Comments on: Ship repair – it’s not pastizzi and fenek

By: Hypatia

Hypatia — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:20:06 +0000

“When Britain’s lease on its military base here expired at midnight on 31 March 1979 (which would make Jum il-Helsien April Fool’s Day), the greatest fear was that the dockyard would have to be shut down because it had become redundant. Its main purpose was no more.”

By 1979, I believe the British Navy was not using the Dockyards very much, if at all. British Navy presence in the Mediterranean had been reduced to a minimum by then.

While I agree with the article in essence, I do not think that the closure of the base, per se, affected the volume of work at the Drydocks.

It did not forbid the repair of military vessels. What did severely limit repairs were the 1987 amendments to the Constitution article 1 (3) (e).

[Daphne – The dockyard has been heavily in the red every year since it ceased to be the Royal Navy Dockyard, Valletta. It didn’t make money before that, either, but then there was no bottom-line to look to. It wasn’t – to use current terminology – a cost centre. It was an overhead. The Royal Navy had ships. Those ships needed repair and maintenance. End of.]

By: A Camilleri

A Camilleri — Mon, 31 May 2010 20:42:06 +0000

In reply to Antoine Vella. and would you enlighten us, how you figured that out, wise Solomon?

By: M. Bormann

M. Bormann — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:11:49 +0000

This must be one of my favourite articles, and it is also pretty spot-on. I hope that those who do not know this stuff read this article. I’m sick of hearing idiot Labour supporters saying that the drydocks was some sort of magic, money making enterprise, and that the Nationalists ended up ruining it.

By: Christian Cachia

Christian Cachia — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:41:43 +0000

Couldn’t agree more with you here, Daphne. At last a step, a big step in the right direction.

On a lighter note, one thing I didn’t agree with you. You said the Labour Party can’t organise a piss-up in a brewery, but one has to admit that Joseph Muscat alone organised one in Parliament a couple of weeks ago.

By: TROY

TROY — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:32:09 +0000

The GWU is saddened by the closure of the dockyard, this was their ‘TERRORIST H.Q.’ This was the place where the famous trucks laden with thugs ready for their tour of terror through our Capital City used to be organized.
LEST WE FORGET.

By: K Farrugia

K Farrugia — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:45:42 +0000

This was far more interesting than Charlon Gouder’s “dossier” about the dockyards.

By: George Cross

George Cross — Mon, 31 May 2010 09:40:08 +0000

This article is absolutely brilliant! Well done, Daphne!

By: Tim Ripard

Tim Ripard — Mon, 31 May 2010 08:41:25 +0000

Point of order: For the sake of accuracy, it’s Malta’s Billion Euro Disaster (not billion lira), but otherwise absolutely spot on.

[Daphne – No. That Lm300 million debt was just a fraction of it. It was the debt accumulated at that point. You also have to factor in the annual bail-outs by the government for suppliers’ bills that had to be paid so that supplies could continue to be received, the salaries which were paid out of taxes over 30 years, the opportunity cost, and so on.]

It’s simply frightening to think that Joseph Muscat has the cheek to complain about ‘vengeance’. Any person in his right mind knows that the drydocks should have been shut down long, long ago.

Even more frightening is that tens of thousands will believe him. The sort of tens of thousands that believe that they are owed a home, education, a health service, security and often a cushy job in the civil service or with a state-owned organisation. The parasites that want everything for ‘free’ when ‘free’ means paid for by honest, hard-working people.

Until the PL can make its supporters see that there is no such thing as a free lunch Malta will never be able to realise its potential.

By: Anthony Farrugia

Anthony Farrugia — Mon, 31 May 2010 07:07:01 +0000

At last, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the largest millstone hanging around our collective necks for the last fifty years and for which we, the taxpayers, had to fork out one billion smackers.

By: Marvin Farrugia

Marvin Farrugia — Sun, 30 May 2010 23:01:28 +0000

Nice Picture of HMS Camberdown, when the The Dockyard was at it peak. You forgot to mention the role the GWU played at the dockyard. GWU leadership throughout the ages always defended unproductive work practices there from the first strike in 1943 when Malta was at war to when the dry docks were privatized to when it was closed down.