Read this story on Times of Malta about South Asian bikers delivering your Bolt/Wolt food orders. They are overworked and underpaid. They don’t have enough time to rest. They’re made to pay for their employer’s business costs. If they want to keep up their income they must work even if they’re sick. The job is [...]
Bernard Grech’s most trusted adviser, Ray Bezzina, moved to the dB group to work for the construction magnate. If I’m honest the actual job move didn’t shock me. This country is pathologically (and mistakenly) averse to career political operatives and has a keen appetite for chopping heads. Ray Bezzina had no realistic hope of keeping [...]
Someone asked me yesterday if I had read the interview Bernard Grech gave Times of Malta before writing my article published on the same edition of the newspaper. I hadn’t. But if my piece sounded like a reaction to the PN leader’s interview it’s only because immediately the general election result was out, Bernard Grech [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "The 2022 election result was a punch that hit the bruising still glowering from five years earlier. Once you face up to the fact that not even the killing of a journalist, the world’s condemnation, greylisting by international agencies, the ruling of three judges and the chaos [...]
You may have seen reports of Bishop Joseph Galea Curmi's homily at a mass held a few days ago in memory of Daphne Caruana Galizia. I think it's truly worth reading. Here's an English translation if that's easier for you to read. We have just commemorated the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. Pope Benedict [...]
The EU prosecutor briefed MEPs today about Member States’ ability and willingness to punish fraud and corruption using EU money. She has reasons to be frustrated. Denmark is not obliged to comply with the rules. A few countries have not signed up to allow the EU prosecutor to investigate their affairs. One of those countries, [...]
If we have animal welfare laws, it’s because we have decided to grant animals rights. They have a right to welfare. If they are going to be eaten, we are to kill them “humanely”, that is without unnecessary cruelty. If they are going to be held captive as pets, we are to feed them and [...]
There’s a quote on Lovin Malta of a Labour politician branding PN MP Eve Borg Bonello “the new Jason Azzopardi”. Apparently in the few days since Borg Bonello made it to Parliament, Borg Bonello has referred to Joseph Muscat as a “criminal” and she recalled that Cyrus Engerer has been convicted of revenge porn. For [...]
Photo: Reuters The sinking of a Turkish-owned oil tanker off the coast of Tunisia four days ago is attracting mounting speculation that the incident may be covering something far more sinister than a disaster caused by bad weather. Initial reports of the sinking four days ago said that the xhip Xelo, that was [...]
That’s another Westminster inheritance of dubious merit. “Shadow” cabinet and shadow ministers have a spectral elusiveness about them. They’re an ethereal version, a ghostly mirror-universe equivalent of the real cabinet and the real ministers. Of course, it’s not meant that way. It’s meant to mean that they’re a cabinet-in-waiting, an obvious reserve team ready to [...]
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Robert Abela told journalists he saw no need for change in the Speaker’s office and will be retaining Anġlu Farrugia for a record third term. Here are a few things that are wrong with that statement, leaving aside for a moment the fact that Anġlu Farrugia’s first two terms have demonstrated a propensity to provoke [...]
Aaron Farrugia’s first steps as infrastructure minister are attracting close scrutiny as he adapts to the big chair occuppied for the last five years by his predecessor in the infrastructure ministry, Ian Borg. Aaron Farrugia’s very first engagement since his surprise promotion to the “super ministry” last week was a visit to the offices of [...]
Evarist Bartolo has started campaigning for the presidency to replace George Vella when that other Labour Party veteran retires for good. He hasn’t said so, not least because he only really needs to convince the prime minister and the leader of opposition of his suitability for the post. Whatever he plans to do in private [...]
From my article in yesterday's The Sunday Times: "How would we feel if Orban decided to grant Hungarian citizenship to indicted Russian war criminals and they showed up at our airport, sashaying through the Schengen corridor with a Diner’s Club Card and a lease agreement for some waterfront property? "By Malta’s interpretation of the exclusive [...]
