It’s not that we can call anyone who doesn’t like us a mafioso. It’s not a general term that can fit any hostile circumstance. If it is used like that, we’d dilute the meaning. We’d end up crying wolf once too often. That big poster outside Christian Borg’s second-hand car sales showroom with a photo-montage [...]
So now, rubbish bags carry the national emblem. This truly is a country with a strange sense of decorum. Understand that at law the use of the national emblem requires the written consent of the prime minister. “It shall not be lawful for any person to use for any purpose whatsoever, without the written authority [...]
Imagine for a moment that Rosianne Cutajar had been a PN, not Labour, politician. It’s not that hard. The PN has had its share of flamboyant characters caught with their hand in the till. Like her they ended up isolated from their party though unlike her it didn’t take so long, and it hadn’t gone [...]
What a strange decision the debut oeuvre of the new Commissioner for Standards in Public Life was. Arnold Cassola, he the indefatigable conscience of our shady public affairs, complained that Clayton Bartolo ignored a request put to him in a Parliamentary question to provide details of the employment terms of a public official. The official [...]
A public call is out to turn Evans Building in Valletta into a hotel. It’s a fine location for a hotel right next to the conference facilities (bereft of bedrooms) at the old knights’ hospital next door. Location doesn’t get more prime than that. The entity the government is using to administer the concession process [...]
Repubblika had argued to the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry that to fight the sort of organised crime which has infiltrated the Maltese state, the Maltese state needed a law that could combat racketeering on the model of the US RICO law or the Italian 416 bis. The inquiry agreed and adopted the suggestion as [...]
Montage: Lovin Malta ‘What changed?’ she asked rhetorically as she hurled herself on the pyre. Rosianne Cutajar pretended to believe the bullshit of Robert Abela when he presented her as a fully legitimate candidate for the 2022 general elections. At the time Robert Abela had said Rosianne Cutajar had expiated her sins, exposed [...]
For decades, under Alfred Sant and Joseph Muscat, semi-literate and easily articulate in a soap box loony venom-spreading sort of way, Manwel Cuschieri had a slot on the Labour Party’s radio station spewing hate against the “enemies of the people”. After Goebbels and before Trumpian propagandists, there was our very own Manwel Cuschieri. Along with [...]
“Thirty years ago, there were politicians people looked up to. Nowadays, we struggle to look at them in that way,” the outgoing Chamber of Commerce president told Times of Malta. I doubt anyone (except perhaps Rosianne Cutajar) would disagree with her. The statement should be put in some context. Let’s not go home with the [...]
After a series of court cases, we’ve been reminded how in the 1970s the Labour government stole private properties officially intended for a “public purpose” such as social housing only to hand over those properties to the Labour Party. At first the properties were used as political clubs. Now they’re bars and restaurants that profit [...]
Image: The Malta Independent Joseph Cuschieri’s response to the long-delayed publication of an internal report that found what we’ve known since his trip to Las Vegas at Yorgen Fenech’s expense was discovered was not simply that he had done no wrong. His response was that he didn’t think he had done wrong and [...]
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Young and old, Maltese and Gozitans, partisans and neutrals, Nationalists or Labourites, all do not trust the police to act in a case that may embarrass, or bring about criminal consequences, in Joseph Muscat. For 9 years Joseph Muscat told us to trust the police force while he hired and fired a series of police [...]
It is not just a feeling. Polling consistently shows that one of two realities that have been nearly immutable since 2008 has now changed. The reality that remains in place is that if an election were held tomorrow Labour would win with a handsome majority. There were times when its advantage over the PN was [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "I bet the reference to masturbation in the headline attracted your attention perhaps more than if yet another one of my articles was headlined with another variation on the theme of corruption. That’s how the criminals want it. They’d rather you think of them bent double in a [...]
How swiftly do the slumbering police officers and prosecutors who sleep through evidence an MP took dirty money to cover up for a criminal, wake up to chase a writer who drew conclusions from that evidence? We’ll be told we’re inconsistent for complaining that the institutions are chasing Mark Camilleri with the full force of [...]
