Two years ago today.

Today's Malta in yesterday's nursery rhymes. Sent in by someone known to me. Sing a song of million pence, A pocket full of bribes, Many black “jail” birds Baked in a pie. When the inquiry pie was opened The birds began to sink— Wasn’t that a dainty dish To set before the Kink? The kink [...]

Repubblika launched this morning a campaign to promote a culture of democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law. The campaign will include the publication of books for children and the production of radio and social media content to promote active and responsible citizenship. A national students’ competition will also be held yearly. [...]

I heard a commenter on TV yesterday criticise Donald Trump for being too scared of his supporters to admit to them the simple truth that he had lost the election. He dug up a Winston Churchill quote: “Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers from which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting [...]

I wonder if Ranier Fsadni would have handed in his piece for The Times of today had he already seen the scenes of chaos and open violent rebellion on the US Capitol yesterday. The picture of a thug lounging on the chair of the Speaker of the House of Representatives was the sight of painful [...]

Manuel Delia · Expectations Of TVM I got this letter of complaint in my mailbox today: A desperate call for impartial broadcasting on state-controlled media Hi, I wonder why you keep failing us loyal readers and ordinary citizens with your silence when there’s a continuous scandal unfolding before our eyes - the continuous spin, fake [...]

Something very strange has happened in the background of the compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech, who is accused of killing Daphne Caruana Galizia. In early December, Philip Galea Farrugia, Deputy Attorney General, filed a note in court complaining that Simon Mercieca was repeatedly attacking him, undermining him and assaulting his credibility merely because he [...]

Parliament’s standards committee has “endorsed” a report by Commissioner George Hyzler that found Joseph Muscat “abused of his power as prime minister” when he handed Konrad Mizzi a consultancy job days after Konrad Mizzi resigned as Minister. I’m going to leave that hanging there for a bit. It is not just Karol Aquilina and Carmelo [...]

It should not surprise us that healthy scepticism of authority is now turning into a definitively unhealthy loss of discernment about what sources can and should be trusted. Consider the lonely senior citizens of San Ġwann. They’ve been told for almost a year to stay alone at home until the Mayor, no less, told them [...]

I had hoped never to have to think of that rotten piece of damp and crumbling wood when he was finally kicked out of the leadership of the PN. But Adrian Delia is an admonishment of fate. He’s not going away. Judging by the writing of that Trump-nostalgist, Yorgen Fenech-apologist, anti-vaxxer-promoting Simon Mercieca, Adrian Delia [...]

As the general election looms nearer, hyperbole inflates. Robert Abela yesterday said 2021 would be “one of the best years in Malta’s history”. Best at what? What’s this forecast based on? Is it an economic projection? What is that premised on? Right now, the government should be working flat out to give this country a [...]

Edwerd Scicluna's new officiel twitter accouent. Officiel motto: U ejja, cemon.

Robert Abela's zeal for tax compliance, prejudice ahead of Yorgen Fenech's trial, Repubblika's case at the European Court of Justice, the absence of a national policy against racism, Joseph Muscat and other fugitives from the law, and an incompetent bunch of ministers are all subjects of my piece in The Sunday Times today. Read it [...]

As choked up and teary-eyed Adrian Delia put it yesterday, there are hardly more deserving causes than the Dar tal-Providenza. “The tougher the challenge,” he said, “the more God will provide”. So by his account, it must have been divine intervention that convinced a Tunisian company that has barely landed on the island to hire [...]

The government is falling over itself to raise a memorial to Oliver Friggieri. There's something deeply perverse in that. Oliver Friggieri was not a vociferous critic of the Joseph Muscat/Robert Abela regime. Likely, that is because he had largely withdrawn from public life in his later years. But someone recently handed me this image from [...]

Thank you for following Truth Be Told during 2020, now approaching the fourth year of its existence. This website has this year welcomed over 470,000 first-time visitors. The total visits to this website during this year grew by almost 13% over last year in spite of the fact that 2019 was a bumper year because [...]

Robert Abela admitted yesterday he had spoken to the commissioner for revenue about Bernard Grech’s personal tax record while Bernard Grech was contesting the leadership of the party in opposition. In seeking to justify himself he said it did not matter whether the procedure used was correct or not – that’s a WhatsApp conversation between [...]

The fact that Simon Mercieca has now become a permanent feature of our public discourse is no cause for celebration. The intellectual calibre of political dialogue in this country wasn’t too great, to begin with. When this guy walked in, we all became a little more stupid as a result. And thanks to the protection [...]