It is my first time writing to you although I have been following your articles since the Times.

Have you seen the advert from PL. You can see it here at http://www.direzzjonisuccess.eu/videos

It is really cheesy. JM goes into a ‘middle-class’ home which is obviously a well converted farmhouse. He enters this home, which definitely looks well designed and maintained despite the hardship that PL always talks about. At this point the advert changes to look like the advert from one of the local banks.

What do you think?

[Daphne – 1. That you can’t talk about how much people are suffering economically while sitting at a chichi table in a chichi home with one of those naff families where the sole role of the mother appears to be getting her hair and nails done while staring blankly as all attempts at conversation are made, in between driving the children mad about their clothes and homework. 2. That ‘mittilkluss’ appears to be the new buzzword for Muscat, who clearly considers himself and his friends to be middle-class, rather than working-class with money and careers, which is precisely how they are seen by really middle-class people from say, Stella Maris parish in Sliema, like myself. (He makes the mistake of thinking that being middle-class is all about having a certain kind of house and a certain level of income, and doesn’t realise that it’s all about a shared approach to life and values and that there are very many middle-class people who have hardly any money at all, but you can still take them anywhere – unlike Muscat and Jason, who will definitely let the side down.) He hasn’t realised that constantly referring to ‘middle class’ presupposes the existence of an upper class. I wonder who he thinks these people are? I am interested in finding out.

Now from a campaign point of view. 1. He shouldn’t have featured in the video, still less presented it himself. His Super One heritage might be hard to shake off, but he has to ditch the temptation to do anything that will remind us that he was a Super One reporter until very recently. In this video, he is Joseph tas-Super One, and not Joseph Muscat the future prime minister. 2. This is an EP campaign, hence the party leader should feature minimally if at all. We are not electing him or his party. We are merely electing five MEPs. 3. He is confusing national issues with EP issues. The cost of living in Malta cannot possibly be affected or directed by any number of members of the European Parliament. 4. He is running a general election campaign four years ahead of time. By 2013 he will long since have run out of steam. He would be smarter to lie low and then begin pouncing in 2012, which is pretty much the strategy used by Sant in the 1990s (it worked for him, because we had barely noticed his existence in the years 1992 to 1995). But Muscat is so pleased with himself, such an Arani Ma, that he just isn’t capable of it. And then he’s married to Mizzzzzz Pushy, which doesn’t help. 5. The promotional video is too long and boring. I have a professional interest in watching it right through the end, but I struggled through part 1 and pressed End Show before part two was over. So Mr and Mrs Average Viewer are not going to be magnetised, unless they are Labour supporters already, in which case….it’s wasted on them.]

In the mid-nineties, there was a chap from Birzebbuga who ran bollock-naked all around Marsaxlokk Bay, as a dare.

Yeps.

I’d say it was a dare …

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090513/local/man-strips-down-at-law-courts

Whoever that guy is – he’s my hero.

Another unAryan looking bloke. Where does Lowell find his poster people?

[Daphne – That’s because he was adopted from Romania, which explains the need to belong/drive out immigrants/protest too much/prove himself. On the other hand, he’s the same age as my kids, so with luck he’ll grow out of it, possibly thanks to a nice girl, which solves all sorts of problems.]

Surprisingly, it wasn’t written as “fAck off” on l-Orizzont.

Try telling that to Toni Abela ( http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2008/09/19/oh-dear-what-an-oxxata-sorry-couldnt-resist-that/ )