Absolutely the top comment of the week
Published:
November 22, 2013 at 12:13am
Sent in by Joe Le Brun (and this is a true account):
Flew into London Heathrow yesterday and upon presentation of my passport, the UK immigration officer exclaimed: “Oh, I’m waiting for the January sales to get myself one of those”. Priceless moment.
73 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Thank you, Joseph Muscat. We are the laughing stock of the planet, thanks to you.
So proud that Malta is the talk of the town in every bloody town and city. We love you Joseph! And we love you too, George!
How bloody embarrassing.
Massive.
I’m going to buy a St Kitts & Nevis passport before my next trip. At least that’s old news.
If you think that is bad, think of people like me whose job is to market Malta to institutions as a serious EU financial centre.
#massive(ly) depressing
But how can you convince the Labour people what a prat their leader is? These people have been forged by Dom Mintoff – they are followers of party line and relentlessly dogmatic.
You can’t. Many of them, even in this day and age, don’t even have a historical perspective that understands 200-400 years. Added to that, the core can’t entirely understand anything strung together in different language to Maltese, which means exposure to different thought will remain highly limited.
As for the supposedly educated bunch, they revert to original mould at the first available opportunity.
They like to say that li jghodd, dak li ghandi fil-but. That’s the only line they’ll understand, and Joseph Muscat’s illusion was to convince them that they were being i) short-changed and ii) that he was the key to the pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow.
I doubt they even care about him, just that under Labour, psychologically, they switch on to a different modus operandi under which correct behaviour is a factor that holds no recognition value.
If it were different, if we lived in a proper democracy, there is no way that each scandalous act of this Government to-date and its lies to the electorate would have permitted its survival.
Mintoff already went to such extremes, that to shock these people, the extremes would first need to be surpassed. Yet the lies that this administration’s actions are couched in, and the deflective media, soften the blows and condition the masses. Its morally wrong decisions across various levels pass unhindered and unchecked. Layer upon layer.
The passport issue is one such extreme that has so far shaken off deflection.
The path is wrong and we are continuing down it, weighed down by the sham democracy it has become from day one of its installation – and the daily actions that support it.
When they start queing for jobs and registering as poor with Marie Louise Coleiro Preca .
Forget it
What an embarrassment. What a joke we are.
By George, there’s nothing wrong with being Maltese – being respected for our wisdom, experience and achievements.
This is just so embarrassing. Why won’t they wake up and smell the coffee?
And this morning Tony Zarb is reported in Times of Malta as saying that the GWU has no position on the sale of citizenship.
When foreign investment starts tailing off you can expect his position to be: ‘All the Opposition’s fault for giving Malta’s reputation a bad name.’
There we go. Malta: laughing stock of Europe (and most parts of the world, including China, no doubt).
IF the immigration officer said that,I reapt IF, the govt should take action to have this officer reprimanded and made to ask, no Beg for an apology.
If on the other hand, this incident never happened one has to see whether legal action should be taken against M.Le Brun.
[Daphne – How ridiculous you can be sometimes, Mr Loporto. You are the personification of the clash between British/European and North African (not Italian by any means, though you like to think so) cultures in Malta.]
Dear Mrs Caruana Galizia, this time you are really off the mark. I am no personification of any clashes, I am just a true patriot ,unlike most of your bloggers, who will not permit any body put my country to ridicule, and knowing the situation at Heathrow airport I would’t be surprised if THIS immigration officer was a descendant of some immigrants who has no meaning of loyalty to his country of origin,as maybe because he has not the slightest clue of where it might have been.
And I repeat that the British Government should check the truth and take action because no Govt employee should pass statements like this without being punished.
Further more our Govt should insist with the British Government to go to the bottom of incident.
It is moments like this that Malta misses persons like Mintoff.
You must’ve forgotten your pills again mate – be a good boy and go hide some place now will you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBkOM5CB7jM
I allow anyone to ridicule my country, as long as I can ridicule theirs. That’s liberalism.
I also love my country and feel hurt when it is ridiculed all over the world. That’s why I never trusted Labour with my vote.
Dear Mr. Loporto,
Your need to bully and suppress other people surpasses your love for your country by far. By your own definition you are a xenophobic ultra-nationalist (small ‘n’) and definitely NOT a true patriot.
Yes you are absolutely right, I for one really miss that brand of arrogance (not).
And there goes Loporto, displaying his bigotry once again.
Mr. Loporto, it is people like you that concern me. You want to turn an off-the-cuff remark (that was after all inspired by our glorious leader) into a diplomatic incident.
Time to get that huge chip surgically removed from your shoulder. Why are you so upset? I guess it’s just a bit too close to the truth for your liking.
