The politics of robber barons

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2023-03-31T08:24:47+02:00Fri, 31st Mar '23, 08:24|

After a series of court cases, we’ve been reminded how in the 1970s the Labour government stole private properties officially intended for a “public purpose” such as social housing only to hand over those properties to the Labour Party. At first the properties were used as political clubs. Now they’re bars and restaurants that profit [...]

Judging oneself

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2023-03-30T07:55:40+02:00Thu, 30th Mar '23, 07:55|

Image: The Malta Independent Joseph Cuschieri’s response to the long-delayed publication of an internal report that found what we’ve known since his trip to Las Vegas at Yorgen Fenech’s expense was discovered was not simply that he had done no wrong. His response was that he didn’t think he had done wrong and [...]

GUEST POST: Qatra Qatra

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2023-03-30T07:08:21+02:00Thu, 30th Mar '23, 07:08|

The culture of impunity and bribery experienced during the Joseph Muscat-Konrad Mizzi-Keith Schembri epoch continues. With Robert Abela the drops keep filling the accounts of many in the same spirit. The Prime Minister himself has admitted receiving rental income from an invisible tenant waiting to receive a Maltese Passport to launder moneyacross the EU. Abetting [...]

One more reason to quit

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2023-03-27T12:58:16+02:00Mon, 27th Mar '23, 12:58|

Young and old, Maltese and Gozitans, partisans and neutrals, Nationalists or Labourites, all do not trust the police to act in a case that may embarrass, or bring about criminal consequences, in Joseph Muscat. For 9 years Joseph Muscat told us to trust the police force while he hired and fired a series of police [...]

The country needs a political solution

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2023-03-27T10:53:15+02:00Mon, 27th Mar '23, 10:53|

It is not just a feeling. Polling consistently shows that one of two realities that have been nearly immutable since 2008 has now changed. The reality that remains in place is that if an election were held tomorrow Labour would win with a handsome majority. There were times when its advantage over the PN was [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Bosses masturbate too

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2023-03-26T07:55:57+02:00Sun, 26th Mar '23, 07:55|

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "I bet the reference to masturbation in the headline attracted your attention perhaps more than if yet another one of my articles was headlined with another varia­tion on the theme of corruption. That’s how the criminals want it. They’d rather you think of them bent double in a [...]

Protest in solidarity with Mark Camilleri

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2023-03-23T19:17:54+01:00Thu, 23rd Mar '23, 18:06|

How swiftly do the slumbering police officers and prosecutors who sleep through evidence an MP took dirty money to cover up for a criminal, wake up to chase a writer who drew conclusions from that evidence? We’ll be told we’re inconsistent for complaining that the institutions are chasing Mark Camilleri with the full force of [...]

Losing the benefit of doubt

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2023-03-22T12:59:31+01:00Wed, 22nd Mar '23, 12:59|

Just in case anyone was still hoping that the leaked chats between Rosianne Cutajar and Yorgen Fenech were not authentic, Rosianne Cutajar has publicly declared them to be the real deal, to coin a phrase. She has asked the court and the attorney general to “take action” against Mark Camilleri for publishing them, which she [...]

Ipse dixit

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2023-03-22T13:02:29+01:00Wed, 22nd Mar '23, 12:43|

A group of activists who describe themselves as “socialists and people of the left” protested yesterday at the feet of the Manwel Dimech memorial in Castille Square calling on the Labour government to go back to its core ideology which would never have allowed it to sell three public hospitals to crooks. In response to [...]

Expats rank Maltese bureaucracy as the worst in the world

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2023-03-22T10:01:18+01:00Wed, 22nd Mar '23, 10:01|

Malta ranks as one of the 10 worst countries in the world for expats to settle in according to the Expat Insider survey released by global expat community website Internations. The survey reflects the judgement of expats themselves and the ratings they give of their experience in the country they have move to. Of the [...]

“Pajjiż marid”

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2023-03-22T09:41:42+01:00Wed, 22nd Mar '23, 08:46|

Twenty things that the Rosianne Cutajar-Yorgen Fenech trail of messages published by Mark Camilleri tell us: They had a romantic and sexual relationship that lasted for a long time and their friendship stayed on after the end of their affair. Her eventual denials about having been the recipient of Yorgen Fenech’s generosity appear to be [...]

Small mercies

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2023-03-21T12:22:01+01:00Tue, 21st Mar '23, 12:22|

Sometimes, amid the depressing immutability of our situation, there are brief moments of temporary delight, cool pecks on the cheek like memories of mother’s comforting kisses. I remember reading about the taped conversation between Yorgen Fenech and Melvyn Theuma while they were discussing nervously the crowds gathering in Valletta. What pleasure it was to hear [...]

Is Robert Abela still disgusted?

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2023-03-21T09:05:50+01:00Tue, 21st Mar '23, 09:05|

In June 2020 Robert Abela had been Prime Minister for less than 6 months. That’s when news broke that within a 3-week flip Enemalta poured nearly €5 million into Yorgen Fenech’s pockets to broker a deal worth less than half of his commission. That was the Montenegro windfarm scandal. Robert Abela was still trying to [...]

GUEST POST: A pack of cards and a pack of thieves

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2023-03-21T09:02:48+01:00Tue, 21st Mar '23, 09:02|

Friday the 24th of February 2023 is marked as the day of criminals. It was the date of the landmark judgement in the case instituted by MP Adrian Delia against the criminals who lay behind the planned and executed fraudulent deal between members of the cabinet of the Maltese government led by Joseph Muscat and [...]

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