Well said, Macduff – it’s a well thought out game. I have not kept up to date with Maltese politics, unfortunately – too much European and global politics to keep up with.

There is a complete truth vacuum in Malta and something needs to be done. We cannot rely on either PN or PL, less on the slimy Greens, the neo-commies or Imperivm Evropa-in-tiny-hamlet. Events are moving fast now yet the Maltese are fast asleep to the realities impinging upon them.

Kev, your comments are so provokative I will spend the night biting my nails if I do not comment.
You are right about whinging admins, especially those about holes. Remember Alfred Sant? His government got sucked into a black one in 1998.

I will not defend the Tories, but in fairness to them, they had pointed out the hole before they were sworn into Downing Street. Maybe you missed this April 2010 edition of the Telegraph (ok, it was not Ambrose), or maybe it was banned in Brussels:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/budget/5198777/Alistair-Darling-and-Gordon-Brown-vanish-down-budget-black-hole.html

The left and right are concepts, useful in communicating with other conceptual human beings, but I am more likely to resort to such directional language when helping tourists around. However, when used conceptually in politics and economics, practically everyone knows that left means spending other people’s money, whereas right means earning your own.

Here are the links:

The Malta-IMF deal: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2010/pr1032.htm

Italy and the French power stations: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE6370QB20100408

Greece and the French frigates: http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-47148620100323

Like this one ?

http://tinyurl.com/34c8omv

There are two types of courses for nurses, the BSc and the diploma. Entry for the BSc requires a grade C or better in biology and chemistry if I am not mistaken, while the requirements for the diploma are more lenient.

I understand that because you are an MD you should try to defend your colleagues (everyone does) but please, there is no need to downgrade others.

Doctors need nurses, and nurses need doctors. Neither would function well without the other. There should be respect between colleagues, and not feelings of superiority and/or inferiority.

You’ve forgotten the Malta’s 100 million loan to the IMF, kev. It was part of the EU’s contribution to IMF, signed last February and mentioned by no-one. Even Joseph Muscat omitted it from his “the Government found for -” list.

The EMU is a sorry story in which everyone is to blame. Germany allowed the peripheral, weaker economies into the Eurozone to boost its exports. It also gave itself a competitive edge: the Germans cut labour costs and increased productivity, and through the Euro, denied the PIGS the possibility to devalue their currency. At the same time, the latter saw their labour costs rise and productivity stall. It was meant to fail, really.

The 750bn “shield”, without any debt restructuring, was pointless. And if any European politician is expecting Greece, or any other troubled country, to pay its mounting debts while deflating the economy, is either a lair, a prancing fool or both.

And you have missed Minister Fenech explaining this whole charade to the nation on TVM’s breakfast programme. “Dan bhaz-zwieg… qeghdin hemm ghat-tajjeb, u anke ghall-hazin.” At least he admitted that it’s a mess. But what he should have said is if he has secured any guarantee to the money we’re loaning Greece. The French are building nuclear power stations in Italy and selling frigates to the Greeks… but what are the small fry in the Eurozone getting in return?

Indeed, I heard the Tories speak of ‘a hole’ in the country’s finances. Not a good omen, that. We all know what happens to hole-whinging administrations.

Concerning your questions, I go off topic because this blog is about what people want to read, not what they need to read. And, no, I am not “slowly turning into a Conservative”.

I have been a libertarian for almost two decades, now. Your question is very much within the left-right paradigm, which is mostly a charade, with insignificant variations of the same politics.

Only the politically dull compartmentalise themselves into left-right boxes, reading and believing only the media within the box they chose (or were born into). I read everything – gems are everywhere, as are concrete slabs and mudstone.