From my article in The Sunday Times today: "The germ of independent thinking has taken root in this country and it will not weed itself out of existence. No doubt there’s a desire to win. But there’s a greater desire to remain honest with oneself. Politics may be the art of the possible. But for [...]
This long piece was completed in December 2020 and first published in Epoch No. 2 'Aftermath', Spring 2021 (Epoch Press). Published again here with permission. A journalist is blown to pieces in her car on a road not far from you. Everything is close to everything else on an island full of dust and noise and [...]
Sent in by someone known to me. It only took six months for Bernard Grech’s mask to slip. He is not better than Adrian Delia, maybe not worse, but certainly not better, for yesterday’s dealings with Jason Azzopardi and Adrian Delia was not an exercise in safeguarding the Nationalist Party and democracy in the long [...]
Find the time to watch this new documentary called "Humanigration - On the other shore of the sea", a film by TotalEU Production on migration and the impact of Covid-19 on new illegal routes. The film is a journalistic journey between the main dimensions that are currently shaping migrants' experiences in their travels to Europe [...]
A false equivalence was created over the last few days that, as ever when that happens in a battle between right and wrong, handed the victory to the wrong. The Nationalist Party issued a statement today that reads like the Munich ‘compromise’ of 1938. The PN is proclaiming peace in our time. Yeah right. In [...]
Filed by someone known to me. It is in the Labour Party’s eminent interest to keep pushing out the narrative that criticising the government is being negative, thus attempting to pull the rug from under the Opposition’s feet, an Opposition whose DUTY it is to criticise the government when it behaves badly. When it does [...]
One TV had a field day with my reaction to Bernard Grech’s announcement that he had no problem with Adrian Delia. They’re going to have a field day with this. During Adrian Delia’s campaign for survival as party leader, his sub-literate henchman Vincent Borg, known as Ċensu l-Iswed, posted a long article on Facebook in [...]
Photo: Pippa Zammit Cutajar PEN International today renewed its call to Maltese authorities to ensure full justice for all those involved in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and the corruption she exposed. The worldwide organisation also called on the prime minister to act on the findings of the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry [...]
Just to put things in perspective. Robert Abela recognised that the procurement of a €275 million project at St Vincent de Paul did not tick procedural boxes. He grossly understated the egregious flouting of procurement law but even the minimal things he acknowledged he justified by saying we now have a larger SVDP residence and [...]
Look, I appreciate that this scandal-a-day decade must have desensitised even the most fragile flowers. It’s become very hard to be shocked anymore. And we worry that frantic indignation makes us look uncouth. The thing to do is not to flinch and to give an aloof air of dispassionate normality. What’s another illegal contract, another [...]
“One cannot free oneself by bowing to the yoke, but by breaking it.” Carl Jung Before he was elected Labour leader, Robert Abela spoke of a “diabolical plan”. It was probably an inside message. The rest of us out here did not understand what he meant. Now, 15 months later, it seems clearer. To ensure [...]
Philip Sciberras, former judge, former Labour MP, a former unsuccessful mediator between the feuding Alfred Sant and Dom Mintoff, former Alfred Sant crony, holder of multiple pensions, long-term informal monopoly-holder of sensitive inquiries commissioned by the government, and vomiter of sundry hate against anything which does not conform with the diktat of his Labour Party, [...]
Malta’s presidents are expected to behave like the Queen of England. Whatever their opinions on decisions taken by their government, they are supposed to smile politely and assent without comment. But the Queen of England was bred for the sort of steely ambivalence that she needs to weather any and all assaults on her dignity. [...]
A convicted double-murderer has sent his lawyer to court to complain of inhuman conditions in prison. Why should we take the word of a convicted double-murderer as gospel truth? We shouldn’t. We shouldn’t take anyone’s word as gospel truth. We should listen to testimony, even if it is given by a convicted double-murderer but we [...]
Repubblika has this morning published a detailed policy paper that gives reasons for the organisation’s belief that Malta should not be selling its citizenship. Some of the arguments are what you would expect given all we know about Malta’s passport-selling scheme. But this is also an exercise that looks again at what citizenship really means [...]
I can’t imagine that Mark Camilleri’s opinions have the gravity to reroute the river of history inside the Labour Party. So I’ll take these remarks he made recently about pressure on Joseph Muscat to fire Keith Schembri to reflect what he imagines happened, rather than what really happened. But it’s interesting that Mark Camilleri says [...]
“The European Parliament is deeply concerned about the latest revelations in the investigations into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, in particular of the possible involvement of government ministers and political appointees and reiterates that the recent revelations raise new questions about the case and related investigations.” European Parliament Resolution – 29 April 2021 Shame, [...]
From the building of the European Parliament came the result of a resolution MEP Alex Agius Saliba said would be debated, voted on and approved over his dead body. I am reliably informed he’s still alive. Labour MEP’s voted against the resolution as did a smattering of other MEPs but the ayes had a landslide: [...]
Anġlu Farrugia’s non-decision of yesterday is spectacular in its inadequacy. By refusing to do one of the very few things the Speaker of Malta’s Parliament is actually expected to do (apart from listening to interminable and unproductive rhetoric), he has made himself redundant. But that’s just the start. I won’t bore you with the esoterica [...]
Read Ivan Martin’s detailed Times of Malta coverage of the findings by the National Auditor on the massive and massively rotten St Vincent de Paul residence expansion contracted directly to James Caterers and the DB Group. The auditor sees no reason to justify the government’s decision to ignore the law on public procurement when in [...]