The White Rabbit
1. ‘At no point was the delegation informed that it was late’, the Labour Party said. The rest of the delegation was on time. Joseph and Michelle Muscat – with their travelling circus of toddler equipment and twins and nanny who should have been left at home – were a full hour late. Does the Labour Party mean to say that the Labour leader has no personal assistant to keep track of these things, and that both he and his wife are incapable of reading a flight itinerary?
2. Joseph and Michelle Muscat were upgraded from economy class. Why bother paying for business class or first class when you know that you’re always going to be upgraded for free? The mentality of a Maltese bum is not to be underestimated.
3. The parents sat in business class while their children sat in economy with their nanny. What sort of people do that? They insist on welding them to their hip in a state meeting with the pope, then fly to Australia in business class while the toddlers sit in cattle-class with their babysitter.
4. They arrive at the airport after the plane was scheduled to take off, then spend 20 minutes in the lavatory, presumably because neither they nor their children are capable of keeping their bladders in check until they’re airborne, even though the people they’ve left waiting crammed into their seats on the runway have to keep their bladders and worse under control whether they like it or not.
X’injoranza ta’ nies. Unbelievable.
The Sunday Times, today
Flight delayed after Muscat’s late arrival
– Matthew Xuereb
An Emirates flight from Malta to Dubai was delayed for more than an hour last Wednesday because Labour leader Joseph Muscat and his family turned up just minutes before take-off.
Flight EK108 via Cyprus was scheduled to depart at 3.40 p.m. but did not leave until 4.44 p.m. because Dr Muscat was late. VIPs are instructed to arrive at the ministerial lounge one hour before take-off.
Sources told The Sunday Times that in line with normal procedure Emirates closed the check-in desk at 3 p.m. and the airline failed in its attempts to contact the Labour leader and his family, who were the only booked passengers who failed to show for the flight.
At 3.30 p.m., Dr Muscat, his wife Michelle and their twin daughters, walked into Malta International Airport’s ministerial lounge. They proceeded to the waiting area until the children were taken to the toilet, from where they emerged 15 to 20 minutes later, according to sources.
In the meantime, Emirates missed its allotted slot to take off, and was only given permission to leave 50 minutes later.
The rest of the Labour delegation, on an official visit to Australia, had arrived at the airport earlier than Dr Muscat. These included Labour MP George Vella and his wife, as well as Labour MP Charles Buhagiar together with his wife and daughter.
The Muscats were given a complimentary upgrade to business class to Dubai and then onto Sydney. The rest of the Labour delegation, including the twins and their nanny, travelled in economy.
The aircraft left the stand at 4.30 p.m. and finally took off at 4.44 p.m. Despite leaving Malta late, the aircraft made up time and only left 23 minutes behind schedule from Cyprus.
Dr Muscat has gained a reputation for tardiness. He was 45 minutes late for the recording of a debate with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi in the run-up to the European Parliament election and also kept Spanish King Juan Carlos waiting during the latter’s state visit to Malta.
When contacted, the Labour Party said: “The (Sunday) Times will appreciate that we are not the civil aviation authorities and thus cannot speculate on flight delays. What we are in a position to confirm is that the delegation was at no time informed it was late, and that the flight arrived on time in Dubai,” a spokesman told The Sunday Times.
The spokesman also said, when asked, that the visit is being funded by the Australian Labour Party while family members paid their own expenses.
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The mentality of a Maltese bum, you say?
What do you think they were doing for twenty minutes in the bathroom? Bumming MIA’s water and electricity.
Minhabba il-kontijiet tad-dawl u l-ilma.
First we had Guido DeMarco, but even his antics pale into insignificance compared to the shenanigans of Joseph Muscat.
And something tells me that we’re in for much more of the same in the years to come.
And we still need to be persuaded that many of us are of Arab origin?
Though I know what you mean, such a comment is uncalled for. There are certainly several Arabs whose behaviour and manners put Muscat to shame.
grezz just tell me about one of them! And stop seeing through blinkered glasses.
@Joy Saunders: Just as there are several cultured, well-mannered Maltese people (and several-more ill- bred, “uncultured” ones), likewise with Arabs. My point is that it is unfair to generalise.
First the Prime Minister is left waiting at the PBS building. Then it’s the turn of the King of Spain.
Now a plane-full of people.
A good cartoon would be of Joseph looking at his watch, people waiting, Gonzi et al, and he is saying ” Il-hin kollu jorqodli” Michelle with a bewildered looked and a question mark upon her head.
This is good !!! really good!!
