I wrote earlier how Robert Abela does not volunteer for the rack to assure us he’s telling us the whole truth. Political leaders who want to persuade us of their sincerity will sit with journalists who will look like they’re challenging them and giving them a hard time. The gamble does not always pay off [...]
There’s a public open space in Qala in Gozo rather dramatically named ‘The Garden of Life’. It was a project of a PN-led council completed about 9 years ago and inaugurated by those annoying Nationalists. Here’s a souvenir photo from the launch at the time. Soon after, Qala switched to Labour and elected Clint Camilleri [...]
Robert Abela’s faith in Joseph Muscat is misplaced. Joseph Muscat got economically lucky in the way Robert Abela was unlucky. The economic success of the 7 years of plenty that ended last February happened in spite of Joseph Muscat, not because of him. The heir to Malta’s integration with Europe and the reinvention of our [...]
This post will not argue that we should stay indoors for longer. Nor will it argue that restaurants should open by this weekend. I will not say that lockdown was excessive caution. Nor will I say that it should be kept up. I will say that we should be relying on our authorities to give [...]
Joseph Cuschieri has been “recalled” from Rome or so the unofficial parlance goes. Pardon me for being pedantic but one cannot be recalled from an embassy unless one has already been accredited to it. A country can nominate its ambassador in another country’s capital. But it is for the receiving country to accept them. This [...]
Those were the grounds the Malta Financial Services Authority cited yesterday when it banned Christian Ellul and Karl Schranz from working as directors or providers of any services regulated by the MFSA. Christian Ellul is the ex-husband of the daughter of Marian Kocner, the Slovak business tycoon who has been charged with ordering the murder [...]
The Council of Europe has extended the term of Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt to continue to monitor Malta's progress on complying with the human rights watchdog's shopping list of actions after Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed. Pieter Omtzigt, known in his own country as the 'hound dog' for his assiduous insistence on transparency and good [...]
A third Captain Morgan ship, the Atlantis, has sailed out beyond Malta's territorial waters and has been alongside her sister ship Baħħari sometimes known as Bahari) since last night. The Atlantis joins the Europa II that was dispatched out to sea on April 30 and the Bahari that sailed out on May 7. Atlantis [...]
There are plenty of pictures around of Robert Abela not social distancing. I lamented on the topic in this post here. Look at these three images snapped within minutes of each other of Ian Castaldi Paris celebrating his elevation to Parliament. I do not know the order in which they were taken. Shuffle the order [...]
Every minister wants to be remembered for having made a difference. In most sectors however ministers appreciate there are limits to their revolutions. Consider the health sector for example. Ministers will want to be remembered for extending national coverage say, or opening a new hospital wing. They will fight for the funding, hound the administrators, [...]
The government was surprised by the world’s reaction to Charles Mercieca quitting the attorney general’s office and showing up the next day on Yorgen Fenech’s defence team. They were surprised because they’re stupid. They should know exactly what reaction to expect when yet another mess crops up. But they keep hoping that the world loses [...]
The Council of Europe’s platform for media freedom NGOs have listed the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia as a case of impunity as justice continues to be delayed two and half years after her killing. Cases of impunity “highlight deficiencies in investigations, including the failure to identify the perpetrators, sponsors, organisers or masterminds of these [...]
The Council of Europe’s rapporteur following up the government’s actions after the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia had hard words for Attorney General Peter Grech in a letter sent today. Pieter Omtzigt was reacting to the defection of lawyer Charles Mercieca who switched overnight from the prosecutor’s office to Yorgen Fenech’s defence team. Pieter Omtzigt [...]
The trial judge in the case against the alleged assassins hired to kill Daphne Caruana Galizia remarked that “it is evident that the criminal network involved (in the journalist’s murder) has not been completely restrained and there are still people involved in commissioning the crime that have not yet been called to give account of [...]
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Robert Abela, published today, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights urges the Maltese government to fully meet its human rights obligations towards migrants, including asylum seekers and refugees, who cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic, in an apparent reference to the government’s remarks [...]
A statement by Repubblika We, Repubblika, consider that certain decisions and actions of the Maltese government during these last weeks amount to real and present threats and, in some cases, a veritable outrage of fundamental human rights. It is our considered opinion that the right to life, the right to live free from torture, the [...]
‘Serene’ was the de rigueur buzzword that would be deployed every time some PR catastrophe would torpedo Joseph Muscat’s forced projection of infallibility. Famously, Michelle Muscat was ‘serene’ with the allegation that a million-dollar bung owed to her husband by the tyrant of Azerbaijan was paid into an account in her name. Chris Cardona expressed [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "I will not buy the excuse that Robert Abela is new and inexperienced. He sat in cabinet for years as his predecessor’s guest. And his ministerial team is composed of veterans of seven years of public administration. And he’s not running a band club. He has a [...]
