Excuses, excuses

I feel a sensation of shock that Carmel Cacopardo did not do better.

Casting about for reasons to survive into the second quarter of the 21st century, Harry Vassallo has blamed the Nationalist Party for his party’s poor performance at the polls last month.

I suppose the Nationalist Party was also responsible in 1992, 1996, 1998 and 2003. And if you’re looking for the reason why Walter Veltroni’s Rainbow Left coalition failed at the Italian polls last Sunday, leaving Arnold Cassola without his much-coveted Italian parliamentary pension, then you can blame the Nationalist Party for that, too.

When things go wrong for Harry and his cohorts, it’s always the Nationalist Party’s fault. The Nationalist Party failed to fill in his VAT returns, failed to organise the presidential pardon he demanded and is now failing to send him to prison while he stills fails to pay his fines.

Sod it all, the man is actually going to get away with it. He’s not going to pay his fine and he’s not going to prison either – because he’s Harry Vassallo. Now imagine what the Hodor would do if it were a Labour or Nationalist politician in Harry’s position, let alone the party leaders.

Harry told The Malta Independent:

“The other two parties successfully reduced the campaign to a single issue: Choosing whether Lawrence Gonzi or Alfred Sant should be Prime Minister. The Greens could have nothing to say on this issue: To take sides would deny our reason for being. The PN successfully created a national panic casting the Greens as a threat.”

Well, of course the campaign was about choosing the best man for prime minister. What else could it possibly be about? In his determination to carry on with AD’s MLPN fiction, Harry failed to observe that this strategy was used only by the Nationalist Party. The Labour Party did the opposite of what Harry claims, and actually did its best to hide the fact of Alfred Sant, bringing him out only on special occasions and hoping that he would keep his trap shut.

The Greens. The Greens. The Greens. Since when is Alternattiva Demokratika ‘The Greens’? The only greens I see here are the ones in my lose-weight-now salad, and there isn’t a leaf among them that bears even the faintest resemblance to Harry, Arnold or that man with the spectacular eyebrows. I suppose they imagine that calling themselves The Greens sounds what would have been called, in my mother’s day (and probably even theirs) ‘trendy’ and ‘with it’. Well, they’re just in time for the third round of flares and platform shoes.

Here’s Dr-Divorced-From-Reality again:

“There is a sensation of shock that Carmel Cacopardo did not do better while Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was elected in two districts.”

Who’s shocked? These people can’t possibly have truly believed that Carmel Cacopardo would be elected sparat. He probably wouldn’t even have been elected had he stood under the Nationalist Party ticket.

And just listen to this self-deluded reasoning:

“The result is disappointing but we went from 0.7 per cent in 2003 to 9.3 per cent in 2004.”

There goes Harry, comparing apples with pears again. AD (not ‘The Greens’) did not go from 0.7 per cent to 9.3%. The party’s performance in general elections has been more or less static since 1992. The 2004 poll was for the selection of MEPs, not MPs, and it’s a fairly safe bet that when (not if) Cassola tries the same trick next year he’s going to be nowhere near as successful. People don’t have much truck with candidates who hawk their wares unconvincingly from one country to another. It looks a bit self-seeking. But Harry thinks otherwise:

“Perhaps in 2009 it will be time for us to be given the support we need to begin doing something about it.”

Please don’t tell me that Harry is going to put himself forward as an MEP candidate now.