The plot thickens (they must have stirred in some flour)
Malta Today informs us of some of the contents of a modern interview with Joseph Muscat, that Super One television – they of the plagiarised logo – will broadcast later on this evening. The ‘television special’, the newspaper says, will be an ‘American style encounter’, just like all those other American style efforts of the former party leader. It will be informal, we are told, but strangely, a still from this special shows Muscat all trussed up in one of those smart syoots so beloved of contemporary Labour leaders, complete with fat-knotted tie and ‘gufflinks’. This syoot sets him apart from the audience of underlings and inferiors, all of whom are in shirtsleeves.
A tantalising snippet of this informal American-style encounter was leaked to the newspaper. Muscat reveals that Alfred Sant has asked his former poodle for a ‘political sabbatical’ from his duties in the Labour Party’s parliamentary group. Political, as opposed to what – culinary? Never mind. In the ridiculous dance of the seven veils to which the very silly Muscat has reduced the serious business of becoming Leader of the Opposition, this is the latest veil to be dropped, revealing rather less than a Brazilian bikini-wax. Muscat, like the former poodlemeister, is a master of the half-statement, leaving more unsaid than said, which ensures that he has plenty of room for U-turns and half-turns (“I will remove VAT”). He has told us that he will resign his seat in the European Parliament on 25 September, and everyone seems to be confusing this with another declaration that he did not make: that he will be sworn in as Leader of the Opposition on 25 September.
The half-statement in this case is that Sant is going on sabbatical. What is left unsaid is whether he will resign his parliamentary seat or not. We are left guessing, because the Labour Party believes that electors are there to be treated with contempt for five years and then sucked up to for five weeks. We have no right to know whether this country is going to have a Leader of the Opposition before the year is out, apparently. We don’t need to know what they are doing with their blasted seven veils – wrapping them around each other’s throat or playing dressing-up games in front of the mirror with Jason.
So now a new variable has entered the equation: will it be Sant’s seat that Muscat takes, after all, in a procedure far more contorted and involving a great deal more negotiation than that involving the seat of one of the six Labour MPs elected in the casual, rather than general, election? But that would take a damn sight longer than a couple of weeks. Here’s our expert on parliamentary procedure, Fausto Majistral, on how this can be done.
“Actually, there is a way for Muscat to take up the seat of a Labour MP elected on March 8. First, the Labour MP resigns. The Electoral Commission then publishes a writ for a casual election, for which none of the candidates re-submits an application. This would make the seat available for cooption.
That would take him more time that the planned end of this month. Maybe, he’ll be in time to insist that a Labour MP be made President when Fenech-Adami vacates Sant Anton in April …”
You have to hand it to Labour: the party is a laugh a minute. And even funnier are the survey respondents who claim that they trust him more than they trust the prime minister, when he isn’t even Leader of the Opposition yet and doesn’t have a seat in parliament, and so there’s no basis for which to assess him on trust. Spirtu, santu….
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One thing was never made clear Will Dr Joseph Muscat be entitled to a pension when he resigns his seat as EU mp ?
(Daphne – I’ll check.)
will JPO be entitled to a pension when he will be sacked from mp in the next election?
(Daphne – MPs can never be sacked because they don’t have employers. And yes, of course he will – just as Joseph Muscat will be entitled to an MP’s pension without having been elected an MP. He can then add this to his MEP’s pension, which is one of the reasons he is dragging out his hold on his MEP’s seat, and go on television at 65 to tell us about his comfortable lajfstajl….and more fool you lot for handing it to him on a plate.)
well at least JPO served his country as an MP for a good number of years but to get a pension as an EU MP after 3 years is ridiculous What i really wanted to know is if that was the reason to stay on as a EU MP after more than 3 months of being elected as leader
(Daphne – Try to find a reporter who will put that question to him outright. They’re all too busy licking his nether regions. In fact, it was the perfect question to ask on his 100 days Super One show, if only to stop him ranting about his frigging twins. My mother just rang to say I left out one of the best bits in my blog-post about that show: the bit where he was asked what he is most concerned with right now and he replied “Pavements. I find them so difficult to negotiate with a pushchair.” He must have said that at the point when I went to make myself a restorative cup of tea.)
sorry should have said 4 years not 3.
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/msrv/msfullart.asp?an=24037
Poor Us!
(Daphne – A sane and intelligent person questions every report published by Maltastar.com. These are the people who reported, with words placed within quotation marks, the insults I shouted at them in the university auditorium, at the very same time that Super One was rolling a filmat showing me sitting stone-faced and silent. Maltastar.com was set up by Super One’s ace reporter Joseph Muscat. So standards are not particularly high.)
JPO will be sacked just like ninu, louis, etc etc
How many pensions old eddie is entitled for?
(Daphne – The people you call Ninu, Louis etc were not sacked. The sacking of a minister must take place while he or she is a minister – but then I don’t expect you to see the obvious, given that you vote Labour.)
obviously JPO will have to be sacked by the electorate, since wenzu gonzi hasn’t got the balls.
(Daphne – Actually, I’m beginning to suspect that Joseph Muscat is the one without balls, given that he feels the need to prove his fecundity with references to bottles, nappies and twins every time he makes a public appearance. Electors can’t sack people. They can only elect them. Hence the name.)
joseph muscat is young i’m sure he’s got no problems, anyway you can always check yourself.
(Daphne – I find Joseph Muscat to be wholly unattractive and oddly sexless, and so do lots of other women; a sort of human capon, if you like. I can assure you that I am not in the least bit tempted, and you should also know that 35 or 36 is not in the least bit young, in child-bearing terms, for men or women. That’s why so many people in their 30s have twins…because they couldn’t have one unaided. Not that it’s any of our business, of course.)