Eighteen years in vain

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2023-06-19T07:58:15+02:00Mon, 19th Jun '23, 07:58|

The prosecution’s case against the two men the state accused of killing Albert Rosso 18 years ago never looked like it stood much chance of success. The victim’s body was never found. The evidence against the accused was scant, barely circumstantial, and connected them poorly to the events the prosecution argued occurred before the disappearance [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Turning the tables

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2023-06-18T07:21:28+02:00Sun, 18th Jun '23, 07:21|

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Fundamental human rights are there to protect powerless individuals from the hegemony of the state. Muscat is using rights that are meant to protect us from the state in order to protect the state from us. Because if he committed crimes connected with the VGH contract, he [...]

Shameless plug

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2023-06-17T15:38:26+02:00Sat, 17th Jun '23, 15:38|

If you come here regularly, I don’t need to tell you this blog has been neglected these last few days. Here’s why. You see, about two years ago, things were at a very hot point for me. My website was spoofed, my identity impersonated, my sanity questioned.  That’s while I was the target of an [...]

What’s missing is the plan

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2023-06-07T08:22:30+02:00Wed, 7th Jun '23, 08:22|

I read this morning’s Times of Malta editorial that follows up Clyde Caruana’s recent remarks about the need to revolutionise Malta’s economic model. Leader says they should get on with it then. Fair enough. After all, as the editorial observes, there’s increasing consensus that we can’t go on like this. There’s a phrase in the [...]

What Joseph Muscat is hoping to achieve

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2023-06-05T17:19:20+02:00Mon, 5th Jun '23, 17:19|

Joseph Muscat does not like being forced to make choices. The man was prime minister, for crying out loud. That does things to the portion of your brain which is normally open to compromise. The sort of inebriating power he enjoyed atrophies the average intellectual capacity of normal people who live normal lives unable, as [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Everybody does it

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2023-06-04T07:31:11+02:00Sun, 4th Jun '23, 07:31|

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Whoever placed those stories in the Pakistani websites knew just what would happen. Fearne’s thundering claims of purity have been severely undercut. Anyone in the Labour Party who might have been tempted to rally around him has now been denied an untainted alternative to Muscat and Abela. [...]

State of the state

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2023-06-02T08:54:23+02:00Fri, 2nd Jun '23, 08:54|

The third so-called ‘state of the nation’ conference is being hosted by President George Vella today. From the official statement announcing the conference: “President Vella noted that the subjects planned for this year’s conference are all directly related to the citizens’ everyday life. These include the family, the media and its new challenges in society, [...]

You are ridiculous

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2023-05-31T18:13:50+02:00Wed, 31st May '23, 18:13|

I can't waste the mental energy to scramble for appropriate invective to appropriately address Malta's Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Holy See, His Excellency Frank Zammit, in reaction to this Facebook post of his. I am exhausted by all the levels I must count of how this is excruciatingly embarrassing, the diplomatic, the religious, the cultural, [...]

Earned mistrust

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2023-05-31T07:11:11+02:00Wed, 31st May '23, 07:11|

I’m more interested in the reaction to yesterday’s incident on the Planning Authority website than in the incident itself. I’ll sum up the incident first, however, in case I need to bring you up to speed. The government offered €4 million to owners of town centre residencies that need repair work. The scheme lets you [...]

Civilian oversight

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2023-05-30T10:23:43+02:00Tue, 30th May '23, 10:23|

Photo: Consolidated Rescue Group Four international NGOs have published a joint statement accusing the Maltese authorities of breaking international law by forcefully dragging 500 migrants in distress in Malta’s search and rescue area back to Libya. Read it, especially for its detail because it is the level of detail that should inform your [...]

A dusty legacy

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2023-05-30T09:14:20+02:00Tue, 30th May '23, 09:14|

The small nations games are on and may the girls and boys in red have the best time and make their mothers and fathers proud. But the good will athletes are entitled to, should not be taken hostage by a government unable to do its job. Except for The Shift’s sharp reporting, the press has [...]

Purging Muscat

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2023-05-28T09:50:29+02:00Sun, 28th May '23, 09:50|

There’s an article in The Malta Independent today by Noel Grima which has the word ‘de-muscatification’ in its heading. It’s about how this country needs to reverse the policies of Joseph Muscat in order to start getting things right. It criticises Robert Abela for sticking to ‘continuity’ with the years of Muscat. There’s another article [...]

Need for speed

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2023-05-26T08:58:05+02:00Fri, 26th May '23, 08:58|

I like to preface every argument I dare make about transport issues with a lesson I was once given in person by Michael Portillo who introduced himself to a meeting of transport officials from all over the world as a former future prime minister of the UK. I worked in the transport ministry at the [...]

Asking nicely is not going to cut it

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2023-05-25T12:42:48+02:00Thu, 25th May '23, 12:42|

Konrad Mizzi ignored the auditor general’s questions about the botched hospitals privatisation while Joseph Muscat and Keith Schembri sent him non-answers. Darren Debono refused to testify against the bosses of the criminal gang he worked for even after he was pardoned for shooting at police officers trying to stop them robbing a bank. Yorgen Fenech [...]

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