(Daphne – Raphael and I don’t exchange barbs. What you have here is the grown-up version of a childhood relationship.)

Small suggestion on the Constitutional amendment front: unless there is a concerted effort to fight this nonsense, they will have their way in the end. I propose setting up a focused action group with the specific aim of consigning this proposal to the dustbin of history once and for all. After that, action group disbands and we all go our separate ways.

You have my email address, let me know if interested.

(Daphne – You have a poor sense of judgement if you assess the situation as a choice between bad and worse. It is a choice between dreadful, incompetent and inept, and really rather good. The Nationalists took a country with a broken economy and a dispirited, demoralised population educated only to the age of 16, and turned it into an EU member state with a thriving economy, low unemployment and a high rate of home ownership. Some people think it’s smart to pooh-pooh the Nationalist government’s achievements on this score, but I’m not one of them, because I’m not the sort who thinks that things happen by magic or by coincidence. There is no inconsistency in my being pro-divorce and criticising Muscat (not Joseph; he’s the party leader not my next-door neighbour). I am not a single-issue fanatic, and when picking my government, I’ll choose the one I think best capable of keeping the economy safe from disaster and not the one with a disastrous track record. Divorce is a side-issue, and not an overriding objective.)

This rubbish has started up again:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080915/local/campaign-for-abortion-ban-in-constitution-relaunched

Thought you might be interested to know

(PS – just read your earlier comments on my ‘record’, whatever that’s supposed to mean – which Sunday newspaper are you reading, exactly?)

(Daphne – Something on which we agree, at last. Yes, and I also have a newspaper cutting here on my desk which I mean to write about: Tony Mifsud’s suggestion that all women are pregnancy-tested before leaving the country. Re your PS, I have already told you on more than one occasion that I am NOT going to quarrel with you no matter how much you provoke me. You will always be my friend’s kid brother even when we are in wheelchairs.)

But you know what? My fault for even bothering… continue enjoying your rants, and I’ll enjoy mine.

Over and out.

(Daphne – Sigh. The patience I have with my friend’s kid brother.)

After moving to Malta I pretty soon realised that there were three things which are very fragile to discuss on this precious island; Religion, politics and the Eurovision.

Religion I think I have enough insight to put up a decent argument, so I have already broken that taboo (and will probably keep doing so hehe).

Politics I just don’t feel comfortable with, especially since if you are a affiliated with either of the two mainstream parties, you will automatically think everything the other party does is wrong, backwards, stupid etc (take note I’m generalising here, but still..). Everything is black or white. Take someone like Mintoff, no matter who you speak to you are sure to hear nothing but praise, or nothing but curses and no matter which side they happen to take they will have a thousand items to bring up defending that stance (or rather, attacking the opposing stance). It’s just not a very nuanced (sp?) room for debate. I suppose a lot of the reason behind it is rooted in the two-party system, which is quiet the opposite to what I’m used to, as there are currently two colations, with a total of 7 different parties in power in Sweden. Don’t want to go into the merits and pitfalls of a two-party system, just merely pointing out my lack of insight…

Commenting on Maltese being sore losers in regards to the Eurovision have only supplied me with one threat of violence so far (I’m safe behind a keyboard, so I can reiterate this claim here at least).

Now I have no idea of Raphaels former record in regards to Labourite defenses, but the point in question was pretty valid I think. I don’t find the One logo to be much plagiarism, but on the other hand I don’t feel the Nationalist campaign with the countryside backdrop was a huge deal either.

(Daphne – I know what you mean, Pat, but the real source of the problematic situation is that one party was truly dangerous, backward and threatening – and this is an objective view, not a subjective one, given that I was raised in a family which was affiliated to neither of these political parties but to a third, smaller one called the Constitutional Party, which incidentally had far more shared ground with the Labour Party of pre-Mintoff years than it did with the Nationalist Party, whose ideology was very different. It’s therefore not a matter of choosing between two equals, and those who suggest that it is are being a little bit disingenuous.)

meanwhile, out of curiosity: does everyone who writes a single, vaguely critical comment on your website get treated to a fusillade?

(Daphne – No, Raphael, only you. Seriously, though, do try to use that brain of yours from time to time: there is no scope for debate with somebody who shares my views, only with somebody who doesn’t share my views. If somebody writes in to say ‘I agree with you’, what is there left for me to say: “Oh, no, please don’t agree with me…”?)

Neither party has ever been particularly original when it comes to logos, slogans and so forth: the picture above should be proof enough.

(Daphne – I think a more likely point would be that you are driven to comment only on the rare occasions when you think there is occasion to knock the Nationalist Party, but then there’s never a peep from you about the endless procession of clunking disasters over at the Labour Party. I very much doubt that you were able to watch last night’s performance on Super One without thinking it was ridiculous. Even if you have supported Joseph Muscat until now, you should be embarrassed on his behalf now that you have seen how he comes apart at the seams outside the narrow confines of the Labour HQ stage. Yet are you likely to be honest about this? I very much doubt it. Your mind seems to work like this: criticising Labour = supporting PN = disloyalty to AD. You have somehow managed to get from January to September without finding anything wrong with Labour or the fools who run the party – and you say you have both left and right cerebral hemispheres? It’s hardly surprising Evarist Bartolo is making very loud noises about the Labour Party working with AD.)

(Daphne – Coming from anyone other than Raphael Vassallo, I would have agreed. But unfortunately, despite working as a political journalist for a Sunday newspaper, Mr Vassallo somehow managed to get right through the general election campaign, its aftermath, the shenanigans at the Labour Party general conference and leadership election, and Joseph’s ‘summer of love’ without finding anything wrong, ever, with Labour. He doesn’t even find it amusing that Anglu Farrugia is the new deputy leader of this modern party. Meanwhile, of course, the Nationalist Party and the government are placed in his private square and stoned every week. Raphael is highly intelligent and wasn’t raised in a family of dockyard workers in a single room in Birgu, which means that he must be able to see the Labour Party for what it is – so I can only conclude that there’s an element of intellectual dishonesty here. He doesn’t want to point out the magnificent flaws in Labour because it might be misconstrued as support for – horrors – the PN.)