There goes the one-seat majority
Flimkien, kollox possibbli
Joe Debono Grech has resigned from the Labour Party and gone off to the sound of thunderbolts, in a great puff of smoke. Ah, but he’s keeping his seat in parliament, so now the government has a two-seat majority over the opposition, and one independent MP sits in the middle.
It’s kind of funny, given that the Labour Party tried so hard to bully one of the MPs on the government side into resigning from the party (though they ‘cunningly’ never said anything about resigning from parliament).
Joe Debono Grech’s resignation from the Labour Party is a good thing for the party, not a bad one, in the long run. I just find it amusing that the first person to throw down the gauntlet in so public a fashion is the very one whom Mr Yap-Yap described as his mentor in a newspaper article.
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Joe Debono Grech is next in line for an MEP seat in case of a by-election, i.e. in case Joseph Muscat resigns as MEP. So there you go. Il-Karkariz is off to Brjuksell.
Like Alfred Mifsud also was his mentor; either his mentors don’t like what they see in and know about JM, or these mentors definitely prefered George Abela in their perceptions and assessments of the best interests for the MLP (and the country, too, perhaps). The MLP narrative continues……
But the P.N. did not gain a vote. Joe Debono Grech will tow the line when coming to vote. So don’t rejoice or don’t count the chickens before they are hatched.
[Moderator – FYI, ‘Lucy Fair’ is Peter Muscat’s new identity.]
@ H.P. Baxxter – JDG is next in line for MEP? Wasn’t that Glenn Beddingfield?
Louis Grech was next in line
sorry – glenn beddingfield was
Isn`t JM refusing to accept the resignation and he said he is sure he`ll make JDG change his mind.
Apparently JDG only spoke to Jason.
Remember Labour Head-quarters is your home too,
I can’t imagine you are happy with Gonzi’s travelling circus..
The Sunday Times (23 March 2008) says Glenn Bedingfield has opened a restaurant and remained non-committed when asked about the EP seat. JDG said he’ll do as told by the Party(…well).
Next in line come Owen Bonnici, Robert Micallef and Wenzu Mintoff.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080323/local/vote-joseph-get-glenn-or-debono-grech
[Moderator – I think it’s actually a wine bar, not a restaurant, and it’s in Birgu. They serve Korean barbecued poodle, French roast peacock and wine from Santeau.]
Yeah, sorry. Well, suppose Glenn Beddingfield decides to jack it all in. Anyway, don’t think that Debono grech will vote against his party just because he “resigned”.
Can JDG be elected to the European Parliament while still remaining a Maltese M.P.? Maybe this is the graceful way to do things. JDG who is well past his political expiry date can be promoted up to a position in Strasbourg thereby leaving his seat in Valletta vacant for JM to take up. That way everyone is happy.
To all,
I think you’re mixing things. JM can only get co-opted in Parliament if a Labour MP who was elected from a bye-election vacates his seat.
And JDG was not elected in this way, no?
@Amrio
JDG was elected through a by-election. See the link pasted by Europarl above.
Actually there were 6 who were lected by a casual election from each side of the house of representatives. The ones from the MLP side were the following:
Joe Debono Grech
Chris Agius
Owen Bonnici
Gavin Gulia
Joseph Sammut
Joseph Cuschieri
@Amrio: It does not necessarily has to be a bye-elected MP who should vacate his seat. In case no one submits his nominiation for a casual election, a new MP is co-opted.
Joe Debono Grech is not going to give up his seat in parliament to Joseph Muscat. His protest resignation makes his feelings about Muscat more than clear. The Labour Party is working on Joseph Cuschieri to resign, in any case. He has been promised a plum party job, if there is such a thing.
@Sam, who tells me that the Labour Party is my home too now: thanks, but I have a very comfortable home already and I’m not the kind who seeks a sense of belonging in clubs and organisations.
@everyone else: note the new buzz-phrases – ‘the Labour Party is your home’; ‘we love you all’. Il-mexxej jghid u l-ohrajn jirrepetu, qishom qabda headless chickens.
Any minute now and he’ll be laying on the love in Jesus sandals and a kaftan. If he were just a little older, I’d suspect that his inspiration was that Coca Cola ad from the early 1970s, in which a group of hippies sang that they’d like to buy the world a home, and keep it company, grow apple trees, keep honey bees, and snow-white turtle doves….. That’s the power of advertising ditties: I can still sing it after 35 years.
Accordindg to NETnews, JDG did resign due to diagreement on who should give up his seat and who should replace JM as an MEP.
@DCG
hehe…a lovely ad!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8H5263jCGg
Ok sorry my mistake. Anyway, what MaltaRightNow is saying (that is, that PN now have a two seat majority) is not correct.
