The great political dynasties say the Kennedys and the Bushes, are famously careful to arrange marriages to further their political aims. They are the heirs of the numbered kings of old who married daughters and sisters to secure alliances and seal political pacts. The Labour Party's Alex Saliba got married this weekend. My sincere congratulations [...]
For a while, there was a suggestion he might be dead. But then his Swiss lawyer said he's very much alive but in hiding. Stephan Roh told me as much when he offered to obtain answers to my questions to Joseph Mifsud in exchange of an agreement to testify for his character. Of course, I [...]
This is the script of John Sweeney's From Our Own Correspondent feature on the BBC after he participated in Tuesday's March for Truth and Justice. A crowd of seven thousand or so stood in silence in the main street in the capital Valetta, holding their phones up with flashlights on, a very twenty-first-century tribute in [...]
Shown at the Vigil for Truth and Justice on Tuesday. https://www.facebook.com/DavidCasaMEP/videos/624403881290533/
Labour needs to hold its domestic audience together. The stories about Chris Cardona on France 2 from last April are starting to penetrate One TV audiences only now it seems that they have been confirmed again with additional facts by La Repubblica a few days ago. It appears Labour could largely ignore the April reports [...]
Labour wants the world's press to stop being interested in Malta unless it is to sing the praises of Joseph Muscat, but the presence of international NGOs, MEPs and journalists during the past week is important for us. I’ll explain this in simple terms for the trolls and the tyrants to have no difficulty understanding. [...]
The International Press Institute, PEN International, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom and the European Federation of Journalists have today formally reiterated their call for a public inquiry into whether Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination could have been prevented. They have also called upon the government [...]
So we went to the police station this morning to accuse the Cleansing Department of stealing the protest memorial: the banner, the flowers and the candles, including the wreath left by the Leader of the Opposition. The wreath did not have the identity of the Leader of the Opposition still stuck on it but I [...]
Read today’s The Malta Independent leader. It can be assumed to be a direct line to the thinking of PN Headquarters. Every newspaper has a right to choose its editorial line and it is no better or worse for choosing to disagree with others. Of course, though it complained about remarks made about a story [...]
This short featured on TG24 of Rai in the last couple of days. It is by Ilario Piagnerelli. https://youtu.be/ryarR_fYnbU
By Mark Sultana, BirdLife Malta CEO Malta is an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Its strategic position was always appreciated by war strategists, economists, peacemakers, traders, and the likes since the link between Europe and Africa was crucial for their missions. This train of thought works the same with nature and more [...]
Our democratic government has again censored the protest memorial in Valletta. The assurances given by the Prime Minister to international press freedom NGOs that the matter would be reconsidered had the longevity of the Munich Agreement and the sincerity of the Prime Minister as that of the proponent of that deal. They waited until journalists [...]
The current story about the testing of MPs for drug use is seriously unpleasant. I don’t think any of the politicians involved are handling this well. The public already has much reason to mistrust politicians and if the crisis of confidence in the political class continues getting worse the route to populism and democratic failure [...]
Robert Mugabe used to be the darling of the West. His fight for majority rule in Rhodesia was respected because it was just. And his government was mostly sensible at first. He was used to being portrayed well in the international press as the Good African President. Then corruption, tyranny, greed and violence set in [...]
Public transport users have fond memories of me. Many people would be on a bus and spontaneously think of me and my old association with buses. But if they think of reading my blog on a bus, they're not allowed to do so on the Malta Public Transport wifi network. You can though visit glennbedingfield.com [...]
Civil society is rising. Tuesday's turnout was a response to the indifference and mockery from the political class of people acting in defence of what is right and out of love of country. The people marching on Tuesday were not responding a call to support this political party or that one. They were not cheering [...]
Many speeches were delivered at several events organised on 16th October on the anniversary of Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination. No one quite beats the Old Testament and the third chapter from Ecclesiastes 3. But this speech by Socialist MEP Ana Gomes at a conference hosted in the morning by MEP David Casa is a distant [...]
This story on The Guardian explains how Christian Kaelin of Henley and Partners brokered financing of political parties in the Caribbean that would give him exclusive contracts to sell their passports. He would work with SCL (that would eventually found Cambridge Analytica) and though he denies actually paying the political parties’ bills himself he [...]
Read this report of an investigation by Cecilia Anesi, Lorenzo Bagnoli, and Giulio Rubino that have been looking at the crimes in the wild open ocean that surrounds us. In that harbour, those tired, creaky vessels; those bored crews hanging their laundry on deck; are resting in a pirate's bay waiting for their next gig out [...]
