Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and, third ranking in the ranking order of the government Minister Chris Cardona is today missing a series of votes in Parliament. The government is in no danger of losing the votes but the absence of a senior Minister is significant especially since it is not excused by any [...]

Konrad Mizzi announced an Air Malta campaign on a treasure hunt. He knows a thing or two about hidden treasures and he knows a thing or two about his treasures being found by others. It’s truly a week for PR disasters, isn’t it? Meantime here’s how one of the Air Malta planes will look like [...]

Judge Silvio Meli’s decision finding yesterday in the constitutional action filed by Daphne Caruana Galizia’s heirs against the government needs careful reading. Of course the first impact is the judge’s order to have Silvio Valletta taken off the case. And in there is a very important observation: it is ridiculous to expect someone married to [...]

Since we are not to consider a woman as merely an extension of her husband, we are not to judge a man by the behaviour of his wife. If a man should not be able to control his wife he cannot be held responsible for her behaviour. A leader’s wife is not a child. She [...]

They had to get legal advice that their rights were being breached. When they did, the government in an official statement branded them traitors. Then they had to argue in court that a politically exposed person cannot seriously be expected to investigate a crime where the suspects are politically exposed persons. Eight months since their [...]

Last week today I said Keith Schembri received two payments amounting to over $400,000, five weeks after he got back from a politicians-only trip to Baku in December 2014. Challenged in Parliament to react by Adrian Delia, Joseph Muscat stood up to say Keith Schembri denied this. He didn’t say when. He didn’t say how. [...]

Italy and Malta have populist governments and they are both pandering to the basic popular attitude of racial prejudice and indifference to the needs of others. The references to international law are convenient and facetious: they are the brandishing of excuses to avoid having to do what’s right even if unpopular. Of course brushing Malta [...]

Joseph Muscat has been denying there's any conflict of interest between the Crane Currency project in Malta and his chief of staff Keith Schembri whenever fresh details emerged showing just such a conflict of interest. The prime minister introduced Keith Schembri as the 'catalyst' that enabled the deal when it was first announced in 2010. [...]

Adrian Delia and Nickie Vella de Fremaux sat down for dinner with Joseph and Michelle Muscat at the top table of a charity event. The Delia couple did not get the memo that the event had a business suit dress code and went in full regalia. I am not a fashion critic and I’m not [...]

From my The Sunday Times article today: "A person in public office, engaged in the most obscure dealings behind closed doors that have been found to be rotten, disadvantageous and corrupt, must, whether they like it or not, give account of their personal finances." Read the article here.

Mystery €2.6m loan. Half of Kasco’s exposure to BOV loaned without security to unknown third party. For a business that barely makes an average €57,000 of yearly profits, the bank exposure of Keith Schembri’s Kasco Group is massive. Ranging between €5m and €7m that financing is provided by the Bank of Valletta. Kasco Group used [...]

At this stage it is important to refresh people’s minds about Keith Schembri’s company in the British Virgin Islands: Colson Services Limited. It was unveiled by the Panama Papers leak and set up for Keith Schembri by Nexia BT. He had had it since January 2011, set up around the time that Joseph Muscat’s team [...]

It is reasonable to expect that in a democracy the nature of that democracy can be a matter of disagreement. Julia Farrugia has set up a ‘technical committee for the advancement of representative democracy’. Its terms of reference are not known.  Is the committee supposed to strengthen democracy itself, or is it going to say [...]

Many, many years ago, before my mum would let me go to a rock concert, Tina Turner had a gig in Floriana. That was 1990. I was not there. But people came back from that concert saying she put on a great show. And that Michael Frendo, then culture Minister, went up on stage to [...]

In whose interest are decisions being taken by #Malta authorities? Who controls Malta? We inherited a sovereign State with proper functioning institutions. In 2018 Malta impunity is the order of the day & obscure forces determine our future. We deserve much better. #DaphneProject pic.twitter.com/diHeIMaGPe — Reżistenza Malta (@RezistenzaMalta) June 7, 2018 As Times of Malta [...]

This guest post was sent from a regular reader in Brunei: Dear Manuel, I have been wanting to drop you a note for a long time and one of your recent posts has finally spurred me to do so. It was the It's been a year post that has finally done it, partly because you reminded [...]

On 22nd January, 2015, Keith Schembri’s financial managers received a payment instruction for $201,572.31. At the time that amounted to €174,256.23. The amount was deposited for the client account held in Keith Schembri’s name at the Bank of Valletta. It was also logged as ‘new funds’ in Keith Schembri’s client history with the financial managers. [...]

A year ago today I sat down to organise my thoughts on the general election results. The piece, It hurts, doesn't it? came to 3,000 words and even by loquacious standards that was too long for Facebook. So I set up a free Blogger account so I can link the piece to Facebook. After a few [...]

There are no legitimately comprehensible explanations for Joseph Muscat’s absolute and categorial denial of my story of earlier yesterday that his chief of staff received over $430,000 in payments five weeks after they flew together with Konrad Mizzi and Kurt Farrugia and no one else to Baku. No one can be absolutely sure about someone [...]

Kenneth Wain has been an important component of civil society throughout his long career. He is that rare breed of academic who speaks his mind and adds to the national discourse with his informed, competent thoughts. When Malta was at a cross-roads ahead of the decision whether to join the EU he braved the anger [...]