He lied by omission again

This was just a couple of weeks before the general election, when Joseph Muscat was campaigning in Gozo. He was asked a straight, direct question about what his party plans to do, when in government, about the proposals for the Qala quarry/Hondoq.

He replied that the Labour Party is “opposed to the yacht marina and hotel project at Hondoq”. He probably thought he was covered because he had no plans for the actual Hondoq beach or the quarry next door.

People went away reassured and now they wake up to find a giant cruise liner terminal, full-on yacht marina and mega real-estate development not in Hondoq but just down the coast.

Muscat lied. Again. Except that he lied in that very particular way of his: sticking to the essential fact (“I have no plans for Hondoq”) deliberately to mislead, while leaving out the more important information that a mega-project was planned for further along the coast.

A truthful answer would have been: “No, we have no plans for Hondoq or the quarry next door, but we have really huge plans for another quarry further along the coast, including real estate development, a yacht marina and a cruise liner terminal.”