When Karmenu Vella was Minister for Industry and EdwAAHRRRd was his advisor

Published: February 4, 2011 at 2:03am

There’s a video on YouTube of Karmenu Vella endorsing Edward Scicluna as a candidate in the EP elections of 2008. (He also endorsed No2EU Sharon, which says a lot about how he views EU membership.)

In this video, he tells a coffee morning full of the sorts of people who used to crowd out a square for Mintoff that when he was minister for industry – YES, ALL YOU PEOPLE WITH SHORT MEMORIES OUT THERE, KARMENU VELLA WAS MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY IN THE GOD-HELP-US 1980S – he used to go to ‘EdwAAHRRRd’ and tell him ‘Ejja, EdwAAHRRRd, x’se naghmlu?’

Great, eh? No wonder the economy was f**ked, excuse my language, back then. What an approach. Unbelievable.

And now, 30 years on – yes, THIRTY BLEEDING YEARS LATER – the same pair are at it again. One is writing the plan for Malta in 2013 and the other is giving him advice on how to do it.

This is the best the Labour Party can do. In three decades – THREE WHOLE DECADES – it has been unable to produce anyone new to write economic policy.

Whole generations of people have grown up. Malta is unrecognisable. We’re in the Eurozone. And Labour is still stuck in 1981.

The craziest bit is that they’re trying to sell this heap of old crocks as a Moviment Gdid Ghal Generazzjoni Gdida. Tal-biki. Jew ahjar, tal-biza.




18 Comments Comment

  1. willywonka says:

    “In three decades – THREE WHOLE DECADES – it has been unable to produce anyone new to write economic policy”

    …which of course is not the same as saying that they have been unable, in the same stretch of time, to find anyone to write new economic policy, which is, in a hole, a different kettle of fish entirely.

  2. K Farrugia says:

    By getting Karmenu Vella to endorse him, Edward Scicluna might have scored some points (votes, actually) in the fifth electoral district, but on a wider scale it’s an insult to his academic rank and professional status.

    Anyway, you seem to be have got quite pissed off at Karmenu Vella getting back to the centre of Labour politics (or lack thereof).

    There’s a nice expression in the vernacular which describes what you are currently doing to the old man. I don’t remember your same reaction after this story back in the Summer of 2008 http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080908/local/mlp-appoints-commission-to-oversee-internal-changes

    [Daphne – Because as far as I was concerned, the Labour Party could get Karmenu Vella to f**k up its internal structure as much as they pleased. It’s their internal structure and they can do what they like with it. But when it comes to writing an electoral programme for the country in which I live and work, that’s another matter. Then I have a direct interest in not wanting the man who screwed up the economy when I was 18 to help screw it up when I am 48. I thought we buried those people in 1987. I didn’t think they would be rearing back up again like zombies from their political graves all these years later.]

  3. Antoine Vella says:

    This is probably the biggest disgrace for the PL: in 30 years – most of them spent in opposition – they failed to produce any replacements for the discredited politicians of the Mintoff era.

    We all know what a complete mess they made of the 2008 electoral programme with its typos, contradictions and proposals which had already been carried out by the government.

  4. David Ellul says:

    Daphne, yesterday I watched Robert Musumeci’s programme and he interviewed Peppi Azzopardi. I consider Peppi a rabid Nationalist, but unlike you, he said that Karmenu Vella is a very valid person, a good communicator and a good politician.

    [Daphne – He’s not a ‘rabid Nationalist’. He voted Labour in 1996 because he thought that Alfred Sant was a very valid person, a good communicator and a good politician. If he said what you say he did about Karmenu Vella, then il-vera tlaqna. Joe Azzopardi was foremost among those protesting against Karmenu Vella and his fellow ministers in the 1980s. If Robert Musumeci was too damned stupid or opportunistic to point that out, I’m not. Or is Joe Azzopardi now going to say that back in the 1980s, with his Zaghzagh Tan-Numri, he fought against all the ministers except Karmenu Vella? Ahjar nidhaq milli nibki. Ma, x’pajjiz tal-imgienen.]

    We also know that the ministers in the 1980s cabinet were all chucked out from the Labour Party by Alfred Sant – but Karmenu Vella was not, which means that he (Sant) didn’t consider him to be one of the “bad” lot. When I see him on TV he comes across as a moderate, soft-spoken and well-reasoned person to me.

