Imbasta jghidu li m'ghandhomx x'jaqsmu ma' Johnny Dalli
Remember all the fuss when I said here that Saviour was going to Brussels to form part of John Dalli’s cabinet? Saviour bounced off the walls of what is looking increasingly like his padded cell, complaining in a very loud voice that I have an agenda and he does not.
I wrote later that Saviour had decided not to go to Brussels after all (life is too much fun here, and that his friend and employee Harry Vassallo, to whom he had given the job of editor of Illum (Malta Today’s Maltese language sister newspaper) would be going instead.
More shouting in print. More bouncing off walls. More accusations that I have an agenda. More denials, this time by Harry Vassallo.
Ah, but I tend to know what I’m saying when I say it, as Magistrate Herrera and a packed courtroom are going to discover when I testify under oath.
And now, in The Sunday Times today:
Harry Vassallo joining Dalli’s team in Brussels
Ivan Camilleri, Brussels
Former Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo is to join EU Commissioner John Dalli’s private cabinet in Brussels.
When contacted, Dr Vassallo confirmed the move saying: “I will be moving to Brussels to be a member of John Dalli’s cabinet.”
The news comes six weeks after Dr Vassallo denied speculation about the move. “It was just too early for me and I hadn’t decided yet,” he said when asked why he had taken a reticent approach.
Sources said Dr Vassallo, who led Alternattiva for 10 years between 1998 and 2008 on a pro-EU ticket, was among the first invited by Mr Dalli to join his team, following his nomination. Until a few days ago, Dr Vassallo was editor of Media Today’s Sunday Maltese language newspaper Illum.
Dr Vassallo, considered to be a moderate, is known to have strong contacts with the Green Group in the European Parliament, which Mr Dalli will be using in his favour particularly due to environment-sensitive issues in his portfolio such as animal welfare and GMOs.
U hallina, Saviour. L-aqwa li issa ghandek il-Consie u r-Robert bhala friends.
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I never knew you’re so much a prophet.
Not a prophet……..she has a very reliably clear crystal ball.
”Ah, but I tend to know what I’m saying when I say it, as Magistrate Herrera and a packed courtroom are going to discover when I testify under oath.”
Commissioner Rizzo, your corps’s tactics did not work. This lady ain’t for gagging.
Plus, with the publicity this case has got, a football ground would probably fit the crowds more comfortably than a courtroom.
Ehh hija, money talks.
I hope John Dalli knows what he’s doing: Harry Vassallo has a disastrous track record with AD. He all but ruined the party, squandering what little goodwill they had managed to build up in the 2004 EP elections. He’s very good at going downhill.
Apart from my initial comment I wish to express my sincere solidarity in your just struggle against injustice. I know the pain of injustice because I have been there. No wonder I left the MLP many years ago. But, is this a repetition?
Madanakollu, il-kritiċi tagħha f’dawn l-aħħar snin saħqu li l-artikli tagħha saru favur il-gvern Nazzjonalista, miżgħudin b’attakki personali kontra l-esponenti tal-Partit Laburista u mimlijin mibegħda klassista kontra l-partitarji Laburisti li fil-maġġoranza tagħhom ġejjin mill-klassi tal-ħaddiema. Il-Qrati sabuha ħatja li tibbaża l-fehmiet tagħha fuq il-preġudizzji tagħha mhux fuq il-fatti.[1]
This is what Wikipidia had to say about Daphne.
[Daphne – Wikipedia doesn’t say anything about anyone. Every Wikipedia entry is written by a volunteer and updated or sabotaged by other volunteers. I don’t know who wrote my original entry, but it is repeatedly sabotaged by one of those Sammut oddballs from Zebbug (let’s not go into detail here). Slander and untruths are one of Wikipedia’s biggest headaches.]
Nahseb lahaq imliehom il-formuli tal-VAT milli jidher…
Well just one week on from Saviour’s champagne celebration of his forthcoming marriage, I’m sure he didn’t want to uproot his fiancée and her toddler to accompany him to Brussels and young love would make it impossible to live apart.
I ‘believe’ you outdid yourself! U naqlalek l-kapell ghall-guts u integrita’ tieghek.
Harry Vassallo loser u dak propja blue imbaghad sab minn fejn jiekol mil-greens. Issa l-Alternattiva nixfu u ma jridx jaf bihom ghax Cassola tradieh.
David, qalbi, Cassola ttradixxa lil kulhadd. Ara kif kien juza n-nisa biss biex ikollu gender balance imma ‘mbaghad allahares jitkellmu. Kieku jista kien idhhal anke kelba jew qattusa basta mara biex ikollu gender balance – li fuq kollox ma kienx jemmen fiha. Jilghaba tal-liberali imma verament huwa tradizjonalist estrem. In-nisa kienu hemm biex jghidu ‘Yes Sir’, u jekk tahsel ma taqbilx mieghu ajma hej! Johodha kontrik qatta bla habel.
Daphne, you are great.
Dawn kollha pezza wahda, m’hemmx differenza bejniethom
Daphne, I have managed to obtain an exclusive photograph of the gravy train. I make you a present of it:
http://www.steveklotz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/India%20train.jpg
Merseyside?
It’s the 10.13 to Southall.
Interesting hux ta’ Harry. I was always wondering whether this guy is insane or really committed – working up all those years for a losing party feels bad, and giving a press conference to a dozen people is depressing.
