The reason why we have courts is they get to hear all sides of the story before deciding on someone’s guilt. So it is unwise, albeit very tempting, to reach conclusions from a newspaper report of a day in court. But this The Malta Independent report of the case against Khalen Ben Nasan who blew [...]
Party leadership elections are by definition introspective and bloody affairs. It is hard to imagine our political system surviving the harsh primaries of the American, and latterly the French system, were an open and unseemly battle is fought by hopefuls suffering wounds in the campaign to get their party’s nomination, which they’ll then have to [...]
When Alfred Sant prepared for the 1996 campaign his imported US advisors told him truth was what he made of it. If he repeated a lie often enough, no matter how fanciful, he could change that lie into truth. Sant’s most famous apprentice was Joseph Muscat, who spent a dozen years on TV conjuring all [...]
This report of the goings on at the AFM in the days before the last general election makes grim reading. Superficially this is about the government abusing of its incumbency to secure its re-election. Certainly as back-dated promotions and big fat cheques for arrears were being dished out, foremost on the government’s mind was exactly [...]
In Westminster whips hand out to their party colleagues the agenda of the following week’s parliamentary business highlighting the expected ‘divisions’ or votes expected that week. Not all votes are equally important. The ranking of the importance for the party is illustrated simply by how many times the agenda item is underlined. One line and [...]
See this report of the Developers’ Association’s statement on what’s going on in SmartCity. The gist of it is that it was ok for government to transfer land to a developer (the Emirati owners of SmartCity) to build a job-creating business park. It was even tolerable to accept that some of that land would be [...]
My successor as government-appointed Director of SmartCity Malta is Keith Schembri, the man at the centre of this government and at the centre of its worst corrupt excesses. He took over from me as Director in 2013. The brief I was given when I was appointed Director by the Gonzi administration in 2008 was to [...]
The SmartCity developers are seeking approval to change the Master Plan approved in 2007 on which the whole development is supposed to be based. They are looking to get approval for denser residential development with taller buildings abutting the shoreline. I am not going to make an environmental argument. For one I should expect many [...]
Read this report of yesterday’s question time in Parliament where opposition MPs pressed the government to explain why a clean criminal record was no longer a requirement to join the police corps and be promoted within it. Police Minister Michael Farrugia, not famous for his senatorial debating capabilities, stammered and spluttered in the vain attempt [...]
The system of electing the new PN leader is a child of political optimism. The idea clearly is to broaden suffrage in order to create a bond between new leader and a wider community of the led. As of her first day at the job the leader is not only legitimised by the support of [...]
My article on The Sunday Times today.
Joseph Muscat has now appointed himself the spiritual director of the PN Parliamentary Group. He is advising them on matters of conscience and reminding them they should not support the vote he is proposing or risk the fires of hell. It is by now an old cliché that the man knows no shame. But it [...]
How many fresh switchers does it take to plant seedlings on the verge? This chain-gang scene from the 1930s dust-bowl was seen this morning in Ħal Luqa. It is becoming an increasingly common sight. It is comforting to know that as employers struggle to find productive labour without having to import it, they will have [...]
Justin Borg Barthet a few days ago wrote a guest post on this website criticising the quality of the drafting of the Marriage Equality law approved through its second reading by Parliament yesterday.He did not discuss the merits of whether marriage equality was right or wrong. (Like me he is a supporter of the notion). He [...]
Joseph Muscat lays traps because that is how he plays his games. But that doesn’t mean the PN will fall for them. It was a very disappointed prime minister yesterday who stood up to face an Opposition that proved to be not quite as gullible as he thought they would be. It is clear the [...]
Since 2013 I’ve been out of my original line of work – politics – and have done various jobs here and there trying to grow new feet in my dotage. For some time I taught history (under the contemporary guise of ‘European Studies’) in a secondary school. The experience was more rewarding for me than [...]
It is a month to the day since the last election and it feels like it could have been years.The ability of Joseph Muscat to determine and manipulate the national agenda has been proven less by his confirmation at the polls and more by how he has again managed to dip the PN’s tail in [...]
Precisely as Joseph Muscat intended it to be, the gender equality vote is proving to be a dusty hairball in the PN parliamentary group’s collective throat. This sort of thing tends to happen with weak leadership. Right now the PN is led by a lame duck with its guts flowing out of its mid-action seppuku. [...]
In 1986 the state accused an innocent man -- then of the same age I am now -- of the murder of another man he did not know. The first innocent man was framed by the police who planted the murder weapon in his farm because the police were protecting the real murderers. The real [...]
The field of candidates is starting to take shape.From within the parliamentary group, Chris Said has come forward and at least one other may be getting ready to step up. Claudio Grech keeps being mentioned, one should think not merely because of wishful thinking. From among the party officials, Alex Perici Calascione is publicly flirting [...]