Mr Conflict of Interest shoots his mouth off again

Roderick Galdes, Labour’s spokesman on the MEPA and Labour’s representative on the MEPA board, would have had to vote on the St John’s museum extension project and so should maintain some discretion when speaking. But he is, primarily, a Labour man, and protocol and procedure are not big issues with that party.

Here he is again, shooting his mouth off.

The Malta Independent, 28 February

Cathedral Foundation should respect Parliament’s decision

The decision taken unanimously in parliament that the Co-Cathedral museum extension application should be withdrawn should be respected and implemented without delay by the cathedral foundation, Labour Party planning and housing spokesman Roderick Galdes said.

The foundation has said it wants to discuss the two applications which are pending at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. This reaction to the decision in parliament and separately by the Prime Minister and the Archbishop does not fully respect democracy, and nor was it in the national interest, Mr Galdes said.

Parliament had decided the project should be withdrawn so they could not understand the decision by the foundation to continue discussing a decision which has been taken about the project.

Parliament has decided? Well, hardly. The last time I looked, the project hadn’t been put to the vote. The representatives of the owners of the site, the prime minister and the archbishop, decided not to go ahead with it. By the same token, they can change their minds, if and when they wish to do so, and decide to go ahead with it again.

It’s a free country, remember. And God help us should it ever become anything less than free ever again.