From my article in The Sunday Times today: Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi/ Reuters "The issue here is not that this is even being considered. It’s that there is no space in which to talk about it. The government designs its path to the future that suits it and everyone else finds themselves fearing [...]
The Nationalist Party has not responded to a two-month-old request from the President to nominate participants in a consultation on constitutional reform. Well informed sources told this website that this outstanding matter has not yet been discussed in the senior organs of the party: the executive committee or the parliamentary group. The government is intent [...]
A reader sent me this extract from the introduction of a book I had read several years ago. By sharing this quotation I do not endorse the author. His book is an apology and glosses over facts painting the black one white. And as the reader himself told me, the reference to the Nazis is [...]
The point is often made that the ‘attacks’ on Adrian Delia have the consequence of weakening the opposition’s ability to stand in the way of Joseph Muscat. There’s something to be said for that argument. After all, it is clear that Joseph Muscat is getting away with a lot. Let’s just throw a few things [...]
The protest for truth and justice in Great Siege Square has not yet achieved what it set out for. But it has had an unintended bonus. We’re going to get a new Great Siege Square. Well, at least new paving, new lights and perhaps a fountain, a mediaeval clock tower, space for ponies for kiddie [...]
Between February 2013 and June 2014 Maria Efimova worked in a Russian-owned perfumery in Cyprus. On 28 November 2017 the Cyprus police authorities issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Efimova on allegations made by her former employer she had done something wrong while in his employment four years earlier. During those four years, [...]
This is my article in this month's Money Magazine. There’s a saying in Maltese which like all the interesting ones is for the ears of adults only. It is perhaps a reflection of the local psyche that the Maltese word for cheating is also the word for having sexual intercourse. Loosely translated the saying goes that [...]
Patrick Dalli is Helena Dalli’s husband. He is a businessman in his own right. And, apparently he’s also an artist. As I never tire of reminding everyone I am no art critic so I would not be able to appraise his work even if I had ever seen it. I have never seen it. Times [...]
They’re busy being amused by Matteo Salvini’s picture of his oblivion as his girlfriend plotted the end of their relationship. I argued last week that Adrian Delia’s separation is a matter of public interest. I shouldn’t have had to, but a bunch of ‘holier than thou’ — to coin a phrase — marched out to [...]
A week ago the court “expressed dismay” at Evarist Bartolo’s handling of corruption in his Ministry. He covered it up, ignoring information that was presented to him. Instead, he stood by as the police persecuted the whistleblower, now acquitted at last. Evarist Bartolo’s name is now being mentioned as a possible nominee for the presidency, [...]
Over a hundred individuals have signed an online petition demanding immediate government intervention at Satabank to ensure that people who have broken no laws are no longer penalised by having their bank accounts frozen. The freeze on everyone’s accounts at Satabank has now been going on for 16 days with some individuals saying they are [...]
Twenty-five years ago, Alternattiva Demokratika used to publish a bi-weekly newspaper that ran a story about a Member of Parliament who dodged taxes on money he stashed in the UK. The guy was called Lino Gauci Borda and the gossip at the time — this never made it anywhere near print of course — was [...]
Herman Schiavone in a Facebook post denies a Malta Today story that he, Schiavone, was “mulling dignified exit” for Adrian Delia. He branded Malta Today’s report as “deceiving” and that “Adrian Delia is not resigning and is becoming stronger day by day”. Herman Schiavone will have to deny this post as well then. In a [...]
The Observer columnist Nick Cohen wrote this piece on The Guardian about how Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, isolationism and American exceptionalism is giving license to tyrants of the world to go down roads the civilised world of 1945-2016 would have stopped them from pursuing. Brazil, Turkey, Slovakia and — you’ve guessed it — Malta makes the [...]
The editor of The Sunday Times today noticed it as others have. When on Wednesday I published the story that Nickie Vella de Fremeaux asked her husband Adrian Delia for a separation, a floodgate of abuse came on. There should have been no question on the public interest of the story as The Sunday Times points [...]
Every four days, a journalist is murdered, often because he or she denounced corruption, trafficking, political wrongdoing or human rights abuses. Those responsible for these killings are almost never brought to justice. This website is proud to be part of the UNESCO's campaign #TruthNeverDies on the occasion of the International Day to End Impunity for [...]
I'm not going to copy here the incredible statements I am getting online or in my private mailbox. Nor will I dwell on the fact that I now understand where the myths of Daphne Caruana Galizia's "hate blogging" and "wishes cancer on children" come from. Apparently, I'm cut from the same cloth though certainly not [...]
I am not surprised at the reaction out there to the story I published this morning about Nickie Vella de Fremeaux asking her husband Adrian Delia for a separation. The reaction is exactly what I expected it to be and it's not a joy ride I can tell you. There are people who for genuine [...]
There are two important stories in today’s Times of Malta that need attention and need some connecting as I see it. On page 4 of the print edition, there’s Ivan Camilleri’s court report of Magistrate Ian Farrugia criticising Minister Evarist Bartolo for sitting on information of corruption of a member of his staff. It’s the [...]
