The authorities announced that Philip Galea Farrugia and four other lawyers will be appointed magistrates shortly. Philip Galea Farrugia is the Deputy Attorney General who prosecuted the Degiorgio brothers. When it came to trial there was only time for his opening presentation. When he finished and it was time for the jury to start hearing [...]
I don’t know how generous is the “generous” offer the government made to teachers. I may not be a fan of every tactical choice the MUT makes. I know that whatever the offer teachers have and whatever methods their union resorts to, to force the offer upwards somewhat, the final deal will be a far [...]
Robert Abela reacted to a suggestion from the Parliamentary Speaker Anġlu Farrugia by saying he’s “seriously considering” it. The qualifier ‘seriously’ is either over-compensation or a slip of the tongue betraying the prime minister’s habit of treating suggestions from others with utter contempt. Back story. That grotesque man-child Clayton Bartolo sits on Parliament’s Public Accounts [...]
After yesterday’s session hearing his case to have Magistrate Gabriella Vella removed from the inquiry into corruption in the privatisation of three hospitals, Joseph Muscat predictably went to Facebook, his favourite court room. He picked on a couple of issues, one of which was an answer he got from Robert Aquilina, Repubblika’s president, who was [...]
Read this report of a justification, such as it is, that tourism minister Clayton Bartolo gave for going back on the government’s promise of publishing a report into spending by the Malta Film Commission. Clayton Bartolo departs from the stock excuses the government uses to cover up information. You know the ones: ‘it’s commercially sensitive’, [...]
Joseph Muscat was in court again today in pursuit of his effort to get a court to remove Magistrate Gabriella Vella from the inquiry that Repubblika asked into corruption in the hospitals privatisation. The man thinks what everybody else thinks: that any face value appraisal of the evidence places him as a suspect in some [...]
There were two sets of laws proposed in separate announcements today. The government announced a new law criminalising virginity testing. The law makes it illegal to force a woman to test whether she’s ever had vaginal intercourse. Virginity tests are a horrible thing. They legitimise brutal violation of a woman’s dignity and excuse flagrant discrimination. [...]
It feels almost ridiculous to explain why people are angry that a block of apartment has been permitted for construction close to the Ġgantija Temples. There’s some debate as to whether the planning board that gave the approval was given the information it needed to decide. The board was told the new building is outside [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times yesterday: "Daphne Caruana Galizia summarised it in one of her more brilliant and memorable analyses published on July 3, 2015: 'There is corruption everywhere in the world, literally everywhere, and at every level. The difference is that in Malta people have a corrupt attitude towards corruption. They blank [...]
A dozen trees were stripped down in preparation for their relocation away from the car park on the side of the Mosta Rotunda. Some people were angry because they were particularly attached to those trees. They spoke of the early morning bird song tickling the ears of people waiting for the pre-dawn buses before that [...]
Worth airing this once in a while. This started four years ago today. It ended with Joseph Muscat's early retirement. Which is nice.
It looked like a fun day out. The country’s leaders of all hues and holders of all manner of office went for a cheerful “walk with the president” this Saturday. You look at their happy grins you’d think all was well with the world. Or at least, while the world went to shit, all was [...]
Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed on a Monday. The following Sunday there was a big march in Valletta. I was invited to speak at that event, but I had nothing to do with its organisation. I wasn’t an activist of any sort at the time. I was caught by the events of that week like [...]
Read this report of the arguments brought in court today by Keith Schembri’s lawyers. I’m not summarising it because the issues are very complex and there’s a lot being hinted which is not being explicitly said in all the words here. I don’t want any of that lost in summaries and adaptations. The following list [...]
If Robert Abela really thinks that all politicians are elected to deal out favours to those who vote for it whether they are entitled to these favours or not, then he is a crooked misinformed despot who should not hold office. Absolute monarchs or dictators do exactly that. They choose whom to favour either because [...]
Photo: Domenic Aquilina/ EPA-EFA/Shutter stock That’s what he said was on his mind, when Antonio Costa, until then the socialist prime minister of Portugal,resigned from his post yesterday. “The dignity of the functions of prime minister is not compatible with any suspicion about his integrity, his good conduct and even less with the [...]
Silvio Grixti came out of his cave yesterday. He sent a pointed rhetorical question addressed to Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne. Why weren’t publicly known allegations of medical certificates fraud not investigated by the police, he asked? The press tried to reach the disgraced former Labour backbencher to get out of him details about the [...]
This is a statement issued today by the president’s office after a fugitive who turned himself in to the police and told the court he has been working on a construction site at San Anton Palace while the police were looking for him: With reference to reports that are appearing in the media, the Office [...]
Keith Schembri’s lawyers are having none of it. A phone that was held for safekeeping by a magistrate in a case against Keith Schembri vanished for a while only to reappear in another file which was not supposed to be in the magistrate’s office at all. The brief disappearance of the phone is now being [...]