Oh, and there’s only one blogger here. At least get THAT right.
It seems your lot enjoy arresting immigration officers.
Silvio Loporto is right. Peter Paul Puppet Zammit should immediately request the extradition of that immigration officer.
If, according to you Mr. Loporto, this officer should be made to ask, no, BEG, for an apology, what, in heaven’s name, should we make the sorry excuse we have for a prime minister do?
To me this comment reeks of dictatorship.
What government is this gentleman referring to?
The Maltese one? What jurisdiction does it have to take action against an immigration officer in the UK?
The British one? The British sense of humour cannot be censored to cover Joseph Muscat’s follies.
Why so, Mr. Loporto?
If one follows your ‘logic,’ “I reapt IF”, what should the “govt” do with those who are proposing to sell the Maltese citizenship to unidentified persons?
Victor Meldrew strikes again.
What is to apologise for? Discounts are being offered in Russia at the moment.
It will soon be “buy one get two” type of marketing with a CD of Willie Mangion thrown in as an incentive.
We were the laughing stock of Sicily and London in the bad old days of Dom. “Oh you want to buy gazillion Cadburys and a billion (need to ask Jabba the Hut for correct figure of that one) toothpaste tubes for your family and friends, how is Malta doing nowadays?”
Mr. Loporto, it is not the immigration officer who needs to apologise. It is the Labour Party with its crazy populist policies who should be apologizing and we also need an apology from the Nationalist Party for letting matters get to the point that the electorate could no longer put up with their arrogance and laissez-faire.
Yes, let’s make him beg for an apology while the masses chant “sieg heil”. Get off it, Mr. Loporto, and keep your totalitarian dreams to yourself.
When did I say that I agree with this scheme?
I don’t,and I have written so.
But neither do I agree that anybody especially a foreign Govt employee should try to ridicule somebody’s else country’
I must confess that I find it a shame that we still have people like you, who do not know what love for one’s country is all about.
If loving one’s country labels one as a totalitarian, Well than so be it. It’s better than being labeled as IDIOT.
Mr. Loporto, the to things are not mutually exclusive.
You can love your country and be an IDIOT too.
You are living proof of this.
Where did Liberal imply you agree?
When did I say you agreed with this scheme, Mr. Loporto?
I am no patriot since I value truth, honesty and justice above all else, including nationality.
Seeing that we are lumped with a ridiculous government, Malta deserves all the ridicule it gets.
Screw Malta. There, I said it. Now prepare the firing squad. Maybe I will be proud of my country when it rids itself of fascists like you.
Mr Loporto, if you really love your country, you would have voted PN. Did you?
If not, you owe us an apology.
[Daphne – Silvio Loporto voted Labour, thinks himself very smart for doing so, and boasts about it.]
Well, if you voted Labour, that would make you both.
The best act of love for your country would be to leave it.
Loporto, we do not need foreigners to label us as idiots. Joseph Muscat is doing that singlehanded.
British government to take action against the customs official? For an off-the-cuff, sad but funny remark? I can barely believe what I’m reading.
Maybe we could have Silvio Scerri intervene (again) and get this scallywag under lock & key, taking his phone and iPad, you know, just in case.
Unbelievable – they still think we live in a vacuum the size of a broom-cupboard, while being the centre of the known universe at the same time.
Mr Loporto could suggest to the government to identify the British immigration officer who said those words, and declare him persona non grata. It had to be Joseph Muscat and his decisions to hit the world headlines for the wrong reasons.
This person thinks that we are living in some kind of Soviet dictatorship or something and that the Stasi will be round knocking on our doors at any sign of dissent.
The Black Friday sales in the US are in exactly one week. That must be the real reason for Jo Jo’s quick trip to Miami.
http://www.blackfriday.fm/2013.html
And he wants consensus now? Now, after weeks of insulting all critics as negative and prehistoric while riding roughshod over everyone?
I think I will use my Ozzie passport next time I come to Malta.
X’misthija.
Mr LeBrun should consider himself lucky for not being searched by the bomb squad.
When I used to travel regularly on business, immigration officers with a grin on their face would say “Malta? Ah, Mr Mintoff…!”
Oh well, maybe they were just people trying to damage Malta.
I never dreamed I would say this but my Italian citizenship can’t come soon enough.
I think maltas been a laughing stock WAY BEFORE the citizenship act. And Daphne you should have replied to the officer that THEY (the brits) sold their country in their own way, have a look at London, its packed with foreigners just because they come form a english colony hehe at least some how we are getting paid for foreigners to live her, others just marry someone for 5 yrs and you could divorce and still get the citizenship so i think we rocking the same boat here or even better ;) i think its about time to rethink comments instead of saying how embarrassing malta is and stick up for Malta! BTW the whole world in investing in China, why shouldn’t we do the same?
