Muscat is my shepherd. I shall not want.
A friend has texted me from the Labour panthers-of-courage demo in Valletta. Joseph Muscat, she says, has given a speech that sounds like a cross between Dr John tal-Charismatics and Dun Gorg Preca, referencing religion and Moses walking his people through the wilderness. Barack Obama he ain’t.
Oh, and look at this.
The Times on-line, Sunday, 9th November 2008 – 17:09CET
Updated: Muscat to announce proposals on utility tariffsOpposition leader Joseph Muscat said this afternoon that he will make concrete proposals on the water and electricity tariffs when he replies to the budget speech in Parliament tomorrow. Dr Muscat made his comment as he led a Labour Party “manifestation of courage” in Valletta. The manifestation was a reaction to the new water and electricity rates. Those taking part carried Maltese flags and placards such as “Kontijiet tax-xokkijiet”, “Gvern bla qalb” and “Yes we can” – Barak Obama’s campaign slogan.
Dr Muscat rejected the Prime Minister’s claim that the activity was theatrics, saying this was a manifestation of the people’s feelings and an activity meant to instill courage in the people.
4 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Attn: Gowzef
Yes we can leave you in Opposition, you betcha *wink
If we’re to believe Joseph Muscat, we’re to pay for electricity we didn’t use. I’m going to keep watch over my letterbox tonight. Maybe that’s how the gremlins get into my home to tap into my electricity meter.
By interpreting back-dating of W&E rates to 1st October as having to pay for utilities one did not consume, Joseph Muscat clearly demonstrated that he has no clue at all about such matters.
Back-dating does not increase past consumption, but only affects the rate at which the actual consumption would eventually be billed.
Joseph Muscat is not only proving himself to be an ongoing PR disaster, but has now publicly shown himself to be incapable of correctly interpreting a simple explanatory note on rate changes on a utility bill.
Holding a partisan protest against changes in utility tariffs that he knows are fully justified was an irresponsible act by the Leader of the Opposition. Compounding that by an unfounded declaration that consumers would be made to pay high rates for utilities not consumed,is totally unacceptable. Such declarations can only create unnecessary anxiety in a world-wide climate of economic uncertainty.
By his actions and declarations, Joseph Muscat is evidently a disciple of his predecessors Alfred Sant who sought to build, but in the event only managed to destroy, his political career by resorting to cheap shots the sole aim of which was to garner the odd one or two votes.
[Daphne – Yes, I was thinking yesterday evening that the demonstration was exactly the same – and conceived in the same way and for the same reasons – as the 1994 anti-VAT protest that marked the start of two years of agitating about VAT and eventually led to Sant’s election in 1996. The only difference is that this time, Vince Farrugia wasn’t marching at the head of the column alongside the GWU leader. The only lessons Muscat seems to have learned from that time is that picking on an issue which is affecting people’s pockets, however justifiably, and promising to deliver them from it, will get you into power. He hasn’t learned the second part of the lesson, which is that you need to have a game plan once you get into power, or you’ll end up with the equivalent of Sant’s CET-induced chaos. Sadly, he depends on the votes of the unthinking and the votes of chancers who think ‘I might as well give it a try if it means paying less’. On Saturday morning I was at the post office and overheard two women who were queuing to pay their bills. Their grumbling was based on the thought processes of a battery chicken. And I thought how nice it is to be reminded on a sunny day that my future lies in the hands of people who can’t formulate a thought.]
So we go from the ‘bewigged wonder’ to the ‘little bearded wonder’. Daphne, “depends on the votes of the unthinking” sums them up perfectly.