Our democracy is in a mess and our institutions are mere ghosts of what they should be. Fixing most institutions will require patient constitutional design. Some of them require that patient design to start in earnest. But no one underestimates the complexity of changes to parliament, to the courts, to the civil service, to [...]
The official story is Chris Cardona has turned down an offer to serve as minister because his economy portfolio has been taken away from him. This is not a million miles away from Neville Gafà “resigning”. Chris Cardona appears to have been kicked out of government and that is unlikely to be because he was [...]
Simon Busuttil has this afternoon been appointed by EPP bigwigs as Secretary General of the European People’s Party. Bully for him. In June 2017 this country chose Joseph Muscat over him as prime minister. That was our loss. By ‘our’ I don’t mean the PN within which I felt entirely comfortable at the time. By [...]
It looks like there isn't going to be the sort of continuity that Neville Gafà fully expected for himself. The Times of Malta are reporting he "resigned" today. It's not likely that was in his plans. Just yesterday he was strutting like a peacock (maybe enough with the avian analogies) at the swearing in [...]
This was sent today by Repubblika to the new prime minister: Photo: REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi Prime Minister, On behalf of Repubblika, I am sending you a copy of the manifesto that was adopted on Saturday 11 January 2020. This manifesto summarises what we are expecting from our Government and from public life in [...]
The government of a country is not the private affair of its officials. No government official should be allowed to conduct any government business on private email accounts, off-site servers or coded messaging services that cannot be centrally decoded and administered by the appropriate government agency. In other words, no government business should be conducted [...]
Keith Arnaud in court today appeared to be the only one in the country not to notice that the United States government, clearly frustrated for being ignored for two years while the country is lied to by our own government saying the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder case had not yet been resolved because the FBI [...]
It is incredible to me how oblivious the police officers testifying in the various cases related to the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia seem to be to their responsibilities and to the consequences of their negligence. Former police commissioners are lining up in front of the inquiry into Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination to explain, in [...]
In the prosecution of a criminal case it is the judge’s job to be impartial between the cops and the robbers. For us out here we’d always want to root for the cops so they put the baddies in jail and keep us safe. I am not even remotely inclined to help Yorgen Fenech or [...]
Right. First full day as prime minister for Robot Abela and he's already having a pitstop at Joseph Muscat's. If you thought this would be a turning of some page, here's how the book is being written.
The new prime minister kept an entire country waiting for almost an hour longer than the announced time for his inaugural “address to the nation”. Before he came on, TVM played a soft-porn rendition of the national anthem intended to remind us, as if anyone needed reminding, that [...]
Neville Gafà is guest of honour at the swearing in ceremony of Robert Abela. It looks like the new prime minister will go out of his way to let everyone know Keith Schembri will remain right where he's been for several years now, firmly above the law. Robert Abela should disabuse himself of the impression [...]
Joseph Muscat’s government broke with convention and had his office and the offices of his ministers employ an estimated 700 people from outside the public services in “positions of trust”. Joseph Muscat did not invent employment contracts at the pleasure of the minister for people from outside the service. I always make it a point [...]
This blog started on the 6 June 2017, a couple of days after Joseph Muscat was confirmed as prime minister. The atmosphere of the time was poisoned and frustrated by the government’s manifest intention to use the election to clean its slate and pretend that all that came to be known before that ballot could [...]
Robert Abela takes office at 3pm this afternoon. He is pleading for sympathy because he’s new to the job and wants to be given time to find his feet. And yet he pledges to be a prime minister of “continuity” meaning he was elected on the promise there would be no hiccups. The contradiction does [...]
These are the concluding remarks at Saturday's Repubblika general meeting by the organisation's president Vicki Ann Cremona. https://youtu.be/-2FOzl6GMJ8
This poignant intervention was delivered by Daphne Caruana Galizia's friend and colleague Andrew Borg Cardona. https://youtu.be/ZEO8ilqjX14
Eve Borg Costanzi gave a contribution on justice reform while Michael Zammit Maempel focused on press freedoms at Saturday's general meeting of Repubblika. Scroll down for the text of the rule of law chapter in Repubblika's new manifesto. https://youtu.be/RbbL0Lno_S0 https://youtu.be/uaz-K4F-EJ0 Equal Justice, Guaranteed Liberties Repubblika would like to contribute to the continuous efforts [...]
Michael Piccinino spoke about social inclusion at Repubblika's general meeting. The social policy chapter from Repubblika's new manifesto is below. https://youtu.be/CyzRXUVhV24 6. An inclusive, just and humane society. Repubblika believes that no society can be healthy until even a single person remains excluded. We believe that we are all responsible for each other and [...]
Joanna Spiteri Staines spoke at the Repubblika General Meeting about environmental policy. The environment chapter from the manifesto is below. https://youtu.be/rPrnDhQ--aY 5. An Environment that is enjoyed by All No one lives in isolation. Whatever we do or otherwise, we will always live within an environment. The difference lies in the quality of the [...]