    [Daphne – You’re quite wrong there. The only former ministers that Sant got rid of were JOE GRIMA and AST – the ONLY ones. And that’s why Grima and AST turned against him. All the others stayed on – ALL OF THEM. The only people Sant got rid of were the thugs, AST and Grima. He didn’t even get rid of Mintoff, as we all know.]

  5. red nose says:

    Unbelievable how people will vote for this heap! Are we so stupid? Tal-biki!

  6. Bus Driver says:

    Ma nafx hawnx min jiftakar dawk il-pupi tal-missjoni, fejn kont titfa sold fil-kaxxa u tghidtx kemm il-pupu kien jdum iccaqlaq rasu.

    Well, for one thing, once his stint as MEP is done, Edward’s performane in the video shows that he can have a great future in the role of a nodding doll.

    • Grezz says:

      There’s still one of them on a doorstep on the upper right-hand side of Merchants Street, between Britannia Street and St John Street.

  7. Bus Driver says:

    “The craziest bit is that they’re trying to sell this heap of old crocks as a Moviment Gdid Ghal Generazzjoni Gdida”.

    ..or maybe not so crazy, because far too many of the Generazzjoni mhux Gdida is all too aware of the sordid truth as to what MLP/PL was – and is – all about.

  8. TROY says:

    Edward Scicluna used to teach civics at the Naxxar Secondary school. His lessons were never exciting, especially when he used to try and convince his students that communism was the way ahead. He was boring and useless then and even more so now.

  9. Riya says:

    L-amministrazzjoni tal-Labour tfakkarni f’meta kont tifel zghir u kont immur xi party u konna noqoghdu nilaghbu ‘musical chairs’. Ghax hekk ezatt jaghmlu fil-partit, l-istess nies dejjem iduru min fuq siggu ghal fuq iehor.

  10. Anthony Farrugia says:

    Does this mean that the MLP old guard eg Joe Grima, AST, Karmenu Vella, George Vella, Censu Moran, Ronnie Pellegrini have now gained the upper hand to become the new New Labour?

    No wonder that the new whizz kid has put on weight and his bald patch is increasing exponentially. So this was the promised earthquake: out with the new, in with the old.

  11. Riya says:

    Joseph Muscat anqas jaf x’laqtu meta sar kap.

    U issa ix-xjuh u l-korrotti se jgibuh zugraga.

    Ma nohodix bi kbira biex jiggieled xi wahda tajba ma’ Alfred Sant. Ghax dan bis-sahha tieghu qieghed hemm, u hafna minn dawn l-antiki kienu kontra Alfred Sant u ma baqawx fil-partit ghax kien heles minnhom. Issa dan rega dahhalhom.

    Dawn kollha ma’ Mintoff kienu u mhux ma’ Alfred Sant. Nahseb aqta x’balbuljata hemm. AST ma kienx parti minn xi moviment iehor ukoll fi zmien Alfred Sant ? Nahseb aqta x’balbuljati hemm. Partit tal pudini baqghu.

  12. Devil's Advocate says:

    Not sure if memory serves me right, by wasn’t Karmenu Vella, whilst a minister in the ’80s (together with some other Labour exponent) caught unloading stuff at Tunny Net, Mellieha from their boat, on their way back from Sicily, without first passing through customs?

    I wonder what his advice on taxation might be.

    [Daphne – http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2011/02/01/1983-while-the-people-were-starving-maltas-mini-ben-alis-and-trabelsis-made-hay/ ]

  13. silvio farrugia says:

    Is this New Labour then?

  14. Maria says:

    Daphne, I simply love this video of Edwaaaaaaaaaarddd and of the former minister who can’t pronounce the name “Edward” properly.

  15. Ray Spiteri says:

    Karmenu Vella huwa xewka ghal Daphne and her PN masters. Kollox mitlux Daphne, l ikbar tkaxkira flistorja qed tistenna lil PN min hawn u sentejn ohra, jew forsi qabel jekk dawk l erba MP`S Nazzjonalisti ma joqodux kwieti. jien dejjem ivutajt PN imma issa l arroganza ma fijhiex limitu. s`issa mhux ser nivota imma ma nsiebx problema li neqleb il vot jekk jibqa sejjer hekk u ftakar Daphne li billi tatakka u tizra mibeda mhux ser tasal imkien anzi tkompli igieb aktar stmerija ghalik inifsek u ghal partit li inti thaddan.
    LE GHAL ARROGANZA.

    n.b. i hope you get this message even i suspect it will be waiting for moderation……………dik demokrazija ala mubarak.

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