Joseph Muscat for President: Labour MP tweets support

By
2018-02-11T12:45:51+01:00Sun, 11th Feb '18, 12:45|

Rosianne Cutajar, Labour MP, has tweeted her support for Joseph Muscat's transition from prime minister of a parliamentary democracy to president of a presidential republic with enhanced and concentrated executive power. She expressed her support of the notion with her characteristic kiss-my-sweaty-balls attitude in response to a tweet asking whether Joseph Muscat's intention for constitutional [...]

Reform by plebiscite

By
2018-02-10T15:56:51+01:00Sat, 10th Feb '18, 15:56|

Joseph Muscat gave a rare interview today. From the Times report: “Dr Muscat also spoke at length about the changes to the constitution and did not exclude a referendum to get a strong mandate once the discussions are concluded and the changes proposed. He said work was underway behind the scenes to ensure there is [...]

Rags to riches

By
2018-02-09T17:21:14+01:00Fri, 9th Feb '18, 17:21|

Great twitter thread by BugM. Everyone loves a rags to riches story. 1/ Meet Ikona Artworks, a #Maltese "boutique" (aka small & unknown) design firm owned by Joel Saliba and Margaret Pace, of crumbling jablo #V18 statues & friends in #Malta Gov fame. pic.twitter.com/Fbv9XYdzMR — BugM (@bugdavem) February 8, 2018 2/ In 2012, Ikona Artworks, [...]

Soft landing

By
2018-02-09T17:14:52+01:00Fri, 9th Feb '18, 17:14|

You wouldn't want Edward Zammit Lewis to suffer hardship after losing his job as a Minister. He did not make it to Cabinet after the 2017 election which entitled him to a soft-landing allowance equivalent to half a year's pay as a Minister. When he eventually did make it to Parliament he got the MP's [...]

Your government may be watching you now

By
2018-02-09T11:02:22+01:00Fri, 9th Feb '18, 10:04|

As part of a BBC documentary on the House of Saud, the authors interview a professional hacker turned whistle-blower who for several years worked in Malta for an Italian company that designs spy-software for governments. Alberto Pelliccione describes Trojans hidden inside mobile phone or desktop Apps that give security services access to your devices. They [...]

Updated: Il-mitt miljun

By
2018-02-09T20:22:51+01:00Fri, 9th Feb '18, 09:52|

Five years ago today was the most triumphant day of Lawrence Gonzi’s premiership. As the EU was cutting down on its 7-year budget, he pushed and secured a considerable increase in the allocation of funds to Malta. 1.128 billion euro for the subsequent seven years. Labour governments got to spend it. That’s fine. It’s the [...]

Longer life as a Laburist sal-Mewt

By
2018-02-09T11:04:01+01:00Fri, 9th Feb '18, 09:49|

‘Laburisti sal-Mewt’ is a Facebook group for people who think support for their party is a life-long commitment. Or perhaps they think it’s a terminal illness. Either way they congregate there to live in a world where everyone agrees with them and any traitors in their midst can be made to walk the plank. It’s [...]

UPDATED: A bit like Bette Davis

By
2018-02-08T20:51:21+01:00Thu, 8th Feb '18, 17:25|

Update 19:49 Adds clarification from Frank Psaila. Frank Psaila wrote a moving piece on Eddie Fenech Adami. So moving he moved himself to tears. That is not remarkable in itself. What is remarkable is Frank Psaila felt he needed to thank himself for having brought himself to tears. It's something to will yourself to cry. [...]

The Atlantic: “It may take time to solve her murder, but the question is whether Malta’s institutions have the political will to try.”

By
2018-02-08T20:53:08+01:00Thu, 8th Feb '18, 13:26|

US News Magazine The Atlantic published a detailed report on the aftermath of the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia remarking that "the murder of a journalist in Europe, at a time when democratic institutions face severe tests worldwide, risk making Malta the weak point that could threaten the entire bloc". The enormous ramifications of this [...]

From ‘Arloġġ tal-Lira’ to ‘Anything Goes’

By
2018-02-08T10:17:49+01:00Thu, 8th Feb '18, 10:17|

Conflict of interest is not an absolute. It's not like virginity: you either have it or you do not. Which is why it is always so controversial. There are lines you should not cross in public life but however real they are, they are invisible. Standards and expectations change over time and normally, one would [...]

UK Government: ‘We’ll never let US health companies bid for National Health Service’

By
2018-02-08T15:16:48+01:00Thu, 8th Feb '18, 09:24|

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has assured the public she would exclude the National Health Service from any free trade agreement with the United States. A UK The Times story (you'll need a subscription to read it in full) reports on questions from Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable to the prime minister demanding she "confirms [...]

Times of Malta Editorial: The writing on the wall

By
2018-02-07T15:30:25+01:00Wed, 7th Feb '18, 09:16|

Do please read today's leader on Times of Malta. It warns off Jason Micallef, Ray Azzopardi and others who think that since Valletta is Tagħna Lkoll, no one has the right to protest against the government. Here's what they had to say about the vicious clamour to "clean out" the people's memorial to Daphne around [...]

Joseph Calleja, don’t prop up Henley&Partners

By
2018-02-07T00:26:27+01:00Wed, 7th Feb '18, 00:26|

I have no problem admitting that I am a fan of Joseph Calleja. I am no expert but I like his singing. But more than the honeyed voice and booming roar he's famous the world over for, he's a boy from home so I don't mind saying, he's my excuse for wrapping myself in the [...]

Journalists of the state

By
2018-02-08T15:19:30+01:00Wed, 7th Feb '18, 00:06|

Of all the many ways that media freedom is compromised by state intervention in Malta, the most glaring is the false adoption of the term 'journalist' by propagandists of the state. They not only pretend to be journalists whilst serving the interest of their regime. They actively work to exclude genuine journalists and seek to [...]

Fake news. From an official source.

By
2018-02-06T16:48:10+01:00Tue, 6th Feb '18, 16:48|

Glen Bedingfield is a man of many hats but only one really counts. He's a blogger. He's a back-bench Labour MP. But those are auxiliaries. His core function is at the Office of the Prime Minister, at a desk no more than 10 metres from that of Joseph Muscat. As a source he is as [...]

Your right to know

By
2018-02-06T12:57:25+01:00Tue, 6th Feb '18, 12:57|

Watch this speech by Jason Azzopardi. He makes the case on how Pilatus Bank and Henley and Partners appear to be fingers attached to the same hidden hand. Another finger is Joseph Muscat who is reported by MaltaToday insisting he had no prior knowledge of Pilatus’s Arizona SLAPP lawsuit against Daphne Caruana Galizia. https://youtu.be/5Dwtea2wrAI Actually [...]

Agency under Chris Cardona in 10,000 euro direct order for “escorting services”

By
2018-02-05T22:07:49+01:00Mon, 5th Feb '18, 22:07|

A Jason Azzopardi Parliamentary Question asking Chris Cardona to list direct orders committed by his Ministry returned one rather odd reply today. A 01/02/2017 direct order for 10,000 euro is listed in Chris Cardona's reply as having been paid for "provision of escorting services". The "services" are listed as having been acquired by Malta Industrial [...]

Go to Top