First of all I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your output, both in the newspapers and now online. I hope you keep this blog going even after the elections. I’ve been reading your articles since the beginning; I like your style, admire your guts, and find myself in agreement with you most of the time.

You’re absolutely right about Dr. Vassallo. It irks me so much that he didn’t just pay up when he had to. This is not schadenfreude on my part. It’s just that the rest of us mere mortals pay up when we have to, even when we think the fine is unfair.

Let me state my case as an example. I’m a single parent and when my daughter was born I began receiving Children’s Allowance, together with a benefit called S.U.P. (Single Unmarried Parent). Then when my daughter was 2 1/2 years old I decided to start working part time in order to live a tad more comfortably. I didn’t earn a great deal and was paying both tax and N.I. on my earnings, which I always declared. However, I kept receiving my monthly SUP cheques which led me to believe that I still qualified for aid, since my part time job wasn’t reaping huge amounts. Boy was I wrong… One fine day I’m summoned to the Social Security office where I was informed that I owed them around LM2,400 back in “overpayments”. I was floored and couldn’t think of how I could rustle up this amount on my piddly part time job. I protested and said that I had never hidden the fact that I was working, and everything was declared. If they had made a mistake and kept sending me my benefits, they should have been more careful. But they weren’t having any of that. Apparently I was meant to inform the nice people at Social Security to stop sending me my benefit cheques because I was living so comfortably off my part-time job. But I digress..

The point is, unfair as it may or may not be, I managed to reach a settlement plan with Social Security, whereby I paid (and am still paying) X amount per month. Fair enough, you might think.. but is it really?

I applaud the Government’s efforts to attract women to join the workforce, but I hear that women joining now can expect not to pay tax for a whole year for every child she has. And to use the vernacular.. “Eh tajjeb!” So I, a single mum, working full time now, paying my taxes and NI kif suppost, + paying back what I “owe”, + having around LM38 deducted from each children’s allowance payment (also to cover that overpayment)… while women starting work now get to not pay tax. Peachy. I applaud the incentive. I just don’t believe in different weights and measures.

BUT that’s life Dr. Vassallo. I would have expected a lawyer and leader of a political party to put his house in order before exposing himself to the fray.

Having said that, I urge those (especially Nationalists) who feel hard done by, by this present administration, not to cut their nose to spite their face and abstain from voting, or vote for another party. Please look at the bigger picture!! We’ve come such a long way since the Dark Ages of my youth (I was born in 1971 and hence spent the first 16 years of my life in an atmosphere which can only be compared to the one created by Lord Voldemort of Harry Potter fame.)

Back then we had no sense of national pride. Now I can hold my head high and be proud of my status as Maltese and European. Our children have a future and we have peace of mind.

If on the other hand, you think it’s time for a change, let me just leave you with this. If you had a child who has been attending the same school for a long time and was doing really well at this school, achieving great grades and reports, would you pluck him out of it and send him to a different school just because you think it’s high time for a change?? Bizarre….

Sorry if I’ve written at length, but right now I am somewhat tense and can only hope that good sense will prevail on Saturday.

First we had a picture of which you never had a complete vision then we had a couple helplessly seeing Malta fading away in the background under a new MLP administration and the last one showing a young lady watching over her back wary of Sant’s self proclaimed right to accuse, prosecute and judge anyone without consenting the right of reply or defence

Super one have a scoop? MEPA phone calls? Not so convincing I must say! We are only hearing parts of the phone calls and I cannot believe someone in power so stupid to risk these tactics on Election eve.

Anyway what frightens me is the 6000 unclaimed votes and as Daphne says the disgrunted ones that have the memory of a goldfish.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/election2008/view/20080306/news/police-commissioner-explains-how-vassallo-was-informed-about-the-arrest-warrants

PLUS another Santist misprint:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/election2008/view/20080306/news/ministry-accuses-sant-of-not-knowing-vat-law

Seriously though, Harry Vassallo is the biggest loser in Malta, to have failed at being a lawyer and a Politician at the same time.

I mean a lawyer of people to think that paper work is not important or to think he can get away with not paying what he owes the court.

I also find it very disturbing that the laborites think that the PN set him up.

If anything the MLP have the most to gain from this.

Harry looks like a fool so he loses from this and Gonzi looks like Stalin if people somehow think he meddled with the case to “gain” political advantage so he loses from this too, but Dr Sant looks like the Virgin Mary outside of this mess.

Any way to find out the political stance on whoever was in charge of this case? You know the one who timed it so perfectly.

[Moderator – I tend to think it was the work some clodhopping policeman, rather than a conniving political instigator. The French are said to have conquered Algeria after a consul was hit in the face with a fan during an argument over a bill.]

Instead they have had another opportunity to present their case for their inalienable right to be treated differently from their fellow citizens.

It’s their way of saying “don’t do as I do but do as I say”.

Let’s not forget that in 2003, Arnold Cassola had requested similar preferential treatment for eligibility to vote in the EU referendum when the electoral law at that point in time said that you had to spend a certain number of days in Malta over the previous period to be eligible to do so.

The point is not whether that law was right or wrong: the point was that if it was you and me, we would have had the rule book thrown at us and deprived of voting. But not Dr Cassola: he demands a right to be treated differently because he is a politician.

And so does Harry today.

And so do members of parliament vis-a-vis their pension entitlements which are not subject to any maximums as are yours and mine.

And so do members of parliament who have no tax on fringe benefits slashed onto their official cars.

So I guess Harry wants different treatment because being a politician makes you, in a way, more equal than others.

I think that this charade has put paid to AD’s credibility in projecting itself as being on a higher moral ground from the other political groupings.

Let’s face it: you will only criticise the other side of the fence until you remain on this side. Once you cross over, you’ll be all that you have been criticising, and possibly worse as well.

[Moderator – they were until 2004, when a board was set to handle those particular requests.]

We are humans. We are all marching on to the moment when our presence here on earth will no longer be needed.
It’s not how we meet the end that counts, ultimately we are all dead men….but how our memory lives on: be a man Harry and ‘die’ with honour that you may live….I for one will respect you for this.