I think that JDG would rather spit on the statue of his beloved Santa Liena than vote with PN…
No, the reason of JDG’s resignation was not due to Joseph being elected leader. It is about something else very different to what the media is saying. I got this from a very reliable source but I have to be sure before I say anything.
Rumour also has it that he withdrew the resignation and will continue working in d party.
@DCG:
“@everyone else: note the new buzz-phrases – ‘the Labour Party is your home’; ‘we love you all’. Il-mexxej jghid u l-ohrajn jirrepetu, qishom qabda headless chickens.”
If we have to be totally objective… how did “u-turn” start off?
Did you watch Bondi Plus ? That’s what I call “love” !!
U jewilla halluna, tridu ?
JM’s theatricals about loving one another seems to have fallen on deaf ears, judging by some of the choice film clips shown on Bondiplus this evening. His ex contestants seemed pretty unimpressed.
There is simply no end to this electoral serial and the MLP is crumbling to pieces.
Now one of the so called moderates has pulled out as well. The post was that of a deputy leader. It seems that he is not ready to deputise for JM – what a show of trust – even though he said that this had nothing to do with it.
I can’t imagine JDG at the European Parliament…..trying to bite off someone’s tongue !! And something that I still cannot understand is why JDG supported MLCP during the leadership race.
Just cannot wait for tomorrow’s news…..who knows what’s next
@Sybil
..and I thought I heard both of them practically taking an oath they they will be loyal to the MLP come what may, and that they will work from within the party, under the new leader whoever he is. I think the delegates made the best choice they could. Pity fror GA and MF, I really thought that they were a league above the rest. But they can’t just close their mouths can they? Pity. Are they aleady doing the PN’s work? Is it possible they are not aware of the traps the PN has been laying for them for a long time? Now it has been said here that even the Prime Minister’s invitation to Joseph to visit the PN’s HQ was a trick. Oh well. Is it the story of the fly who invited a cordial invitation from a spider, I wonder?
Still parotting the “poodle” spin I see = how boring.
Are you THAT short of ideas?
Amrio, I thought you said you work in IT? Where’s your simple arithmetic then? The Nationalist Party has just one seat more than the Labour Party. A Labour MP resigns the party whip, which means that he remains an MP but his seat has been ‘removed’ from the Labour fold. The Nationalists retain the same number of seats. Labour has one seat fewer than it had before. Bingo! A two seat majority for the PN, irrespective of who Debono Grech votes with on specific issues.
@Albert Farrugia – how does one ‘practically take an oath’? One either takes an oath, or doesn’t.
What matters is not what an MP calls himself, but how he/she votes.
And JDG would rather cut off his nose (to be polite) and eat than vote in a way that even remotely favours the PN. Perħaps the 61 transfers his father got has something to do with it.
So I regret to inform you that the majority stays at one.
Beats me why Gowzeff is begging for helping hands from people like MF or GA. Was’nt one accused of giving the electoral victory to the PN and the other labelled as being a Nationalist troyan horse in disguise? Is’nt Gowzeff well- served with his faithful henchemen Geyzin and Co? Now, it would seem that old JGD has taken it in his own hands to solve the pairing headache for the PN and at the last minute, lawyer Herrera very sensibly withdraws his candidature. Gowzeff promised an earthquake and what he is getting himself into is a colossal twister.
@No, Ganni Borg. The majority is of two seats now. Majorities are numerical things, and as such, they are indisputable. You count the number of seats the Labour Party has, and then you count the number of seats the Nationalist Party has. How Debono Grech chooses to vote is irrelevant for the purposes of calculating the seat-advantage one party has over another, given that Debono Grech is not in either party.
And Ganni Borg, it’s ‘parroting’ not ‘parotting’.
@Caphenni: I’ve just found this little sonnet on your blog. You must be in love. And you must be a man. Read my next post about the profile of the kind of man Joseph is attracting. Next big question for the psychologists: why is it mainly men who fancy Joseph Muscat?
Shall I compare thee to Alfred Sant?
Though art more ginger and more cuddly:
Rough Mike did shake when you dared fly in Schultz,
But the summer campaign’s too short for a wobbly;
Sometimes too hot do our hopeful eyes shine,
When your gold complexion graces our screens;
You promise to win and bring Divorce Divine,
To change nature’s course and do more than the greens.
But don’t let thy eternal promises fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair hair your predecessor wish’st for,
Nor let George blossom and leave you in his shade,
When you go to Brussels while his tree of delegates grow’st.
As long as you can smile and show your carrot-top for all to see,
Say so long to Sant, and save us from Goooonzi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzJ2NKp23WU
It hasn’t even been a week since he was elected and you’re all expecting miracles. He already started off on the right track by inviting back people like Joe Grima, Maria Camilleri, Alex ST etc…you just can’t expect everyone to crop up instantly. I have to admit, I preferred George Abela for leader and was all out in supporting him but I’m realising the delegates have made the right choice.
