In the days and weeks following the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia several people came together to take up the cause for truth and justice. A big part of that was a consequence of the choices the Nationalist Party was making. I remember when my wife decided to call up her friends so they would [...]
Political parties are clearly not used to civil society groups campaigning on democratic rights, anti-corruption and exemplary public life. Not here anyway. The PN’s story, published this morning on Il-Mument after a litmus test on Labour’s One TV last Wednesday and then carried by the PN’s official Facebook page, is another salvo in a series [...]
A few days ago a guest author on this blog reminded PN officials the party’s statute gives them the responsibility to step up whenever the Leader of the party is unequal to his job. That author focused on Mark Anthony Sammut among others, as President of the party’s executive committee. That committee groups together elected [...]
Another former high ranking advisor in the PN ranks writes in. The author is known to me and writes on condition of anonymity. The PN seems to have become professional in its efforts to become irrelevant. The Party that changed Malta, built a modern economy, opened the gates to education, carved a middle-class and propelled us to Europe seems to have not only got paralysed but is quickly descending into oblivion. The writing has been on [...]
Employees of the Nationalist Party and Media Link, the PN’s media company, have told this website on condition of anonymity that on Thursday morning Adrian Delia was heard shouting in apoplectic rage and blaspheming profusely apparently when he learned the nature of the WhatsApp videos making the rounds, some of which appear to have been [...]
I reported for The Sunday Times this morning a visit Archbishop Charles Scicluna paid to the crew of Mission Lifeline, one of the civilian rescue boats trapped in the Maltese harbour while its captain faces criminal action for saving lives at sea. The visit itself is an act of defiance as it happens in spite of court-ordered restrictions on boarding the vessel. But Charles Scicluna was not there to protest yesterday. He was there to support volunteers who have given up chunks of their life to help save people they do not know from slavery, wrongful [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "You’d expect all those self-appointed apotheoses of leadership – 65 MPs – to be doing something about the allegations. But they are not, because they turn out not to possess one leadership bone in all their bodies. "All these MPs, sitting across the House, are concerned with [...]
Please watch this New York Times documentary "How Europe Outsources Migrant Suffering at Sea". This is what happening in the Sea that surrounds us. And our governments are unwilling to do anything about.
By a guest writer known to me who in the past served in positions in the PN. A moral dilemma is exactly that: a situation pregnant with ramifications, torn between equally-important principles or values. Finding oneself in such a situation can be challenging. This is what came to mind when I read the latest litany [...]
Adrian Delia has made a habit of bursting into song every time conversation runs dry. His poems (pronounced poy-eems) are largely of a uniform theme: a Saint Sebastian rolling his eyes in ecstatic fervour grateful for the arrows puncturing his supple body releasing his hot martyr’s blood to demonstrate his status of the victim. When [...]
This is a statement by Repubblika issued earlier today: The Labour Party and the Nationalist party are using their TVs and their media to suffocate free speech and crush the right to protest. Repubblika is deeply concerned by the disproportionate and unfair retaliation of the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party that have used and are using their media to carry lies and [...]
The Malta Confederation of Women's Organisations made a statement last night saying it does not matter who is involved, any claims of domestic violence should be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated. "It takes a lot of courage for survivors of Domestic Violence to lodge a claim and try to bring an end to it. For [...]
If you think you're cold right now, you should try to imagine what it's like at sea. Thirty-two children, women and men, saved from drowning out at sea, have been stuck on the boat that saved them since before you bought your turkey. They're just over our horizon, stuck there because no government in Europe [...]
Pierre Portelli is right. The Nationalist Party is not a bunch of bloggers that believe they have some claim on the party. It most certainly isn’t. His statement on Facebook of today is a whiff of grapeshot that upgrades the case for Adrian Delia’s defence from the character witnesses — his law office partner of [...]
I promise not to reveal punchlines. Well, just one. I went to see the Comedy Knights last night. The experience was not quite as intense as last year’s but there was a more enthusiastic appetite for laughter and the crew fed that appetite most heartily. As I always like to say when I write these [...]
In 2015 Anton Borg was President of the Chamber of Commerce. He received Simon Busuttil and a PN delegation to discuss the PN’s economic program of the time. It was a case of the Opposition trying to project the image of a government in waiting. But Anton Borg had other things on his mind: “it [...]
The US’s National Public Radio published on New Year’s Eve a link to important international stories from 2018 that readers and listeners may have missed in “the year’s relentless news cycle”. Some stories are too important to just walk away from even when Donald Trump is putting into question the deepest mores of western liberal [...]
Then Foreign Minister George Vella visiting the Emir of Kuwait al-Sabah in 2015 There was a time when in Kuwait they knew about Malta because that was where the UN General Assembly President who argued for international intervention after Iraq invaded and occupied their country was from. The Arab Times — a Kuwaiti English language [...]
Rob Porter with Donald Trump. Picture: Reuters. Donald Trump’s White House is not a model of civic virtue and accountable public administration. You’ll be forgiven if you’ve forgotten this episode from almost a year ago. It’s one of so many. David Sorensen resigned his job as a speechwriter at the White House after his wife [...]
You would want to assume it’s just an accident. But just when PN script-writers are trying to dispel the suspicion they are in the thrall of Labour and are seeking to imitate it instead of defeating it, Adrian Delia is given a speech for the new year headlining a Labour Party slogan. True, no one [...]