What odd standards some people have

Published: March 8, 2010 at 6:55pm
The magistrate's Facebook profile picture - before she went underground and deleted it.

The magistrate's Facebook profile picture - before she went underground and deleted it.

This morning, the magistrate fixated on my references to her face, figure, dress sense and age (which is, incidentally, the same as my own).

She was very upset because I called her middle-aged, and cited it as a reason why she felt defamed.

But then she made no mention at all to my references to her sexual morality, or rather the lack of it.

In her mind, she has been defamed because I wrote that she looks like a cross between the back of a bus and Worzel Gummidge.

But saying that she’s a cheat and an adulterer who favoured her lover with court appointments and had sex with him while his wife was busy with their baby, that she broke up a brand-new family just when it was at its most vulnerable point – that’s fine. That’s not defamation in her mind. She didn’t breathe a word about that.

Because it’s true.

Just as it’s true that she looks like Worzel Gummidge (the backs of buses are yellow, so I’ll give her that), that she has an unfortunate figure, that her dress sense is hopeless, and that she’s middle-aged.

What in heaven’s name is she thinking of?




32 Comments Comment

  1. edgar says:

    Forget the back of a bus. More like legs of a billiard table

  2. Gahan says:

    Kemm hu helu Worzel Gummidge, jidher li fih tip.

  3. Ciccio2010 says:

    I think the magistrate should be obliged to you for spiralling her to fame. I hardly knew she existed before.
    Did the magistrate consider references to Ms. Piggy as libellous?

  4. martin said says:

    Mutton dressed as lamb. No further comment!

  5. mark v says:

    Did the court stop you from writing about the magistrate? There is conflicting new on timesofmalta.com and di-ve.

    [Daphne – No, the court refused her request on the grounds that it would restrict freedom of expression.]

    • il-Ginger says:

      restrict freedom of expression you say?
      http://www.saunalahti.fi/parazite/freisler02.jpg

    • Banquo says:

      That’s the point.

      Dr Scerri Herrera is a public officer who occupies a very prominent position in society and whose decisions affect the lives of ordinary citizens.

      It follows that citizens have a right to criticize her, to keep her on her toes, to expect only the best from her, and to expect that if she fails to reach those standards she understands that there is only one honourable way out: speedy resignation.

      Democracy is a term usually used together with another term: LIBERAL. Liberal democracy means that the people are free and that the people rule. Not the rule of the people as the communists understood it, but in the sense of the rule of law, that is that nobody is above the law, because the law comes from the people for the people – all the people, including people entrusted with public positions of power.

      In a liberal democracy, the people have the freedom to express their criticisms because all public office-holders are there on behalf of the people.

      The Maltese seem not to have understood these basic tenets of modern political thought. They are still caught in a time warp in which authority comes from above, embodied in the person of the bishop or the grand master or the inquisitor or the governor and the populace must boot-lick to survive.

      In real, modern, liberal democracies, power comes from the people. And to the people are office-holders answerable and accountable.

      Dr Scerri Herrera is not the director of a small, insignificant import-export company which affects nobody but its own shareholders. She is the occupier of an office of public trust.

      Has she breached that trust?

      In my opinion, and in the opinion of the many, she has.

      If democratic standards are to be upheld, she should resign.

  6. TROY says:

    Good on you, Daphne.

  7. vincent magro says:

    “But saying that she’s a cheat and an adulterer who favoured her lover with court appointments and had sex with him while his wife was busy with their baby, that she broke up a brand-new family just when it was at its most vulnerable point – that’s fine. That’s not defamation in her mind. She didn’t breathe a word about that.”

    Jien lili propju dan jinkwetani, li f’dawn l-akkusi ma sebet xejn defamabli. Jekk dan kien gideb, ghaliex ma hassitiex defamata?
    U x’ghandna nifmu b’dan ahna?

    Li ghada jew il-gimgha d-diehla se thossha defamata b’dan ukoll u se titlob lil-pulizija jinvestigawk? Jew li hu veru?

    Magistrat ma jigix mix-xejn imma xi hadd jappuntah, u filwaqt li kull magistrat ghandu jiddefendi ismu, min appuntah ghandu jassesja l-imgieba tieghu halli jara jekk l-imgieba taqbilx mal-funzjoni li ghalijha giet imwaqqfa l-kariga.

    Ilbierah kont qed naqra xi siltiet fuq l-internet mill- Justinian’s Digest – Book XIV, u sibt dan li gej:-

    “and it was only just that the party who appointed the master of a ship should be liable, just as one who has placed an agent in charge of a shop or a business”

  8. MarioP says:

    It’s straight out of a Monty Python sketch:

    ‘Sue her, sue her!’

    Super One crowd: ‘Yes sue her till she screams!’

    ‘Ok, she’s sued. Now what do we do?’

    Silence from the crowd.

    ‘Hang on, let’s read her blog and see what we can find.’

    ‘Hmmm, adultery, nah. Cheating nah. Look! She’s says I’m 45 years old and that I look like the back of a bus. She’s going to pay for that.’

  9. emanuel says:

    F’dan ir-rittratt aktar tidher qisa xi wahda min dawk li tithajjar tisfen ma xi Pole milli magistrat.

  10. eros says:

    Super One was quick to report that you called her a liar and that she made a fresh report to the police. They used prolonged footage of you, your husband and your sisters as if you were plotting a coup d’etat.

    How pathetic they all are.

    They don’t understand that by painting Consuelo as a martyr, they are exposing her even more to public ridicule.

    Not that you need any advice, but you do realise that you are up against the establishment, and you have to be more than one move ahead of them. Your fan club is increasing by leaps and bounds.

    • N Agius says:

      You would think they had new footage. I was shopping in Valletta today and I saw the whole crew waiting outside court. The magistrate must have been in the footage and perhaps they chose to use last week’s instead.

      [Daphne – Or maybe I just gave them the slip….]

      • One-aholic says:

        One TV did not air any footage showing the magistrate. Why are they treating her less than Noel Arrigo? Or maybe they want to hide her?
        Eros, of course they used prolonged footage of Daphne and family – this time they avoided reproducing any of the photos of the magistrate from Facebook.

      • Gahan says:

        I hope they won’t call the police because you did not help them in their work.
        Umbrellas work miracles.

      • Karm says:

        Maybe that’s because Daphne and her family are easier on the eye.

      • Guzeppi says:

        Pity . . . . we missed another Desigual.

        [Daphne – No jahasra, I had this Etro coat strategically selected to rub their noses in it. Min hu Etro? Xtratu minn fuq il-Monti? Because in Malta, it has to be black, brown or beige. http://www.etro.com ]

      • Etro says:

        Daphne, u jiena hsibt li Etro huwa wiehed li ma jissehibx fl-LGBT Labour.

      • La Redoute says:

        @ One-aholic

        Herrera was appointed by a Labour government. Her brother is a Labour MP and shadow minister of justice. One news ‘reporters’ (ahem) are her friends.

        Next question, please.

  11. Riya says:

    Jekk iwaqqfu il-blog ta’ Daphne naghmlu protesta fejn il-Qorti.

  12. Facebook says:

    Great loss to Facebook … a magistrate’s flabby “sexy” bits on show.

  13. mastr antonio says:

    What are the authorities waiting for?
    They should stop these shenanigans and ask il-Cons to resign….but then the comedy will come to an abrupt end…..thus, go on please so that everyone will get to know more…obviously thanks to the one and only…..DAPHNE.

  14. fufu says:

    Il-veru magistrat tal-misthija ghal Malta.

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