01:00Wed, 4th Jan '23, 08:48|

Bismarck said there are two things the public should never be allowed to see being made: sausages and laws. He served as a chancellor where the head of state was chosen by inheritance, a fact that would cost him his job. But if he saw the way heads of state were made in Malta, he’d [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Doing it all wrong

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2023-01-03T14:27:29+01:00Tue, 3rd Jan '23, 14:27|

From my article in The Sunday Times: "Rights are not the gift of the majority but,  in a democracy, decisions about major changes are taken, or should be taken, after informed public debate that resorts to the freely given advice of the scientific community and the insight of moral teachers and religious leaders, after an [...]

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