A late night with Super One
You have to hand it to Super One. They know how to do schizophrenic, as Sarah Palin might say, real damn good. You betcha. So first we had Muscat addressing the nation in a format filched from Gonzi (but he hasn’t got what it takes): EU-Malta flags as a backdrop, serious mien, other serious guys (!) flanking him. And immediately after we had some super-partisan propaganda featuring various heads of business and industry, doubtless without their consent, and lots of hysterical headlines about how Malta is heading for recession (what, is Labour in government already?). Then the usual bollocks about how this is the worst budget ever in the history of Malta, worse even than il-Budget tal-Qawsalla bil-prezz tat-tonn taz-zejt, korn bif u sardina – panic, panic, we’re all out of work – and after that, an invitation to come along to Muscat’s ‘national manifestation of courage’, or was it a manifestation of national courage – I forget – and the reminder that it is not going to be partisan, but something to unify us, and we should all take our Maltese flags.
It was a pretty tame budget, all round – no shocks or excitement. My golden star award goes to this measure:
Long-term unemployed to do community work
…..the unemployed who have been registering for work for more than five years will be required to work a minimum of 30 hours per week in the community and they will be paid 75% of the minimum wage.
That’s right, get them off their butts. If they’re getting paid, at least get them to work for it. This measure will also serve the purpose of weeding out those who are registering for work while they do have a job of sorts. Heaven knows how they’re going to monitor this one, though. I can just imagine what’s coming next: certifikat minghand it-tabib, certifikat minghand il-kappillan, allergies to animals that prevent them working in animal shelters, allergies to women that prevent them working in women’s shelters, allergies to children that prevent them working with kids, allergies to dust that prevent them tidying up litter, allergies to pollen that prevent them working in public gardens….
14 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Well I am highly pissed off with the Gvern on this budget and will be at the national protest of courage!
He didn’t lower tuna by 2 mills!! They need some lessons from Wistin!
one last comment before closing the shutters… I do agree with your last comment. Getting a medical certificate in this part of Malta is soooooo easy…prolonged reliance on our social security system has produced a number of extremely crafty people who learned to “walk between the raindrops” and remain on top of the system. I guess we’ll still end up to paying these people salaries or benefits through our contributions and get very little in return though. I do hope that our leaders shall invigorate the civil service and people in authority to curb all forms of useless spending primarily in certain government departments…perhaps this forthcoming recession (or whatever it might be called) shall teach us a lesson or two on how abuses and useless dispensations of public money should be avoided especially in vote catching exercises… im not necessarily referring to the present legislature either. Unfortunately in this country, people are real galantomi when it comes to spending someone else’s money, and unless we mature, we shall only learn bitter lessons through our mistakes.
Once again Government has shown it has no intention of curbing the abuse of those who claim they are unemployed and work 60 hour/500 Euro weeks. They are already getting their 75% of minimum wage as unemployment benefit and will certainly be VERY allergic to community work. There is only one way to control this abuse. The tinda at Ta’ Qali has to be turned into a cinema with a huge flat screen showing non stop sports channel. The unemployed will be invited to attend from 8 to 4 Monday to Friday. Coffee/Tea and sandwiches are provided free at lunchtime. The registered unemployed who accept the invitation are paid 20 Euros for every day they attend. Those who do not attend are struck off the register. There will not be much of a register left by the end of the first week. Guaranteed. Politicians think in terms of votes. Consequently my suggestion will never be implemented.
Daph – You forgot to mention the “allergies to immigrants” (unless they’re blonde or Asian females, of course).
(How funny – I thought the same thing about the budget, too, and in fact posted this comment on The Times last night:
“Better a million budgets like this one, than Muscat as Prime Minister and all the “old Labour” faces as ministers.
How refreshing it will be to see all the lazy bums who habitually register as unemployed without having the slightest inclination to work, having to actually EARN their money, and not have it handed to them for nothing. Well done, Tonio Fenech (and I’m not being sarcastic).”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081103/budget/the-budget-at-a-glance-incentives-and-taxes-to-protect-the-environment )
Now I’m waiting for the Laivieras, Sammuts and elves to come out on the usual attack with references to blinkers and the like. Entertaining!)
Daphne, i thought the budget addressed other points and not only the ‘long-term unemployed to do community work’…… I must have misunderstood all the things Minister Fenech said!
[Daphne – Your point being? I said it was what struck me most, and not that it was the only thing that was said.]
‘Kemm sar jifhem dak il-boy’. Read this abstract from Joseph’s speech :’A Labour government would not have introduced the new water and electricity tariffs in such circumstances – it would have primed the economy, promoted investment and reduced taxes courageously.’ It’s money no problem for our Joseph. We are still waiting for his proposals and what about the promised earthquake in his party?
listening to the intro to each measure as it was announced with quite a lot of superficial/shallow reasons for what was to come, I could not help thinking about the script writer. This guy has a ready career in Hollywood for B movies (or more likely Bollywood). Yep you guessed it – I have a dirty diesel car which is past its sell by date (by a couple of decades) but which is now enemy no.1.
@ Anthony – some unemployed (not all) are definitely allergic to Sports or any other physical activity! :)
My only negative comment on the unemployed part is the fact that only those unemployed for more then 5 years shall be part of the scheme – I would have changed the 5 years to 5 months!
Daphne the intention of that measure was good, but the Govt either wasn’t clever enough or decided to leave a loophole. In order to be efficient, it should have been that persons who are registering for work start community work IMMEDIATELY, whether they’ve been registering for 5 days or 5 years. After all, these people are registering because they WANT to work (sic) don’t they?
As it is currently proposed in the budget, I foresee that the abusers will be registering for 4 years 11 1/2 months — work for one week — then register for a further 4 years 11 1/2 months…. well you get the story.
Sounds like one of those chain gangs prevalent in the American South in the 1930’s to me.
My golden star award goes to this measure:
Long-term unemployed to do community work
…..the unemployed who have been registering for work for more than five years will be required to work a minimum of 30 hours per week in the community and they will be paid 75% of the minimum wage.
This was the only thing right in this budget!! For this well done!
I find these yearly budgets so boring……are they ever shocking or exciting?
If the picture changes so quickly these days, then what is the point of having a yearly budget?
Aren’t they sweet sitting proudly in front of the EU flag? What’s next? An argument parallel to “It was labout who won Real Independence in March 1979? Would it be far fetched if they will be telling us that Labour got us real EU membership as they elected more MEPs? Psssst … Labour only ostensibly opposed membership in reverse psychology, so that the PN will work in favour of membership. It was a Baldrick style ‘cunning plan’.