There wasn't much hope to begin with. The talks between the doctor's union and the government today were unlikely to reach a satisfactory conclusion given how the two side disagree on the direction of the privatisation of hospital management. The government is not likely to budge. There's too much money at stake flowing into pockets [...]

It can be trying to hear people admit the only reason they cannot bring themselves to be angry about the government's corruption is that the explanation on how they do it is too complicated and they're too jaded, too tired, too distracted to understand. More people than ever accept as a given that Joseph Muscat [...]

Guest post by Charles Schembri: Luigi Pirandello’s acclaimed play “Six characters in search of an author” comes to the conclusion that the only pathway for these destitute individuals to find a meaning for their situation is best explored if these characters were themselves to be the authors. And still the dramatist through inference does not [...]

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "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 [...]

I’m going out on something of a limb here. I do see the funny side of the hekk jgħid il-Malti figures around Valletta. Seeing Jason Micallef on the happier side of a glory hole, unveiling everyone’s favourite statue of the bent over androgynous onion-head was hilarious. And the memes were never ending, in a good [...]

Party leaders get to assign areas of responsibility to their parliamentary group. It’s all a dress rehearsal for the exercise of the prime minister’s prerogative that in our rules gives him or her complete hire and fire rules on government ministers while obviously he or she are held by the hire and fire discretion of [...]

The UK government is looking to clamp down on Russian oligarchs using it to launder ill gotten gains. A report on the UK's The Times discussed this with security Minister Ben Wallace in an interview provoked by BBC drama McMafia about sharp-suited Russians laundering millions in the UK. The story follows the money to its [...]

Ronchi dei Legionari is a town the size of Żurrieq on the Italian border with Slovenia. Their press club set up a journalistic prize commemorating Daphne Caruana Galizia. And it has announced that it has been accorded patronage for the prize by the European Parliament. In a statement the Ronchese journalists association said "this is [...]

Watch today's DeutscheWelle feature here. By Barbara Wesel.

Matthew Caruana Galizia reacted a few minutes ago to a video making the rounds on Facebook of an incident that occurred a few days ago when a woman sought to destroy the flowers and candles left on the improvised memorial to his mother: People are sending me a video of an old woman destroying the [...]

Italian police have arrested Benedetto Bacchi known as "Ninì", nicknamed the King of Slot Machines. He was part of the Palermo Cosa Nostra. He was arrested with another 30 suspects the closure of 50 slot machine outlets and the arrest of 4 million euro. Benedetto Bacchi ran an operation of some 700 outlets generating a [...]

The Guardian marks the beginning of a regulatory investigation into the supervision of Pilatus Bank. The European Banking Authority is acting on requests from the European Commission and the European Parliament. Because that's what regulators do when they receive reports of alleged wrong doings in an organisation within their competence. They look into them. They don't [...]

If the government is serious about protecting media freedoms in Malta here is expert advice on how it can be done. Not holding my breath.

I wrote yesterday that Panama-company-owning, oil-procurement-interfering, alleged-hospital-contract-fixing, reported-boat-purchase-commission-making, alleged-power-station-collusion-crook, Minister Konrad Mizzi was walking buddies with Darren Casha who spent a long time away from the country running from creditors. It looks like there's a proper bromance going on here, a mutual admiration society of two. Does Konrad Mizzi think there are no further depths [...]

This government is an embarrassment. David Casa published the response the government sent to the European Parliament for its damning rule of law report. The general sense of the reply was ‘you’re idiots, we’re fine, there’s nothing we can learn about rule of law, bugger off’. If you want the details a link to the [...]

The following is a statement by MEPS from across the political spectrum of the European Parliament denouncing reports in the Cypriot media -- carried with conviction of fact by Labour journalists here -- slandering Maria Efimova who corroborated other eye witness accounts of wrongdoing at Pilatus Bank. Brussels, 02 February 2018 Joint Statement Recently, several reports [...]

Updated 16:00. A copy of the actual decision by Magistrate Joe Mifsud is here. The premises for his conclusion are carefully documented so perhaps there may be alternative analyses of his reasoning. 30_01_2018-3_2018-109986 I’ve known Magistrate Joe Mifsud for many years. He was my first boss when he headed news at Bay Radio. I was 15 [...]

I wish to pay tribute to the young lad who stood in front of the President and spoke to her about what really matters. I have spent the last 4 months lamenting that most protesters for justice and rule of law had wrinkles and white hair, or beards. A copy of his speech is here. [...]

We need to keep a closer eye on the gaming industry in Malta. It's looking ever more ominous. Seven traders were given the sack today by their employer Offsidegaming. In simplistic numeric terms this is smaller than Betsson's recent cull of a 130 employees. But one event may be a fluke. A second one should [...]