From my The Sunday Times article today: "Our current economic boom, in all sectors of activity – construction being but one example – is in and of itself a bubble. All of it. And it is fuelled by the speculative and completely misguided notion that the fiscal exceptions we secured in 2004 will still be [...]
Corruption has soured common sense in our community making greed the new national religion. Here is Maurice Mizzi, serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, President of the Mizzi Organisation and, drum roll, Guardian of Future Generations, writing recently in his organisation’s in house magazine: “Malta is on the crest of a wave as evidenced by the new buildings [...]
No one ever said politics was a path to sainthood. If you do things the proper way it is almost certainly a path to poverty or at best a modest existence and though perhaps not obviously aspired to, a life of honest modesty is a good thing. For as long as there are humans involved, [...]
Labour media, Labour trolls, and generic Simon-Busuttil-haters across the political aisle are celebrating as a victory Judge Antonio Mizzi’s decision not to recuse himself from hearing his wife’s boss’s appeal from a lower court decision to investigate allegations of his crimes. That fact alone is both predictable and shocking. It both confirms every single expectation [...]
The Chief Justice did not have to deliver the speech he delivered today. He chose to because he wanted to. As the principal defender of the rule of the law of the land his words are not an ordinary opinion like mine or the next guy’s. If the lead judge thinks the state of affairs [...]
No one suggests it was not tough for Deborah Schembri to get back on her feet when she was not returned to government at the June elections. The fact of the matter is our country drops its public servants like hot metal. In a democracy no politician can expect job security. The people hire and [...]
There has been some debate about whether the Opposition should accept the Government’s invitation to nominate a member on its waste management committee. The arguments for an invitation to the Opposition are quite straightforward and at face value should not be controversial. Waste management is a creeping national crisis that piles up on our waist [...]
The nineteenth century movements in Europe that would eventually call themselves nationalist were disparate and distinctive. Indeed there were as many “nationalisms” as there were nations. The method of elite nationalist movements was replicable, by and large: design a culture, reverse engineer its pedigree and proclaim its rights to self-determination. But the details were never [...]
Matthew Mizzi sent in this detailed response to my earlier post ‘Staying put’, where I expressed disagreement with people leaving the PN because of concerns about direction the new leadership is taking. I argued that without glossing over those concerns, which I share, critics of the new leadership should not forfeit their right as party [...]
The upcoming deputy leadership elections in the PN will be an administrative and financial headache, quite apart from the politics involved. As with the leadership election, the long-winded process will climax with a ballot for the wider membership suffrage. The whole thing does feel a little over the top. Those who have come to terms [...]
When you’re 38,000 votes behind the opposition you cannot afford to be complacent about the votes you lose. I think the entire PN is aware of that simple fact and everyone who wants the best for the PN hurts when they hear of this one or that one leaving. In 2013, Simon Busuttil wanted to [...]
Kevin Cassar, formerly a general election candidate for the PN, is now an ex-PN member. He resigned in a letter to Assistant General Secretary Jean Pierre Debono made public by Cassar on Facebook. The usual wise guys reacted with a smug “Kevin who?” There is a general attitude from the Adrian Delia loyalists in the [...]
Gozitan University students are not managing to find affordable housing even as lectures start again next week. In any major city students are vulnerable to unaffordable rent prices but here in Malta most students live with ma and pa. Gozitans do not have that luxury. Commuting daily is impractical and unreliable. At least on weekdays [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Hours after the election of a leader who railed against The Establishment within the party, the victor becomes The Establishment and writes the official history before it happens. Dissent that was branded liberating in the hands of the rebel is quickly branded treacherous in the hands of [...]
Jean Pierre Debono understandably vented his fury at Malta Today for reporting this morning that he had forged signatures as part of the PN leadership election process. Malta Today was reporting on a redacted leaked report of the electoral commission. The commission reprimanded him but it did not accuse him of, let alone found, he [...]
The Times today reports that Adrian Delia appears no longer to hold out hope any of the by-elected MPs will make way for his co-option. He is therefore now having to turn to MPs elected in their own right to give up their seat and make way for the nail-biting proposition that their elected replacement [...]
Malta Today is reporting that people acting on instructions of the party leader have met MP Ivan Bartolo and in seeking to persuade him to quit his parliamentary seat to allow for Adrian Delia’s co-option, offered Mr Bartolo a salaried consultancy position that would make up for the loss of his parliamentary earnings. Malta Today [...]
It would be reasonable to expect that at tonight’s PN meeting, the new leader announces his path to the office of Leader of the Opposition. Tomorrow is Independence Day and as an official of the state, an occupier of a ranking constitutional title, the Leader of the Opposition participates in the formal ceremonies of the [...]
Judge Antonio Mizzi decided today that Simon Busuttil’s arguments for him, the judge, to recuse himself from hearing the prime minister’s appeal from a lower court’s decision to order an investigation into the Panama scandal is heard in an open court. It was the right decision. The contrary would have been a travesty. It was [...]
Adrian Delia is now leader of the PN. Many expected this for some time. That expectation has peaked excitement and confidence in his supporters some of which leaked in bluster and spittle. His detractors felt dread and a sense of doom. Some of which leaked in bluster and spittle. And now the result is out, [...]