Chris Fearne and Robert Abela can both be described with the term that would count as a death sentence in a leadership campaign elsewhere. They are ‘continuity candidates’. The British press is busy hanging that ignominious label on the potential successor of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader they dislike most. Clearly the British Labour Party [...]
Repubblika sent 20 questions to Robert Abela and Chris Fearne. Needless to say they kept the Labour Party's policy of treating civil society with complete contempt. They seem to think this is the appropriate behaviour for someone who wants to be the chief executive of a western democracy. Well it isn't. Here are the questions [...]
Campaigners for the Labour Party’s leadership have been appealing for unity. Theirs is not the sort of unity that someone like the Archbishop, say, professes. It’s not about focusing on our shared and common interests, sacrificing our own needs for the benefit of the greater good. That’s unity that comes from commitment to others before [...]
Joseph Muscat's defence, such as he seems to believe it is, that he wasn't the only one to get expensive limited edition fuck-off white gold watches from Yorgen Fenech is no defence at all. 'Yes your honour I killed many Jews, but everyone was doing it those days'. Even in Nuremberg they were too embarrassed [...]
Joseph Muscat is looking forward to being left the fuck alone. He fully expects to become "a private person" after he retires graduating from the current bother of even having to dodge annoying questions. The questions should no longer be coming his way. There was some of that expectation in his response to questions today [...]
Read this report in today's Times of Malta of a chat I had with their Sarah Carabott about Repubblika's planned general meeting this Saturday. When we announced the meeting some people -- well Malta Today mostly -- assumed we were getting ready to launch a new political party. That's because we said we wanted to [...]
It is a fundamental of political discourse, especially in a close-minded tribalist society like ours, to justify burying one’s head in the sand (or justifying the antics of your own side, for that matter) by saying that “hey, they’re all the same, didn’t he do what you’re criticising the other guy for?” Many of the [...]
Just because an internal PN election in 2004 made the providentially correct choice of Lawrence Gonzi over John Dalli, it does not mean that we have to continue to live dangerously hoping card-carrying party fans choose sensibly who should be prime minister. And the Labour Party of 2020 is a million miles away from the [...]
If we were to apply the unverifiable doubts in an internal party election and try to fit them in national elections which we fully expect to be reliable, we might get a hint of the risks we’re playing with. Imagine how life would be if a political party beat the other by 2,000 votes at [...]
Labour supporters are getting to choose the next prime minister of Malta. But ‘prime minister’ is a serious understatement as a description of the role. There’s also the annoying detail that our prime minister – whoever happens to be holding that office – is effectively an elected absolute monarch, a bit like a pope. He [...]
Allegations of fraud in internal party elections have become habitual. It is frightening that this can happen. Although party elections are theoretically internal to the party itself, it’s clear that the implication is national. Therefore fraud in party electoral processes is cheating the entire country of the correct outcome of an election. Think of [...]
This set is by Robert Agius
Bella Ciao is an Italian ‘canto popolare’. It tells the story of a ‘partigiano’ who offered his life, not exclusively in times of war, for his country’s freedom or liberation. In years, it developed into a protest call against forms of dictatorship and oppression. It was revived when Italy was struggling to overwhelm fascism. This ‘canto [...]
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This set is by Jon Borg.
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "They expect us now to walk away and stay home as they go on as if nothing ever happened. We’re not doing that. Our aspirations for a new Republic are clear and legitimate. We are not demanding the impossible. We are not anarchists. We believe in the [...]
European politicians are starting to have to regret having been seen with Joseph Muscat. European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans has faced criticism in his native Netherlands for standing by Joseph Muscat during his last months as Maltese premier even as he was covering up the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia and of the corruption [...]
Swiss air traffic controllers refused permission to Air Malta’s plane flying yesterday morning from Malta to London forcing it to turn back into Italy and fly around Swiss air space to continue towards its destination. The plane was carrying Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his family who were travelling with their family friends Karl and [...]