Then there’s André Grech on whom generally speaking the less said the better. But I could not let this post of his pass. He bastardised Martin Niemöller’s famous quote about Adolf Hitler’s dismantling of freedom in Germany to adapt it to what he believes are his circumstances. This is perverse on so many levels. André [...]

Then there’s Frank Portelli who has been campaigning for Adrian Delia since the day he himself was a candidate for the post. He’s the one who gestured on TV by throwing a piece of paper to the floor saying that represented Daphne Caruana Galizia which he said would be dumped on the rubbish heap of [...]

Then there’s Edwin Vassallo’s brother in religious arms Simon Mercieca whose Facebook campaigning has become ever more deranged. Here he is referring to an archaic definition of the label ultramontane to say I was accusing him of supporting the Pope, which he said was an insult he was proud to receive because he loves Pope [...]

Consider now the ultramontane alliance of crusading fanatics that is campaigning for Adrian Delia to stay because they believe he’s their best chance at forcing the PN to become a confessional, racist, Muslim-baiting, auto-flagellating cult. This is Edwin Vassallo’s video response to my article about black-clad ideological extremism in the orbit of Adrian Delia. He [...]

There was another one about Jason Azzopardi that was gleefully spread by the tandem of One TV and Simon Mercieca who form a strange Molotov-Ribbentrop alliance. It’s the one about Jason Azzopardi having visited the Hilton Hotel. https://youtu.be/1utY8LMOlTc   That’s before the 17 Black revelations mind you. This completely bonkers tu quoque is supposed to [...]

First, there’s this idea being promoted that PN councillors should not vote in a way that could mean Jason Azzopardi is right. In obvious coordination with One TV they have made Jason Azzopardi a figure of hate. They have lampooned him, slandered him, demonised him and isolated him. The latest effort in this silly personalisation [...]

The Nationalist Party is this weekend having a conversation with its death. Everything dies one day or the next. Famously the knight in Bergman’s Seventh Seal played chess with death to try to delay the inevitable. Will the PN manage to postpone its final hour? It all depends on how this chess game plays out. [...]

Evarist Bartolo’s repeat performance of his Tim Sebastian confession at the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry begs for comment. It begs for sarcasm, mockery, scepticism and more than a little hilarity too. I will just focus on the hypocrisy of it all. Evarist Bartolo says Keith Schembri was too powerful and that wasn’t good for anyone [...]

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More migrants have been dragged out of Malta’s search and rescue area and taken back to detention centres in Libya under inhuman and degrading conditions. Saturday, 72 migrants were picked up in Malta’s area of responsibility at sea by Libyan coast guards and taken back to Tripoli. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees repeated [...]

John Dalli has become a biċċa blogger. I’m not telling you this because I necessarily recommend his blog. He’s there in the background like the odd items on an essential reading or viewing list for collectors, gathering dust on the back of shelves. I never had a copy of Mein Kampf mostly because I have [...]

Manuel Delia · Job Description In June 2017, soon after the general election result was known, Simon Busuttil announced he would resign the PN leadership. It wasn’t what at the time I thought should happen but there’s only one thing worse than having a person occupying that position who would rather be doing anything else. [...]

Simon Mercieca’s Facebook campaigning in support of Adrian Delia takes the form of what he must imagine is some sort of crusade. I choose the word carefully, served up warm on the plate of a historian. Simon Mercieca’s line developed long before Adrian Delia materialised. After the 2013 election, the PN accepted that its social [...]

In anticipation of the Moneyval verdict, Malta is quietly dropping the much-vaunted ‘Blockchain Island’ slogan reversing years of hype led by Joseph Muscat and Silvio Schembri. As parliamentary secretary responsible for the project Silvio Schembri led the charge of exaggerating the development of the industry in Malta. In the midst of the political crisis of [...]

Robert Abela gave many press conferences in May congratulating himself for his “great success” of containing the covid-19 outbreak. He didn’t have to do much himself. He was fortunate to have inherited a health minister who was exceptional in his cabinet for being competent and aware of his responsibilities. And he was fortunate to have [...]

Whether out of complete delusion or because he believes this is a winning strategy, Adrian Delia sings from Joseph Muscat’s hymnbook. Consider this poem in his series of occasional outpourings of sincerity on social media. The claim being made here is that the Nationalist Party and Adrian Delia are indistinguishable, in the way Joseph the [...]

Yesterday this website reported on the publication of the Europe-wide study on media pluralism conducted by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom co-funded by the European Union. The author of the Malta country report is Louiselle Vassallo who sat for this interview with me earlier today. Manuel Delia · Interview Louiselle Vassallo on [...]

Manuel Delia · The Party Members Will Get To Speak ‘The party belongs to its members,’ runs the motto of the Adrian Delia campaigners. They chose him to lead it and any attempt to remove him robs them of their right to choose the boss. That is not the logic of democratic systems but the [...]

Manuel Delia · Too Big To Handle It is not disloyal to say that the crime of killing Daphne Caruana Galizia, the crimes that murder tried to cover up, and the crimes committed to cover that murder up, are beyond the capability of our institutions to address properly. I have been dragged to court for [...]

  Pluralism in Malta’s media was at ‘high risk’ in terms of market plurality and political independence. There’s also a ‘medium risk’ for social inclusiveness and basic protections of media plurality. The findings were reported today in an Europe-wide study on plurality in the media conducted by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom [...]