Someone caught Ian Borg throw in a swear word on TV. The video made the rounds. I wasn’t shocked and I was not going to pretend I was. It’s a bit uncouth perhaps but it happens. God knows it happens to me, though a little bit of self-awareness normally means you can avoid swearing mid-sentence [...]
Reporters could hear the loud sigh of relief from the Labour Party when its renegade candidate Charles Azzopardi was eliminated in the counting of votes inherited from the recently transferred Edward Scicluna. Charles Azzopardi has since the election switched to the PN which would have meant Labour would lose another of its seats in Parliament, [...]
Manuel Delia · What's Showing On The Back Of The Cave Political parties are defending their right to own and operate TV stations on grounds of freedom of speech. The argument is compelling. In theory political parties are a manifestation of everyone’s right to associate in an organisation of like-minded people and the right of [...]
Last weekend I watched a spot of television. The first thing was ‘Treasure in Malta’, on YouTube, a 1962 film part-financed by the Malta tourist board, intended to promote Malta as a tourism destination. And it was, apparently, successful. Despite the appalling script and acting. It’s worth a view, if only to see Spinola Bay [...]
Hundreds of billboards placed a every strategic corner throughout Malta were important features of the multi-million 2013 Partit Laburista election campaign. Labour had money, lots of money. Anġlu Farrugia, today’s Speaker, spoke about big contractors and businessmen at the infamous 4th floor at the glass castle of Ħamrun. To give credibility to the messages, Labour [...]
There's an assumption that Kenneth Grech's advice to Frank Fabri from the education ministry to postpone the reopening of schools after the Christmas break was based exclusively on his - Kenneth Grech's - professional opinion. The assumption comes out of two facts. The first is that Kenneth Grech alone has been kicked out of the [...]
I can understand why keen PN supporters were cheered up by Malta Today’s poll of yesterday. This is the fourth month in a row without the sort of existentially catastrophic results polled by the PN during Adrian Delia’s tenure. The good news first. The risk of a constitution-busting two-thirds majority for the Labour Party now [...]
According to the doctors’ union Kenneth Grech has just been taken off the anti-covid team because he gave the government advice they didn’t like to hear. He was of the view that schools should remain closed for some time after the Christmas holidays. Given that the pre-Christmas infection rate of 50 a day has now [...]
The government needs to submit itself to some serious questioning over its handling of the covid situation now. The policy of releasing carefully written statements that leave the reader with more questions than answers and then dodging journalists with a microphone as if they carried the plague just does not cut it. And there doesn’t [...]
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. [...]
The following right of reply letter was received in response to this post by Godfrey Leone Ganado. Dear Mr. Delia, Further to the Guest Post written by Mr. Godfrey Leone Ganado published on your blog on 5th January 2021, kindly note the following: Contrary to what is stated in the third paragraph, The Company in [...]
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 [...]