AND DAPHNE, PLEASE GROW UP AND STOP LIVING IN THE PAST, YOU ARE DOING MORE HARM TO THIS COUNTRY THAN ANY OTHER GOVERNMENT.
THANK YOU AND HAVE A GOOD DAY
[Daphne – Here’s somebody who can’t read or make sense of even a couple of lines.]
Claims Malta to be a long term laughing stock (dig at the PN), but then says we should ‘stick up for Malta’ instead of putting the country down.
Comment about foreigners in London from a (sic) english (sic) colony is not only incorrect but WAY out of date and totally invalid. It’s kazin talk.
We’re investing in China now?
Has NO IDEA what ‘rocking the boat’ means.
Final sentence – now that’s the real reason ‘unknown’ came here today Daphne, to give you a jolly good telling off! I bet you were left traumatized and utterly speechless by that righteous tirade!
Here’s somebody who parrots Joseph Muscat’s words.
Unknown, I suppose it would be lost on you to tell you to get your facts right. Malta was Europe’s and other countries’ envy until some months ago, keeping a strong economy whilst much larger countries were going through a recession.
It is since your beloved party has come into power that we have become the laughing stock of the world. But then again, it happens every time Labour is in government, doesn’t it.
I’m afraid you are barking up the wrong tree. IT IS YOU WHO HAS TO GROW UP and learn how to read and write first, then perhaps you would be able to see things for what they are. Although I very much doubt it.
Looks like there is only one button on this person’s TV remote control.
Unlike the Prime Minister of Malta, ‘unknown’ does not have a British sense of humour.
This post certainly explains the growth of fascism in Malta.
Wow, I actually had to look away a couple of times whilst reading this. Are you even capable of writing one sentence without several mistakes of some sort? Then again, you didn’t even understand the above post, so why am I surprised that you can’t write? Silly me.
Now where’s that blue cover I always used for the passport when it was green…?
I will simply use my ID Card instead of my passport (I believe I can) … and yes, I have renewed it up to 2018.
Not if you go to the UK you can´t.
If someone told me that, I would not consider it a “priceless moment” but would want the earth to open and swallow me up.
We’re being looked down upon and considered as the Maltese population who are “cheaper than cheap”.
It’s our English humour at work here I’m afraid and definitely NOT to be taken as anything like a reflection on Malta. .
But how come Mr Loporto cannot understand English humour? I thought that since our Prime Minister is an expert in English humour, all PL supporters must now be well versed in it.
I agree that we are a laughing stock now, however we are also envied as we can raise finance at the expense of the other European Countries.
I am not in favor of this citizenship scheme as it is offered now. If the LP imposed investment targets to be reached on the potential buyers than yes, this could have been an excellent scheme.
To note; we had already been a ‘laughing stock’ when we acquired the Arriva Bendy Buses not so long ago.
Impartial
So, as Impartial says, the scheme is all right then, because it is at the expense of other European countries.
What utter selfish, short sighted hogwash. So typical of Labour thinking and policies.
Find yourself a new signature, Impartial. You’re fooling nobody here.
I never imagined that a time would ever arrive when I would begin to prefer to have a Gaddafi-green Malta passport with prickly pears, threshing tools and boats all jumbled together rather than a passport that would be indistinguishable from those offered for sale at bargain price to all comers.
It is obvious GWU has no position over citizenship . GWU was never advised of such thing and what is expected of her is to follow the fucken leader . Step off Tony Zarb ,you had your fill years ago , shame on you for your dishonesty.
Guess ‘have no stand on’ translates to ‘have not been told what stand to have on’, this is a common symptom in the absence of grey matter up on top.
I was transiting through Frankfurt airport at the height of the Libyan crisis. Upon seeing my Maltese passport, the official at the counter had nothing but words of praise for Dr. Gonzi and the humanitarian role Malta was playing.
Thanks to Muscat’s government the above reaction is what we have and can expect today.
I am not ashamed to be Maltese. Never have nor ever will be. I am however ashamed of my government for having stooped so low as to make itself the thorn in the side of Europe and the ridicule of the world.
He’s waiting for the January sales and I’m waiting for the next general election.
‘But neither do I agree that anybody especially a foreign Govt employee should try to ridicule somebody’s else country’
Mr. Loporto.
This immigration officer stated the truth so why do you suggest that he should be arrested by the police? These type of arrests happen only in Malta under Labour Governments.
This immigration officer and others acting like him should be granted an ice bun by our Prime Minister Joseph Muscat as he is promoting, free of charge, this intelligent scheme of selling passports like peanuts.