Comments made to the press this morning by MEP Roberta Metsola, after asking some tough questions of prime minister Robert Abela in Brussels, suggest that Joseph Muscat flew to Dubai last December to sign up on some sort of retainer with the Dubai emirate or one of its senior agencies. When asked if he knew [...]
Andy Ellul's article in today's Times of Malta is positively bonkers. It is so utterly mad, Robert Musumeci could have written it. If he dares snub me because I'm not a lawyer and therefore unqualified for disagreeing with him he should consider his own audacity in trying to lecture the dean of the faculty of [...]
Robert Abela is hoping this morning that his u-turns over Konrad Mizzi’s promotion, pay-rise and prestigious diplomatic assignment will diffuse the anger he caused yesterday. They can’t. There can’t be anything more hollow than his statement in the wee hours of this morning that he’s so committed to good governance that he’s taking action over [...]
The Times of Malta followed up the story out of Parliament that Konrad Mizzi was being named as head of Malta's delegation to the OSCE, with another bigger story. No sooner he resigned in disgrace from the Tourism Ministry last November than two weeks later he was appointed by the government agency that reported to [...]
Konrad Mizzi heading a parliamentary delegation to the OSCE to speak about media freedom and human rights is not funny. Robert Abela thinks he’s looking smart. He thinks he’s easing in an anal plug the wrong way round. He thinks he’s done enough to suck the wind out of everyone else’s sails, he’s done enough [...]
There aren’t many people who can say anything good about Anthony Degiovanni. The Times called him a “Labour stalwart” which, I suppose, is something. Though it helps to be obtuse, off-putting, illogical, self-referential, toxic, deluded, monolithic, repetitive, bombastic, tiresome and irrelevant, these are not official requirements for that title. They are however requirements for professional [...]
Look again at yesterday’s Sunday Times headline about Robert Abela “cleaning up” the prime minister’s office after taking it over from Joseph Muscat’s smut: “Most OPM officials linked to Keith Schembri told to leave”. Hold on one bleeding minute there. Keith Schembri was himself a staffer. Sure he may have had a driver assigned to [...]
I think it’s wrong to let comments made by Sandro Chetcuti of the developers’ association a few days ago go past without remark. He was receiving Robert Abela in a formal setting when he said his developers’ association supports civil society’s campaign to ban private funding of political parties. Civil society is almost always on [...]
Robert Abela’s office is making a big song and dance about a “clean up” in the government ranks. In a story in yesterday The Sunday Times they made a claim about removing an unquantified and unspecified number of former OPM staffers representing this as some sort of cull. Of course, this is a load of [...]
Gaetano Farruggio (right) Gaetano Farruggio, ex Ħamrun Spartans coach, has been handpicked by MFA President Bjorn Vassallo to work as “sports director” of the new Maltese club “Malta SA” that will be competing from next year in the Italian third division. The news was given by Gaetano Farruggio himself in an interview with [...]
If you haven't yet, watch this short shown on Al Jazeera's 'The Listening Post' which is their regular program on worldwide journalism. There's an interesting interview with Xarabank's Mark Laurence Zammit who speaks with remarkable candour about the realisation that many of us were too small to realise just how big the corruption was and [...]
I let some time pass before I commented on Robert Abela’s appearance on TVM with his family. The first reason was to avoid even the impression this was some “attack moqżież u faħxi fuq it-tifla tal-prim ministru”. This is not what this post is about at all. Why do politicians present themselves in photos and [...]
We have converted a reality into a dream, reversed the realisation of our ambitions, stepped further from our own home. We allowed the golden calf of money to distract us from the truth we used to long for until we forgot to care anymore. The Economist Intelligence Unit no longer thinks we are a democracy [...]
State-funded dinosaur Mario Azzopardi is calling for street protests to reverse Justyne Caruana’s resignation. He’s angry because his idols fell like flies. He remembers a time when he could call protesters bitches and whores. He remembers a time when the heroes of the mythology in his head were immortal and unbeatable. He remembers a time [...]
The independent inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia is proving to be a very important public service. Daphne’s sons were accused of all sorts of things as the government sought reasons not to have the inquiry. The more time passes the more we can see why. As Daphne did through her journalism, the [...]
Look at this tweet by minister Byron Camilleri. It is the same logic on the back of which Chris Fearne, in the run-up to Labour’s leadership election, said the PN was only really interested in abolishing partisan TV stations because it can’t afford its own. That may very well be the case but it’s all [...]
By someone known to me. One consequence of climate change is the melting of ice that might have been frozen for countless years. This inevitably uncovers many things that had lain there undisturbed, shielded by the protecting ice, amongst which there are many skeletons. The dimensions of such revelations are much larger than that of [...]
The Nationalist Party has started a recruitment drive for young people to sign up for a life in politics. It’s going to be a tough sell. And it really shouldn’t be. I don’t mean to suggest with what I’m about to say that it would not be desirable for us voters to have multiple political [...]
In a normal country where we would have assumed the prime minister of the land would be committed to half-way decent governance, Silvio Valletta’s statement in his own defence today would be the last nail in his wife’s political coffin. Justyne Caruana should not last the day as government minister. We now know that in [...]
The Bank of Valletta did not take criticism very well. It took an indignant view of anyone interpreting its position as problematic and replied angrily to any warning that emerging signs put its future in doubt. Its new CEO gave an interview to Times of Malta’s Jacob Borg and departed from his predecessor’s fudging. He [...]