Sliding doors

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2023-04-06T07:39:07+02:00Thu, 6th Apr '23, 07:39|

Imagine for a moment that Rosianne Cutajar had been a PN, not Labour, politician. It’s not that hard. The PN has had its share of flamboyant characters caught with their hand in the till. Like her they ended up isolated from their party though unlike her it didn’t take so long, and it hadn’t gone [...]

Is this what is meant by standards?

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2023-04-06T07:25:21+02:00Thu, 6th Apr '23, 07:25|

What a strange decision the debut oeuvre of the new Commissioner for Standards in Public Life was. Arnold Cassola, he the indefatigable conscience of our shady public affairs, complained that Clayton Bartolo ignored a request put to him in a Parliamentary question to provide details of the employment terms of a public official. The official [...]

Watch out for this one

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2023-04-05T10:47:24+02:00Wed, 5th Apr '23, 10:45|

A public call is out to turn Evans Building in Valletta into a hotel. It’s a fine location for a hotel right next to the conference facilities (bereft of bedrooms) at the old knights’ hospital next door. Location doesn’t get more prime than that. The entity the government is using to administer the concession process [...]

This is why Robert Abela doesn’t want an anti-mafia law

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2023-04-05T10:07:56+02:00Wed, 5th Apr '23, 10:07|

Repubblika had argued to the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry that to fight the sort of organised crime which has infiltrated the Maltese state, the Maltese state needed a law that could combat racketeering on the model of the US RICO law or the Italian 416 bis. The inquiry agreed and adopted the suggestion as [...]

Rosianne makes a point

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2023-04-04T13:10:59+02:00Tue, 4th Apr '23, 13:10|

Montage: Lovin Malta ‘What changed?’ she asked rhetorically as she hurled herself on the pyre. Rosianne Cutajar pretended to believe the bullshit of Robert Abela when he presented her as a fully legitimate candidate for the 2022 general elections. At the time Robert Abela had said Rosianne Cutajar had expiated her sins, exposed [...]

The response that Manwel Cuschieri wants

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2023-04-04T08:57:20+02:00Tue, 4th Apr '23, 08:57|

For decades, under Alfred Sant and Joseph Muscat, semi-literate and easily articulate in a soap box loony venom-spreading sort of way, Manwel Cuschieri had a slot on the Labour Party’s radio station spewing hate against the “enemies of the people”. After Goebbels and before Trumpian propagandists, there was our very own Manwel Cuschieri. Along with [...]

Fixing politics

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2023-04-03T11:03:50+02:00Mon, 3rd Apr '23, 11:03|

“Thirty years ago, there were politicians people looked up to. Nowadays, we struggle to look at them in that way,” the outgoing Chamber of Commerce president told Times of Malta. I doubt anyone (except perhaps Rosianne Cutajar) would disagree with her. The statement should be put in some context. Let’s not go home with the [...]

The politics of robber barons

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2023-03-31T08:24:47+02:00Fri, 31st Mar '23, 08:24|

After a series of court cases, we’ve been reminded how in the 1970s the Labour government stole private properties officially intended for a “public purpose” such as social housing only to hand over those properties to the Labour Party. At first the properties were used as political clubs. Now they’re bars and restaurants that profit [...]

Judging oneself

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2023-03-30T07:55:40+02:00Thu, 30th Mar '23, 07:55|

Image: The Malta Independent Joseph Cuschieri’s response to the long-delayed publication of an internal report that found what we’ve known since his trip to Las Vegas at Yorgen Fenech’s expense was discovered was not simply that he had done no wrong. His response was that he didn’t think he had done wrong and [...]

GUEST POST: Qatra Qatra

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2023-03-30T07:08:21+02:00Thu, 30th Mar '23, 07:08|

The culture of impunity and bribery experienced during the Joseph Muscat-Konrad Mizzi-Keith Schembri epoch continues. With Robert Abela the drops keep filling the accounts of many in the same spirit. The Prime Minister himself has admitted receiving rental income from an invisible tenant waiting to receive a Maltese Passport to launder moneyacross the EU. Abetting [...]

One more reason to quit

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2023-03-27T12:58:16+02:00Mon, 27th Mar '23, 12:58|

Young and old, Maltese and Gozitans, partisans and neutrals, Nationalists or Labourites, all do not trust the police to act in a case that may embarrass, or bring about criminal consequences, in Joseph Muscat. For 9 years Joseph Muscat told us to trust the police force while he hired and fired a series of police [...]

The country needs a political solution

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2023-03-27T10:53:15+02:00Mon, 27th Mar '23, 10:53|

It is not just a feeling. Polling consistently shows that one of two realities that have been nearly immutable since 2008 has now changed. The reality that remains in place is that if an election were held tomorrow Labour would win with a handsome majority. There were times when its advantage over the PN was [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Bosses masturbate too

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2023-03-26T07:55:57+02:00Sun, 26th Mar '23, 07:55|

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "I bet the reference to masturbation in the headline attracted your attention perhaps more than if yet another one of my articles was headlined with another varia­tion on the theme of corruption. That’s how the criminals want it. They’d rather you think of them bent double in a [...]

Protest in solidarity with Mark Camilleri

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2023-03-23T19:17:54+01:00Thu, 23rd Mar '23, 18:06|

How swiftly do the slumbering police officers and prosecutors who sleep through evidence an MP took dirty money to cover up for a criminal, wake up to chase a writer who drew conclusions from that evidence? We’ll be told we’re inconsistent for complaining that the institutions are chasing Mark Camilleri with the full force of [...]

Losing the benefit of doubt

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2023-03-22T12:59:31+01:00Wed, 22nd Mar '23, 12:59|

Just in case anyone was still hoping that the leaked chats between Rosianne Cutajar and Yorgen Fenech were not authentic, Rosianne Cutajar has publicly declared them to be the real deal, to coin a phrase. She has asked the court and the attorney general to “take action” against Mark Camilleri for publishing them, which she [...]

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