This is my article published in yesterday's The Sunday Times. I handed this in before the Friday deadline. Of course, the people's interest, and mine was elsewhere by Saturday when we were told by the government it was getting ready to tell us what it wanted us to know about Egrant and so on. But [...]
"'If someone tried to shut her up, if someone tried to stop her, she'd just fight back even harder,' (Daphne Caruana Galizia's) son says. 'That was her spirit.'" That's from a feature on NPR broadcast this weekend. Here's a link to the broadcast (and a transcript) on the Michigan State University's broadcast service website.
All those trolls writing for Adrian Delia over the last months warning critics they are bringing about a split of the party are seeing their prophecies fulfilled but not quite the way they expected them. It had to be Adrian Delia to do it after all. He has brought the divisions of the party to [...]
Premature ejaculation appears to be a common affliction among politicians. Adrian Delia’s o-face was all over TV. For a few minutes. Follow the logic: One: The report has not been published in full, and the PN wants it published in full so we can determine the truth. Two: Simon Busuttil must resign. I asked him [...]
In a completely controlled setting Joseph Muscat delivered an extraordinary performance this morning. His MPs looked like zombies. They were either nursing a collective hangover after a big late bash last night, or they didn't believe him. But he looked his best. The prime minister delivered a speech he has been rehearsing for 15 months, [...]
I wrote this last February. “Confined as he is by constitutional and legal limitations, Magistrate Bugeja is also marked by a stark warning from Muscat, who on television, in an evening that will be remembered as the kristallnacht of this regime, warned him of unspecified consequences should his findings not be to his liking. After [...]
“The Prime Minister cheated everyone into thinking he was being transparent when he appointed an inquiry into the allegation he received bribes into a bank account of a secret company set up in Panama in his wife’s name. But the inquiry’s remit is extremely carefully defined and its conclusion will necessarily be limited by the [...]
After a 15 month wait, we heard this morning Magistrate Aaron Bugeja passed on his inquiry report on Egrant to the Attorney General. I got a tipoff around 9 am and the source was neither the Attorney General’s office nor, of course, the Magistrate’s. At Labour HQ they were already patting each other on the [...]
When Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri realised they were caught red handed setting up a company in Panama they did not regret setting up structures to hide their bribes. They regretted having been caught. Of all the servers in all the legal offices in all the countries in the world, Mossack Fonseca’s in downtown Panama City [...]
Watch Edward Scicluna melt in front of the microphones of the press and a glorified microphone-stand working for the Labour Party. There’s a complete and utter absence of any form of logic in his response. First, the questions put to him did not accuse the FIAU but the police for failure to act on FIAU [...]
I have been following you for a couple of months now. Since the tragic demise of Daphne Caruana Galizia, I struggled to find a newspaper or blog that transpired the real situation in Malta. I read her blog once and since then followed her avidly. She was the only light that in a very dark [...]
This is my article published in this month's Money magazine. The resident ghosts Not much information is provided by the government on the sale of citizenship. But in an interview with an industry magazine recently they did say sales are on the increase and now they’re handling an average of 20 applications a week. [...]
In the world of Donald Trump, of Brexit and of neo-fascists in Italy and populists all over Europe, here's something to make you feel a bit better.
Henley & Partners expansion strategy appears to focus on satellite countries in Russia’s orbit. Its recent entry into Moldova follows quickly on Henley’s expansion of its portfolio to include Kazakhstan. Marco Gantenbein from Henley with Chiril Gaburici Moldovan Economy Minister Selling Moldovan and Kazakh passports may not be the intuitive choice for passport [...]
When Labour came to power in 2013, they put the civil service to the guillotine putting all but two of its top managers out to pasture. The top civil servant and almost all ‘permanent’ secretaries were removed in one of the first government initiatives that would demonstrate the utter contempt this government would show to [...]
Edward Scicluna is fighting for his political skin. His article in today’s Times of Malta is an attempt at survival by resorting to some classic right-wing Labour rhetoric of ‘my country right or wrong’. It took him some time to say it because of the residual embarrassment that comes with education and the majority of [...]
There has been some discussion on the comments boards of this blog about the nature of fascism and whether the unpleasantness around us fits that description. There are no goose-stepping armies and Poland is not likely to be partitioned soon. That much is certain so you may want to find other names for what is [...]
Let’s be clear about this. The government’s action to remove protest banners moments after they are put up on the basis of planning or environmental laws it habitually ignores in all other cases is the illegal abuse of basic civil rights. Yesterday an angry and annoyed man was filmed going down Saqqaja Road removing small [...]
MFSP, the investment management company that handled large deposits from Keith Schembri without checking where he got the money from appears to be managing the risk it may be forced to close down. It has already been punished significantly by the anti-money laundering agency, the FIAU, who has imposed fines on MFSP though, interestingly, not [...]