Well, well, now we have the answer. It seems that my hair is growing white now not due to old age, but to wisdom. Good one, Harry, especially to those morons you left behind really thinking there is a way forward within your so called green party.
What would happen to Malta if every minister and friends of friends were investigated properly? What would we poor souls discover about all the people on either side who are running our country? We hear of so many things which we all say is not true, but by the looks and sounds of things YES all is true.
Maa, what hypocrites! Possibbli ma jindunawx kemm qed jaqghu an neyy? Saviour sab kappell jigih fl ahhar. About time, too.
Stuff your jealousy!
[Daphne – Grow up, Edward ta’ AD. I don’t think there’s a person alive who’s jealous of Harry Vassallo.]
He is off to Brussels to do real politics that influence the lives of 500 million Europeans and you are left there to do petty mud-slinging village political journalism fora newspaper read by 20,000.
Ironic ha?
[Daphne – Not really, Edward, quite apart from the fact that this blog has a readership far in excess of 20,000. Forming part of John Dalli’s cabinet in Brussels for five years between the ages of 55 and 60, then retiring, does not make for a lifetime of achievement. So stop being silly.]
And what is Edward doing that influences anyone’s life positively?
The one thing that AD did to influence 400,000+ people’s lives here in Malta – which is the bit of Europe that counts most for Edward and Harry – is to almost scupper Malta’s chances of joining the EU. And now, with delicious irony, here’s Edward stuffed into rainy suburbia in the UK, courtesy of his EU passport, and, there’s Harry off to “influence the lives of 500 million Europeans”. Let’s hope he doesn’t mess things up for those 500 million.
I am
Edward, it is true that this is carnival week, but you can do better.
Edward inti bqajt bil-ghadma u Harry kiel il-lahma.
How silly of Edward to post this message, when you consider he’s wasting his life as Alternattiva Demokratika’s economic spokesperson.
Maybe Edward is hoping to get a transfer of some sort from dreary England to dreary Brussels.
Please pardon my ignorance. The name Saviour was mentioned many times in this piece…does he have a surname? Sounds like a very lazy piece of journalism!
[Daphne – This is a blog, Frank. How many times must I say that middle-aged people don’t understand the internet? Look at the mess on Facebook, with ‘girls’ my age conducting conversations about other people as though they’re not ‘listening’. And then there are those who, like you, fail to understand that blogs use a conversational, intimate style quite unlike that of newspapers. They’re not ‘journalism’.]
Is this the same Harry Vassallo that did his damnedest and almost succeeded to get in the PL instead of the PN in the last general elections? It had to be John Dalli to reward him.
Hemm min ghandu principji u valuri, u hemm min m’ghandhux.
My thoughts exactly
Apologies for the offence caused Daphne. Contrary to your assumption, I do have a fair idea about blogs as I have been writing one for quite a while (albeit not a political one).
I would have thought that as a journalist of many years standing, your basic journalist training would be ingrained in your writing whether you are blogging or writing a piece for a newspaper.
Incidentally, I notice that other people mentioned in the article all possess surnames, why not Saviour? Am I being pedantic? Possibly, but I ask these questions out of curiosity.
[Daphne – Don’t worry about being pedantic. It is assumed that everyone who reads this blog knows who Saviour is, when the context of the piece is Malta Today. Journalism doesn’t come into it. This is a discussion, not a report.]
Daphne, you wrote: “Ah, but I tend to know what I’m saying when I say it, as Magistrate Herrera and a packed courtroom are going to discover when I testify under oath.”
This is a serious problem! When the magistrate is asked to testify which God will she invoke to bear witness that she will be saying the truth? The one she invoked in marriage?
[Daphne – That is the essential point, exactly. A person who lies and cheats in one situation will have the suspicion hanging over her, or him, that she, or he, will lie and cheat in any other situation. It is a question of trust. If not even Magistrate Herrera’s husband could trust her, how can the rest of us?]
The irony: Harry Vassallo should be grateful towards the PN.
He isn’t. He’s just green with envy.
NEW SUBJECT IN SCHOOLS…
‘Good morning, children, today we shall be talking about politics. You cannot go to university, you cannot graduate, you can be a farmer but you can end up in parliament. Even better, if you develop a sixth sense and start hearing money talk, then you can end up with a nice hot seat in Brussels complete with a nice retirement package, even if you are in the cabinet of somebody you opposed. Next week we shall be tackling the importance of licking other people’s a**es on Facebook, with magistrate Herrera as a special guest.’
I don’t know why you’re making so much fuss about Harry. AD was a good idea in principle. There are people who don’t feel comfortable with either the MLP/PL or the PN. For many both parties are something of a Hobson’s choice and the idea of widening the choice for the electorate was a good one, in principle, as I say.
Harry may have been negative and peevish but I think that at least he wasn’t in favour of big-business and the Church on the one hand and of ‘dumbing-down’ on the other, which is what everyone else has to be nowadays.
Yes, now, he’s been invited to the trough and has decided that licking John Dalli’s boots in return for a decent salary and better pension than one can expect here (that becomes important at 55) is a good idea. As far as I know, he is no longer a public figure and has stepped out of politics (not that he was ever a heavyweight) and whilst everyone can see the irony, it’s no big deal. (Edward had me in stitches with his ‘real politics influencing the lives of 500 million’)
Hallih bi kwietu, gnawing the bones of his frustration in JD’s employ.