GUEST POST: The fall of the ‘moviment’

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2021-04-15T07:50:38+02:00Thu, 15th Apr '21, 07:50|

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every [...]

“No one in the country is convinced that all involved have been arraigned in this case.”

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2021-04-14T20:34:20+02:00Wed, 14th Apr '21, 20:34|

I’m just putting this quote spoken twice today by the Deputy Attorney General prosecuting the case against Yorgen Fenech, out there as a headline. Because it needs to be registered. It clarifies, as Inspector Keith Arnaud also tried to do today, that remarks by the police chief Angelo Gafà the day the Maksar brothers and [...]

DIY revolution

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2021-04-14T20:09:38+02:00Wed, 14th Apr '21, 20:09|

Mark Camilleri is the Executive Chairperson of the National Book Council. The National Book Council is an agency set up by law, specifically the National Book Council (Establishment) Order which is published under the Education Act. The regulations define how the Executive Chairperson is appointed. They are appointed by the prime minister upon the recommendation [...]

The smell test

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2021-04-14T19:47:06+02:00Wed, 14th Apr '21, 19:47|

A political storm is raging in the UK over a lobbying scandal. The former prime minister and leader of the party in government, David Cameron, texted the health minister asking him to meet a client of his who was offering something to the health service for free. No rules were broken. This was a free [...]

Air Malta to post record losses for year before covid started

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2021-04-14T08:49:38+02:00Wed, 14th Apr '21, 08:49|

The Maltese government will have a tough time convincing the European Commission to allow it to subsidise Air Malta for the next five years. As with any other airline, covid had a devastating effect on the national airline. But Air Malta recorded disastrous results before the covid pandemic hit. In fact, sources from within the [...]

The man who wanted to see his mother

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2021-04-13T17:17:32+02:00Tue, 13th Apr '21, 17:17|

A man was desperate to travel to visit his elderly mother. Travelling is not easy these days. He needed a covid certificate and he could not find a clinic open on Sunday in time to get a result before travelling. He thought he would get away with changing some information on an old certificate he [...]

UPDATED: Oily fish from bloody waters

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2021-04-14T07:35:29+02:00Tue, 13th Apr '21, 15:25|

Updated, 14 April 2021 07:33 Adds reply by Alexander Fenech. Last Sunday I wrote about the new laws restricting donations to NGOs ostensibly to fight money laundering. I commented on how the new laws made the act of a little old lady approaching you on Republic Street with a poppy appeal jar a criminal offence. She’s [...]

Mafia infiltration explained in a Labour Party campaign video

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2021-04-13T13:36:28+02:00Tue, 13th Apr '21, 13:35|

During the 2013 election, the general line was that it was ‘cool to be Labour’. You were either ‘in’ the ‘moviment’ or you were a Nationalist laggard. The famous ‘Dad, jien ħa nivvota lejber’ video incarnated the message that the thing to do was to bring Labour in. Apologists for the Labour Party will now [...]

Are we going to party?

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2021-04-13T10:26:00+02:00Tue, 13th Apr '21, 10:26|

Can the government please stop double-speaking? Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo yesterday categorically assured us his government, including the tourism agency, are not "blessing" mass activities over the summer. Certainly not until the public health authorities tell us that it's safe enough to party. Now, look at this "glitch festival". It's being advertised for this summer [...]

Going beyond square one

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2021-04-13T08:19:41+02:00Tue, 13th Apr '21, 08:19|

The first entry on the first day of this blog was an analysis of the 2017 election written two days after the result came out. Labour was in the throes of irrepressible celebration. And the taunts of vindication were everywhere. The trolls were all over the place. Daphne’s lies and Simon’s lies strengthened us, they [...]

The heinous painting of the attic

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2021-04-13T07:37:48+02:00Tue, 13th Apr '21, 07:37|

The Toni Bezzina situation is weird. Let’s first speak about the facts. The PN club of Żurrieq is a ramshackle Lego of two and a half rooms on top of each other. The half room at the very top had been a disused dump until Toni Bezzina, an architect working at the public works department, [...]

Air Malta no longer owns its own brand

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2021-04-12T11:27:31+02:00Mon, 12th Apr '21, 11:27|

The national airline Air Malta has sold its name and its brand to its shareholder, the government of Malta, for €21 million in a series of transactions seen as a likely last-ditch attempt to cover up state aid to the ailing airline. Now that Malta’s government owns the Air Malta brand it should also be [...]

GUEST POST: Why celebrate the birth of PEN Malta?

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2021-04-12T11:17:38+02:00Mon, 12th Apr '21, 07:49|

Births, for the most part, are a cause for celebration. A brand-new start. A fruition. Today marks the birth of PEN Malta. We should be celebrating this achievement. But really, shouldn’t we be crying that such an organisation is born? That we need to have an organisation to fight for freedom of expression? In an [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Freedom to volunteer

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2021-04-11T07:03:05+02:00Sun, 11th Apr '21, 07:03|

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "The official reason for the new law is that there are money launderers who create voluntary organisations you never heard of to wash proceeds of their crimes. It is true. These phantom organisations exist. But they are not your local band club, the karate nursery where your [...]

New scandals. New cover-ups.

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2021-04-09T11:09:04+02:00Fri, 9th Apr '21, 11:09|

Repubblika reported Carmelo Abela to George Hyzler for spending public money on government-paid adverts sporting little more than a glamour shot of himself. Newsbook yesterday reported that the report found Carmelo Abela in breach of ethical rules. The Labour participants of the committee George Hyzler reports to are protesting that Newsbook had seen the report. [...]

PODCAST: Viva l-lejber mela (after James Debono)

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2021-04-09T09:38:06+02:00Fri, 9th Apr '21, 09:37|

Manuel Delia · Viva l-lejber mela (after James Debono) James Debono catalogued reactions to Marie Louise Coleiro Preca’s plea for forgiveness for the actions of some, from within the Labour Party, over the last few years. The first category of reactions he referred to was mine, which he portrayed as extreme. Rather than think up [...]

If it’s ok to lie about vaccines, it’s ok to lie about Egrant

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2021-04-08T14:12:34+02:00Thu, 8th Apr '21, 14:12|

‘It’s there,’ Robert Abela declared yesterday. ‘Black on white. The inquiry declared Egrant Inc belonged to Brian Tonna.’ The Egrant inquiry is more than 1,500 pages long. Robert Abela’s interviewer yesterday did not have a copy handy. Mark Laurence Zammit did recall the inquiry report was concerned with establishing whether Egrant belonged to Joseph Muscat [...]

You cannot race to the bottom on an empty stomach

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2021-04-08T12:48:19+02:00Thu, 8th Apr '21, 11:45|

I must make a note of moving to the 4th district. You never go hungry or thirsty there. Before the last general election, Konrad Mizzi and Chris Fearne went into a bidding war on who would make their constituents diabetic or alcoholic first. Now that Konrad Mizzi is unlikely to be on the list of [...]

Magistrate dismissed claim that Daphne’s family lawyers were in contempt of her court

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2021-04-08T10:53:18+02:00Thu, 8th Apr '21, 10:53|

Magistrate Rachel Montebello threw out today a request by Yorgen Fenech’s lawyer to find lawyers representing Daphne Caruana Galizia’s family in contempt of court. Lawyers Charles Mercieca, Gianluca Caruana Curran and Marion Camilleri accused Jason Azzopardi and Therese Comodini Cachia of defying an earlier order by Magistrate Rachel Montebello about using data from Yorgen Fenech’s [...]

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