A failed piss up in a brewery

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2019-06-03T08:22:46+02:00Sun, 2nd Jun '19, 23:06|

The headline of Times of Malta’s report of Adrian Delia’s Fidel Castro-style radio-tirade of this morning says he — Adrian Delia — ‘blames the “establishment” for the ongoing chaos in the PN, and he warns his patience is running out. He was defending the party’s decision to co-opt Jean Pierre Debono to Parliament saying that [...]

GUEST POST: Thank you, Mark Anthony

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2019-06-02T15:13:53+02:00Sun, 2nd Jun '19, 15:13|

This was sent in by a current member of the Executive Committee of the PN who was present at yesterday's meeting. On Saturday, Mark Anthony Sammut submitted his resignation from his post as President of the PN’s Executive Committee. His decision stems from the fact that none of those holding a leadership role within the [...]

GUEST POST: Those kamikaze pilots

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2019-06-02T15:09:43+02:00Sun, 2nd Jun '19, 15:09|

Sent in by someone known to me. So, we’re back to square one. Adrian Delia’s party took a thrashing. The local council results are more representative of the true situation with Labour securing 58% of the votes (there wasn’t the vote-pulling power of the two MEPs). This was a direct message to Adrian Delia and his [...]

The seat that was promised

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2019-06-01T15:46:29+02:00Sat, 1st Jun '19, 15:46|

Even after all that’s happened the last two years, and all the noise of the past week, the outcome of the PN’s executive committee of today sounds like a loud gunshot. A flutter of wings, a few shocked gasps, followed by an eerie, knowing silence. The party locked itself in a room this morning to [...]

Can you bow out when they’re shouting your name?

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2019-05-31T21:59:55+02:00Fri, 31st May '19, 21:59|

And at the end of long days and nights counting votes, it was time to get ready to go home. But before they left they had to give credit to the man who had made all their countless victories possible. “Delia! Delia!” They shouted. This is not a fantasy in my unfulfilled dreams of glory. [...]

International standards of propriety

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2019-05-31T13:23:08+02:00Fri, 31st May '19, 13:23|

The government goes to the Council of Europe with 50 amendments to a report that finds the rule of law in Malta is such a disastrous state that not only was it unable to protect the life of a critical journalist but it seems unable (or unwilling) to find and punish the culprits not to [...]

Party first

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2019-05-31T12:42:25+02:00Fri, 31st May '19, 12:42|

This is Alfred Grixti, a Labour Party activist of many years. He's seen here taken off a screen celebrating with his Labour mates some crushing electoral victory of the many they celebrated these last few days. And here's Alfred Grixti's Facebook sporting as a profile picture what Ranier Fsadni described as an Austin Powers touch [...]

With enemies like this…

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2019-05-31T12:29:53+02:00Fri, 31st May '19, 12:29|

Who needs friends? The editorial of l-orizzont once published a hit list of people it despised because of their real or perceived association with the interests of the Nationalist Party. It had said it had marked these people for elimination. Today they also target someone in the Nationalist Party but they seek their preservation. L-orizzont [...]

How is that an answer?

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2019-05-31T10:18:13+02:00Fri, 31st May '19, 10:18|

This photo was going around yesterday snapped off the screen showing PN lead factotum Pierre Portelli (the more important one) having some form of conversation with Konrad Mizzi. The reason people shared it is that they were uncomfortable with it. People who are angry that Konrad Mizzi persists to survive with impunity with so much [...]

GUEST POST: Hope

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2019-05-31T10:02:39+02:00Fri, 31st May '19, 09:54|

Sent in by someone known to me. The article refers to a "Manuel Delia readership base". By publishing this article I do not mean to suggest I believe such a thing exists. But the author does, so there. Hope is the last to die. Or so says the optimistic. With all the events and negative [...]

Phoney war

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2019-05-31T09:50:14+02:00Fri, 31st May '19, 09:50|

It is rare for a former PN leader to dish out advice to his successor. They’ve been in the job themselves and they know that a meddling retiree is unhelpful, whatever their intentions. I don’t think Lawrence Gonzi’s comments to Times of Malta yesterday were necessarily meant to be helpful, at least from the point [...]

Spare a thought

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2019-05-31T08:33:33+02:00Fri, 31st May '19, 08:33|

The counting of Local Council votes over three days is like Chinese torture for the PN. You have to admire those volunteers who go up to Naxxar every day. They’re like the Light Brigade, fully aware they are fodder for the roaring cannons. The way Local Council vote counting works gives those perspex-bashing Labour partisans [...]

GUEST POST: Lost Nationalist

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2019-05-31T14:22:36+02:00Fri, 31st May '19, 07:56|

I have just finished scouring through my customary news portals in the hope of finding something to cheer me up, giving me some hope that our republican system has still some life in it. Sadly, all I could find was news about the latest trashing of the PN in the local elections.  This is surreal! [...]

GUEST POST: On the settling of the dust

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2019-05-30T07:56:25+02:00Thu, 30th May '19, 07:56|

Let’s get a few things straight, and the assorted columnists in today’s Times of Malta can put this in their assorted pipes and smoke it if they are so inclined. Yes, I voted ‘tactically’ for the “detestable” David Casa and for Roberta Metsola, as I said I would when I spoke at the monthly vigil [...]

Parting the Red Sea

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2019-05-30T06:00:49+02:00Wed, 29th May '19, 23:39|

In a way, the Valletta Local Council only has a symbolic significance. In electoral terms, it is actually not that big of a town and in terms of any influence on national affairs the town council of our capital city is just as limited as all the others. It still rankles though. Ultimately it was [...]

The Atlantic: Why has no one been caught?

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2019-05-29T22:51:52+02:00Wed, 29th May '19, 22:51|

From a report in The Atlantic today covering the Council of Europe's findings on Malta: "If the report had been about any other country in western Europe, heads would roll, governments would collapse, and the international community might consider the country a pariah. Instead, the report was about Malta, the smallest member of the European [...]

EURONEWS: Council of Europe slams rule of law in Malta

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2019-05-29T22:42:18+02:00Wed, 29th May '19, 22:42|

Euronews ran this news report of this morning's Council of Europe meeting where Pieter Omtzigt's report on Malta has been adopted in spite of Manuel Mallia's less than subtle attempt at subverting the process with over 50 proposed amendments, all over-ruled. The government this evening issued an iron curtain statement that makes no attempt to [...]

Maybe it’s a case of asking

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2019-05-29T18:12:54+02:00Wed, 29th May '19, 18:12|

Luigi di Maio didn’t do well in the elections. That’s hardly bad news. If I had a vote in Italy I would have sooner chewed glass than consider voting for his party, never mind the bear that has swallowed him from his right flank. But Di Maio is grown up enough to understand that he [...]

GUEST POST: Why I stayed home last Saturday

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2019-05-29T16:46:41+02:00Wed, 29th May '19, 16:46|

Another old timer who is also younger than you imagine wrote in this Guest Post: I waited a couple of days before I started jotting down my thoughts on last Saturday’s EP Elections. In the run-up, I’ve had the opportunity to meet several people who know me and my active past within the PN. When [...]

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