I love this blog and have read it every single day ever since I heard of it but it’s becoming desperately boring with this ‘poodlemania’ preoccupation, sorry to say!
Dear, oh dear, I misspelt “parroting” – shall I commit Hara-Kiri now, or can I do it later?
As far as the majority goes, you are right – but ONLY in the initial stage, for calculating who got the most first count votes and who will form the Gov.
Once the members are seated, its how they vote that counts, not what they call themselves. And JDG is as likely to vote with the Gov as I am to be chosen as the next Mr Universe.
Sybil, isn’t it a bit juvenile and school-yardish to reduce the debate to the level of writing “Gowzeff” and “Geyzin” instead of “Joseph” and “Jason”?
By th way – it’s “Trojan” not “Troyan” – but Daphne won’t point that out, cos you happen to be on her side.
So he saw the light about the EU when he became a MEP and started getting his hefty pay cheque in Euros I presume. And all the perks. This does not say much for the political maturity and vision of someone who expects us to trust him with running the Country. Most Maltese with a modicum of grey matter saw this golden opportunity thirty years ago. When the time came they voted for it. Our Malta deserves to have leaders with a much steeper learning curve than this. There is no place for amateurs at the helm experimenting and U-turning, more so in these difficult times. What Malta needs is Leaders not Lovers. How pathetic.
@Daphne
Apologies if I won’t make any sense in this comment, but I just woke up, and having my 1st cup of tea and my 1st cigarette.
It is simple arithmetic.
I believe we all agree that what is important is how the individual MP’s vote in Parliament. The issue that was always brought up as an example of the ‘problem’ of a one-seat majority is that of pairing when PN ministers and MP’s are out of the country on business.
Before JDG’s resignation, PN ‘had control’ of 1 vote more than MLP; now, PN ‘has control’ of 2 votes more.
PN has a 2 seat majority if you assume that JDG will not toe the MLP party line when voting; that is, if you assume that JDG will either not vote or else will vote against the MLP party line.
But how can you assume that?
So the PN has a majority of two seats. No need to ‘BOO HOO’ over the pairing agreement then. Leave everything as it is.Problem solved.
@0bjectivity
U-Turn in Politics was started by Sir Edward Heath when he took some political decisions which went against what he had promised before the election and the English tabloids starting refering to such decisions as U-turns as is with driving. This buzz-word really took off a couple of years later when Margaret Thatcher was PM and the opposition was critising her for a decision she had taken and one member of the Labour Opposition accused her of making a U-Turn and to quote the exact words she said “The gentleman in the opposition can do as much turning as he wishes but I can assure him that the Lady is not for turning” amidst the laughter and the applause in the House.
Hehehe Daphne, I am in love with a man, but not Joseph Muscat. That poem was meant to be funny :P And it was inspired by your posts, and I sent it to you for your amusement :D
I don’t think it’s only gay men who are attracted to Joseph Muscat though (despite his lovely rainbow-coloured tie when meeting Gonzi).
Even if you think I’m a knob for thinking so, I am as yet hopeful about the new MLP leader. Mostly I am hopeful because there isn’t anything else to be hopeful about Maltese politics. Yes I could be wrong. Joseph could actually make Sant look good. Heck, Alfred Sant made Mintoff look good, so stranger things have happened.
But what other hope does a liberl independent voter in a country ruled by GonziPN for decades (and I say this after having given PN my number 1 and number 2 votes)? My only hope is Joseph Muscat, and I would like to hold on to it until proven wrong.
I don’t care what his hair looks like, I don’t care if you think he’s a poodle, I don’t care if he talks funny or has a stupid smile – as long as he has the balls to speak about the things that matter to me and need speaking about, and as long as he puts together a party worth electing, I will be very happy.
Can I ask all those that are so happy with JM being their leader a question? What exactly is JM’s goal for the direction of the party? I mean lately, with AS at the helm, the ideology kind of shifted to more of a centre-right one. Is JM going to take it back to the centre-left, or what? Did even anyone of you wonder about this? Because I thought you were so proud of MLP because of the ideology it is supposed to promote, this is not sports you know, you do not support a party because you kind of got used to supporting it or because you can not stand the other team!!
I am very confused of where JM stands, because he campaigned in a rightist kind of style, but then made some pretty leftist arguments. On the other side, GA was very clear he wanted to take MLP back to a socialist party, with centre-left principles. Some may think this is an artificial concern, but in my opinion it is a central issue that needs clarification in order to have the correct foundations for any political party.
No sunshine, the majority is still one. And even if, for the sake of the argument, we were to say it was two, it would not solve the pairing problem – just ease it very slightly.