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The Fabulists is a new book by Financial Times journalist Michael Peel. It is subtitled "The World's New Rulers, Their Myths & the Struggle Against Them". The book is a great read but I mention it to you here because of its chapter on so-called "European values". "The EU's internal divisions over how its members [...]

Sent in by someone known to me: In the past few days the saga of the UK Parliament’s prorogation has been playing out before the Supreme Court and there have been interesting arguments made on the nature and the structure of the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy which also served as the basis of the [...]

Look, Alex Agius Saliba's accent of the English language is far from the worst in the European Parliament. And it's thankfully been a long time since there's been only one appropriate way of pronouncing the lingua franca of the world. But surely, since he can, Alex Agius Saliba might do well do consider [...]

Vengeance is not an acceptable principle for laws of our time. The pursuit of justice seeks restitution not retribution. Now, specifically regarding posthumous libel laws. They exist to allow people to protect their reputation if they have any to lose. But in libel as in any other law that we would consider acceptable for our [...]

Joe Brincat has publicly mocked campaigners that have lamented the breakdown of the rule of law. He intervened in a constitutional case I brought ridiculing my argument that freedom of expression and the right to protest was a more important consideration than Owen Bonnici’s zealotry and his keenness to ensure flowers at the Great Siege [...]

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I had the pleasure today to speak at the yearly peace summit called by the Community of Sant'Egidio, that is meeting this year in Madrid and discussing "Peace With No Borders". I spoke today in a session focusing on "Media and Social Media vis-a-vis the Conflicts". Twenty-three months ago today Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a [...]

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Consider some of Michael Farrugia’s decisions. He retains Lawrence Cutajar as police chief in spite of the fact that the Inter fan who has diagnosed Joseph Muscat as having metal testicles is clearly clueless. "He also retains Silvio Valletta as lead sleuth in spite of court orders [...]

Filed by someone known to me. That the EU has nominated Helena Dalli as EU commissioner for equality is testament to the EU’s naiveté of zooming in on one tiny feature in the larger unfavourable picture. Malta’s Labour Party’s governance is all about discrimination and double standards. While the government welcomes wealthy foreigners of dubious [...]

The Moneyval report is out. Read a summary here. There are some choice quotes in there that will allow the government to spin this and give itself some comfort pills. It says our laws are great for example. Which of course is easy because we lift them off European laws and put them on our [...]

I am very proud that Caroline Muscat is in the list of nominees for tonight’s award for independence in journalism at the Reporters Without Borders’ annual awards event in Berlin. It’s a vicarious pride, the sort I would feel when a Maltese athlete wins a medal in a tournament or -- all right I confess [...]

Someone had to go and get me the 'making of' video of Ian Castaldi Paris's "interview" with The Sunday Circle. Some questions Ian Castaldi Paris could have been asked. Can you give us the addresses where the Saudi oil sheikhs you gave passports too are living? What action did you take about the consultants who [...]

Remember the woman to the left of the moderately hirsute specimen in the middle ? She once met another woman and we wondered what they spoke about. Maybe 'who does your makeup?' Here's a series of recent pictures of both ladies. This may get me into trouble.

That's how Euronews described Frans Timmermans' explanation of the European Commission's plans on a new rule of law mechanism. He was speaking at the European Parliament and he reminded his audience that just because it's legal, doesn't mean it's right. Discrimination against the Jews in Nazi Germany was based on laws. It was indeed an [...]

The good news is the last passengers stranded on the Alan Kurdi are being allowed to come ashore. They will be relocated "immediately", the Maltese government said, though that could mean several months locked up in a hot and wet cage ostensibly for medical tests while the immediate takes its time to materialise. The way [...]

With some relief, we learn Helena Dalli will not be made Commissioner for Justice. She is being proposed instead as Commissioner for Equality. As Politico put it this morning, she’ll “hopefully be less trouble than the last person called Dalli to be a commissioner”.