GUEST POST: He does deliver, but only billboards
A rather bizarre rumour is doing the rounds. When the vote on the budget is taken a week today, all Labour MPs will vote against except Joseph Muscat.
He will vote in favour.
Consequently, Franco Debono’s anticipated vote against it will be neutralised and the budget will pass. The Labour leader will then walk tall out of parliament and bask in the glory bestowed on him by the nation for ‘saving’ the budget.
Should this scenario come to pass, Labour would once again show that it has turned inconsistency and lack of principle into an art. How can a prospective prime minister and party leader vote one way while his entire party vote for its antithesis on what is essentially a vote of confidence in this government?
How can the entire Opposition vote to bring down the government while its leader votes to keep it in place?
How can the party leader himself vote against the party whip?
Unlike the case of divorce, a budgetary vote is not, and cannot be, a matter of conscience. There is no free vote on the matter and there cannot be, under any circumstance.
In other words, the reasoning – if you could call it that – behind Joseph Muscat alleged strategy is easily decipherable. It is nothing but a cheap political stunt to try to counteract the positive effects that the budget and the election of Simon Busuttil to the PN’s deputy leadership had on the PN’s fortunes.
Over the last four and a half years, Joseph Muscat has predicted, all of 23 times, that this government was about to fall. And in most cases, he had a finger in the pie to try to make it happen.
He tabled motions of no confidence, he voted in favour of others tabled by Franco Debono, and he aided and abetted the three bitter and twisted MPs on the government benches. He has done everything permitted by parliamentary procedures to thwart the five-year mandate that people have democratically given to this government.
It is therefore a bit rich for Joseph Muscat to turn around now and try to come across as a statesman, the noble keeper of the national interest.
A real statesman acts on principle even when he stands to lose politically. A charlatan speaks about principle only when he has nothing to lose. We are now certain what sort man Joseph Muscat is. Always if the rumour turns out to be true, that is.
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Bizarre is an understatement, and this rumour will simply not turn into reality. The present PN administration has run its programme to the end and let Franco vote against the positive budget and Joseph to execute it and so be it.
Keep one thing in mind: Joseph is going to be the first victim of Simon Busuttil’s PN when he becomes leader of PN. When that will come about is anybody’s guess, but it is more probable then Joseph voting for the budget.
TV Marlene: Haven’t you heard “Altar Boy” Simon say that he is working to keep Lawrence Gonzi ( and hence his Clique too) leading the PN for many more years to come ? Some change !
Doesn’t this useless little piece of shit realize that the EU he hates is watching his every move?
That rumour is unlikely to be the truth, given this http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121203/local/PL-will-give-retroactive-Budget-benefits.447913 .
In their heart of hearts Labour want the budget to be voted through. Then they will have sufficient time to think of something.
I am going out on a limb here – this scenario will not come to pass. Franco or no Franco – an election is close enough – so Franco voting against with all of the PL support he could muster will be just too little too silly and too late. It is quite ironic that his one seat majority threat has come to nothing in the end – just his own hanging.
Re Labour’s recent poster about delivery: Can anyone tell us WHAT will Labour deliver? – Up to now it is all top secret. All floaters want to eagerly know NOW to be able to make up their minds where to float
Labour (Joseph Muscat) will deliver us all to hell – most probably it is there where we belong.
While Dr Gonzi promises and keeps his promises as he has always done. Once a gentleman always a gentleman.
The PN has completed its electoral program, and is so close to the natural end of term as makes no difference.
It is fully prepared for Franco’s vote and, I suspect, banking on it to bring back some of the anger and passion lost to many of its supporters.
The whole affair has now been rather ably controlled down to the sorry spectacle of Franco calling curtains on his own short political career and will not change the PN’s plans.
There may be a (very) remote chance that Muscat understands this and is trying to put a spanner in the works, but I can’t see how he can do it without losing any credibility he has left.
I would not think that Franco, Jeffrey et al will be PN’s biggest liabilities in the up-coming elections, neither their reprobate behaviour nor their sadistic comportment.
Nor will PL’s feeble attempts at trying to look like a viable alternative.
The ‘enemy’ is within rather than outside and it’s all due to PN’s penchant for making good on their electoral promises without incorporating what I term to be, a peculiar Maltese social dimension ( a mixture of NIMBY and lack of enforcement when it comes down to ME, ME, ME ).
The monumental uphill set-back will be the gigantic, heartless, three-headed Hydra created by the PN itself, namely : ARMS Ltd., MEPA & VAT Dept. People coming up against one of these entities have, for years, found a blank, solid, illogical corporate entity incapable of showing the least bit of empathy with both enterprising self-employed individuals as well as common family unions.
These three soulless megaliths have destroyed families, dreams, enterprise and entrepreneurship in many a keen eye and with a bit of logic, reason and less-harsh attitudes could have become PN’s greatest assets.
The arrogance on display at each of these entities’ premises is mind-boggling. Threats and bureaucracy ,red tape and innuendo is the order of the day here and, of course, this all transfers to a healthy loathing towards the party in government whether it’s right or wrong.
This is all compounded by debacles such as the Arriva saga, the 500 Euro pay-rise, the Divorce myopic conundrum.
Which brings us to the crucial question : was Alfred Sant right when he declared that the Maltese nation still wasn’t ready for Europe ? Have we started running before we could walk?
Can Malta function effectively without the typical, traditional social dimension ingrained into each and every one of us ? In short, are we ready to have our laws and regulations actually and effectively enforced upon us ?
My answer would be : No, we are still not ready. Having a zillion graduates is no answer to becoming truly European – only the passage of time can do that, coupled, of course, with education in the social skills and thinking.
That is why I believe (against my wishes ) that the PN will have defeated itself at the polls in March 2013.
Could not have said it better, I am sure many followers of this blog share your views.
He probably needs to buy some time to get that killer manifesto ready.
Why not give a free vote. I am sure that quite a number of PL parliamentarians are not in favour of voting against such a good budget.
No, my bet is that a couple of Labour MPs will catch the flu bug on the Budget voting day.
Speculation is rife, but the outcome of the budget vote is not going to be influenced, one way or another.
Franco Debono has to decide on what note he will terminate his political career, and quite frankly his options are not bright. He has blotted his book, and he could repeat Samson’s (he may well harbour the illusion that he is a Samson) last words, “Let Samson die, but so will all the Philistines” and bring the house down.
JM will pounce on any opportunity that FD might give him to enhance his party’s chances at election time.
It is for the electorate, especially the “undecided”, to pass judgement.
Yes – provided he manages to find a halter and a bough strong enough to bear the whole load of his sackful of BS.
I don’t believe this rumour. I think all the labour MPs including Joseph Muscat will vote against.
And if Franco Debono also votes against, in a way he would be doing the PN a favour. If the budget does not pass, people will have to wait several months to benefit from all that is proposed in the budget.
They will certainly not like this and be angry at the PL and Debono for not passing the budget.
This would make the PL lose many votes and the PN would have a better chance of winning the next election.
Somehow I sense a calm Nationalist Party at the moment, fully aware that they are going to lose the coming election, so anything which Franco Debono and/or Joseph Muscat are planning to do to damage the PN – such as voting against the Budget and forcing an early election, could actually help narrow the gap. For the PN, the only way is up, and they are just waiting for FD’s kiss of Juda to kick start the way up.