Qishom tal-festa, jigbru ghan-nar
Trick or treat? It’s almost Hallowe’en, and there are soon going to be little bands of Labour volunteers on your doorstep, heavily disguised as normal people, gathering the cents towards Jason’s salary. Somebody should take note of the gap in the market for some little yellow doorbell-stickers that say ‘Xiehda ta’ Joseph Muscat huma mitluba ma jhabbtux hawn.’
MLP to seek members “door to door”
by Alan Fenech
Di-ve.com
30 September 2008 — 17:05CEST
As from the October 13, 2008 the MLP will be knocking at people’s doors in an attempt to increase the number of paid up members. This was announced during a press conference held at the MLP headquarters on Tuesday. To date the number of MLP paid up members is 19,000. When one considers that more then 141,000 voted Labour in the last general election, the number of paid up members is not satisfactory at all. This has led the party to seek other means of recruiting new members. Representatives of the MLP accompanied by Labour candidates and MPs will be visiting families, irrespectively of their political beliefs, on working days between 1700 CET and 2000CET. The intention of the campaign, according to the MLP, is not only to increase the number of paid-up members but to assure greater participation in the work and changes occurring in the MLP.
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Now, what do they call it, up north, across the channel? ‘Pizzo’, is it?Yes.
[Daphne – Yes. Here are Joey’s boys, come for their protection money.]
So they know where the ones who didn’t vote for them live?
Who do they think they are, The Stazi?
This is an anachronistic idea. I used to be in a PN committee and we once did a massive door to door campaign recruit members and, above all, to persuade them to remove their cable radio at the time of the boycot against Xandir Malta. This was soon after the 1981 elections however, 27 years ago. We had no access to radio or television, there was no internet and many people were afraid to buy In-Nazzjon (many shops did not even stock it) so the only option was to meet people in person, family by family, street by street.
Repeating a 30-year old exercise is pointless. Anyone who wants to join the MLP can go to the nearest kazin and do so easily and freely. At this point, yes, Michael A. Vella is right: it is coercion.
Antoine Vella: Your revelation simply confirms that the large majority on this blog are quite well connected to the Nats. No wonder all this bile and vitriol against Joseph Muscat. The pity for you and your kind is that JM is making significant inroads among unaffiliated voters who are sick and tired of outright lies, massive wastage of public funds (See National Auditor’s Report for 2006)and a pathetic team of ministers who delude themselves that the ripples of the credit crisis will not hit Malta. Talk about leadership!
[Daphne – So we’d be much better off voting for somebody who needed five and a half years of hindsight to realise that the Yes vote won the referendum. Oh, please.]
Gerald
This blog contains often sharp satire and word caricatures but calling it “bile and vitriol” goes to show how unused we are in Malta to political lampooning. Poking fun at Joseph’s mannerisms is not bile and laughing at his companions’ gaffes not vitriol (what does a politician expect when he publishes a photo of himself on an elephant and calls it “International Affairs”?)
What is the basis for your claim that Joseph is “making significant inroads” among unaffiliated voters? Even the latter term is ambiguous. We have very few unaffiliated voters in Malta – what we have is an increasing number of voters who switch their affiliation at the drop of a hat according to their immediate personal interest.
Regarding me and my ‘kind’, I’ve never kept my political allegiance secret and when I’ve had to choose between working for a non-political NGO and taking part in political activities (specifically the EU campaign) I had no doubt what I should do. To paraphrase Orwell, all values are important but some are more important than others.
@ Gerald:
If its the same Antoine Vella, his “connection” with the “Nats” is no secret. He was (is?) a Nationalist councillor – nothing wrong with that, is there?
Now, I’m not at all connected with the “Nats”, but I do find the “idea” of going door-to-door collecting memberships annoying, to say the least, just like posting lottery tickets in households for us to sell, and door to door campaigning before elections, is.