The truth doesn't always prevail
Sometimes, lies and liars are more effective. And despite the very recent experience of Sant’s sustained campaigns of lies and half-truths, we’ve watched Muscat use the same method with success.
The Times, Tuesday, 16th June 2009
Malta tops EU for job creation
Ivan Camilleri, Brussels
Malta was the EU’s best performer in employment between January and March, registering growth despite the battering that jobs have taken from the global recession.
Eurostat, the EU’s statistical arm, said that when compared to the same quarter last year, Malta managed an increase of 1.8 per cent in its employment levels.
By contrast, most other EU member states registered a decline. The sharpest falls were in Latvia (-8.2 per cent), Lithuania (-5.1 per cent) and Hungary (-3 per cent).
In the euro area, the only other member states apart from Malta that did not see a deterioration in employment were Slovenia and Belgium, both of which saw a growth of 0.5 per cent over the same quarter last year, and Germany (0.1 per cent).
All other eurozone members were down, with Spain experiencing the most significant drop of 6.4 per.
The Nationalist Party will see Malta’s performance as vindicating its chosen slogan for its failed European Parliament elections campaign – it had emphasised the government’s ability to create jobs.
Eurostat said that when compared with the same quarter last year, employment dropped by 1.2 per cent in both the euro area and the EU27, after remaining stable in the euro area and increasing by 0.2 per cent in the EU27 in the fourth quarter of 2008. Eurostat estimates that in the first quarter of 2009, 223.8 million men and women were employed in the EU27, of which 146.2 million were in the euro area.
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I guess this was a nice breakfast surprise for Gonzi. He probably knew about it, but this report from Brussels clearly put the election billboards to truth. True maybe they messed up the message but now it has been quietly vindicated. Keep it up, Gonzi – Malta needs you for the next four years.
Better to lose on principles than to win on lies.
No, Isa. Malta needs Gonzi for longer than that.
If I had to mention all the lies that were said by PN leaders in these past few years ….
Like this one David?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090616/local/malta-tops-eu-for-job-creation
Would they be more than the lies the PL told?
Go ahead!
And divide them by the lies told by PL leaders in these past few years it would be equal to n x10^-10000
The PN is not really effective at neutralizing these lies. Also, they are naive at times to think that people will search and look out for the truth themselves. Same thing goes for the misconceptions about the EU. There are loads of lies about the EU being spread around (everything is blamed on the EU nowadays, even the most petty events), while the PN stands still.
To say, as the article does, that these data show Malta to have been the EU’s “best performer in employment” is really stretching things a bit. The Eurostat data show not only the mentioned slight increase in employment but also, more worryingly, a steady increase in Malta’s unemployment rate in the same period.
Since December of last year that rate has grown from 6.0% to 6.8% of the labor force. Good in comparison to some other European countries, but nothing to brag about.
John Lane, the statistics confirm, first of all, that recession is hitting all EU members. The PL is unable to continue denying it and now grudgingly admit that it’s true. They insist, however, that government has seriously aggravated the situation by its policies. The statistics prove that, if anything, government’s policies have shielded us from the worst effects of the recession and Malta is weathering the storm slightly better than any other EU country.
Another “first”:
Malta has highest inflation in euro area countries
Malta had the highest inflation among countries in the euro area in May.
A Eurostat survey found that while the annual inflation was zero percent in euro countries, down from 0.6 percent in April, in Malta this was 3.4 percent.
Inflation was higher than in Malta in five EU states not in the euro area, namely Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.
The lowest annual rates were observed in Ireland (-1.7%), Portugal (-1.2%), Spain and Luxembourg (both -0.9%), and the highest in Romania (5.9%), Lithuania (4.9%) and Latvia (4.4%). Compared with April 2009, annual inflation fell in 24 member states, including Malta.
The lowest 12-month averages up to May were registered in Portugal (1.3%), Ireland (1.5%) and Germany (1.8%), and the highest in Latvia (11.2%), Lithuania (9.3%) and Bulgaria (8.3%).
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090616/local/malta-has-highest-inflation-in-euro-area-countries
In times of recession, inflation helps – in fact the biggest worry in the world at the moment is deflation – that would really spell the end.
Please stop accepting all that the PL leaders state and start thinking, researching and then decide on the subject. There are thousands of articles dealing with inflation, and though they do not agree in all the facts there is at least an agreement on the fact that a mild inflation (<5%) is useful during times of recession.
@John Lane
You obviously live on another planet. Just in case you had not noticed yet there is a global recession and facts are facts – Malta has had the best jobs track record. That does not mean we don’t have problems – it simply means we have coped better than most and that is no coincidence.
At the last general election we chose a good pair of hands – Gonzi. And suffice to say the result was the above news. At the EP elections we chose Muscat and remained a hopeless lot especially on the water and electricity tariffs issue. Come on, Joseph, tell us how much you would have added to the 135 million euro on subsidies for 2008.
It is evident that Malta performed best in employment despite all the difficulties it had to encounter which is contrary to critism lodged against Gonzi & co. How true it is that empty vessels make most sound. God Bless Gonzi.
Yes, God bless Gonzi because he is for job creation. The Labour governments of the 1970s and early 1980s made Malta ‘rich’ but the people only had “il-korpi” and no real jobs. In fact the so-called ‘salvatur’ of Malta is known to have uttered this famous phrase – “I wish I was as good at creating jobs as I was at getting money.”
Labour governments were not even good at getting money. They were good at prostituting Malta with some of the worst individuals on the international stage.
Il-giddieb ghomru qasir.
Posting articles which attempt to pass for journalism by the self styled EU journalist who bores us daily with his copy and paste reports from Brussels doesn’t exactly lend credibility.
[Daphne – Lend credibility to what, Gerald?]
Reading some of the comments on this post makes one almost believe that Gonzi is some sort of divine being who can solve the country’s problems. And this comes from self styled A1 champagne drinking, social circuit party frequenting liberals!
[Daphne – Actually, Gerald, I can’t stand champagne and I really hate parties unless they’re somewhere other than Malta. There’s very little to be said for going to parties where the only people you see are the same ones you’ve been seeing for the last 40-odd years: from nappies to crutches, with the same faces along the way.]