Joseph Muscat attenda zewg funeralli f’qasir zmien goz-Zejtun u id-darbtejn wasal tard. Dan il-bniedem huwa maledukat.
di nascita I may say. Punctuality is not in his vocabulary. He thinks the world of himself, when he is just a spoilt brat.
And Muscat has not yet reached the pinnacle status of a President or a Prime Minister looking down his nose at the plebs he keeps waiting provided that they ultimately reach thir destination approximately on time through the exertion of the airline crew! And according to the LP he does not even realize when he is an hour late unless it is spelled out to him!
3. The parents sat in business class while their children sat in economy with their nanny.
THIS IS SIMPLY DISGUSTING!
@ Joseph Micallef
Firstly, appreciate that the delegation was travelling at the expense of the Australian Labour Party.
Until this day our MPs travel Economy Class, this also applies to parliamentary delegations, and normally airlines offer a courtesy upgrade to Business Class to the official delegation and their spouses only. I clearly remember a humiliating scene at Heathrow airport when a parliamentary delegation which included Dom Mintoff, Minister Deguara and other PL and PN MPs, queuing up at check-in point. When I saw them I immediately authorised their upgrade to business class.
[Daphne – Why would this be a humiliating scene? Humiliating for whom, exactly? I always queue when required to do so, and don’t find it in the least bit humiliating. During the ash cloud problems, I queued for five hours at the airport to get my tickets changed. A couple of months ago, the person standing behind me in Air Malta’s economy class check-in queue was a billionaire’s son – that’s right, billionaire, not millionaire (not Maltese). He sat in economy, too – a couple of seats ahead of me – while the club class seats were full of….you’ve guessed it, people who hadn’t paid the club class fare, but who had got themselves a free upgrade.]
During a flight there’s only a curtain which divides Business from Economy Class and Business passengers are left free to roam around at will in the two sections of the aircraft. Had Mrs. Muscat left her young twins in economy class unattended you’ll be right to call it simply disgusting, but loving mothers don’t do that do they?
[Daphne – Loving mothers sit with their children. And loving fathers say: “Honey, let’s see if they’ll give us a third seat in business class, then you sit there with the kids and I’ll sit in economy with the baby-sitter. The children will be able to lie down and sleep comfortably up front, and they can’t do that in economy.” And no, people do not wander around the aisles of long-distance flights, not unless they don’t care whether they disturb everyone else.]
Charles,
Do I sense some classist reasoning here! Maybe that is what I was missing from understanding the philosophy governing the “movement”!
As for kids of that age abandoned to travel even half a seat away from their parents over such a long haul, for me, is simply DISGUSTING – no more no less!
@ Charles J Buttigieg,
That’s right, you wouldn’t know anything about queuing – you were AIR LABOUR’s big boy.
Or he’d say ‘Honey, we can easily afford to pay for an upgrade for the kids. Why don’t we do that? After all we’re on a total freebie so what’s a couple of hundred euros, so we can all enjoy a much more comfortable trip TOGETHER?’
I’d never DREAM of leaving them in economy (with or without the nanny) while I enjoy business class, even though my kids are 17 & 12 respectively. Just imagine a typically doting mother such as my wife!
Ibbamjaw il-biljetti minghand il-partit fil-gvern wkoll !
” Charles Buttigieg – As a mother, I would never, ever dream of doing the same thing.
Part of the fun of travelling together, after all, is doing just that: travelling TOGETHER, sharing the experience, no matter how tedious a flight can be; being there to comfort young children if they are afraid or if their ears hurt them (when nobody other than mummy can comfort them); entertaining them (quietly) if they are bored; making sure that they do not bother those around them (as toddlers can sometimes do, especially if on a long flight).
I know that I certainly would not enjoy my trip, knowing that my (young) children were in another part of the plane with some stranger.
I found it hard to digest when I read the bit in The Times about the Muscats arriving late and then – to add insult to injury – sitting separately from their children. My priority when travelling with my children (and I have done so several times) is to always check in early enough to ensure that we are seated right next to each other, even if it sometimes meant leaving (fresh, might I add) for the airport at 5am. Then again, it takes all sorts to make a world.
Still am, Troy – my wife, my children and I still travel Business Class and free of Charge on Air Labour, and also free and First Class on all world airlines. We will enjoy this concession until I kick the bucket.
How do you feel now Troy, blue and looking green with envy?
Grezz, as you said, it takes all sorts to make the world. You are not the wife of the Leader of the Opposition and your future Prime Minister are you?
I wonder how common people would be treated if they turn up at Emirates’ gates half an hour after the gates are closed, and 10 minutes before scheduled departure.
Is this tardiness a strong indicator of arrogrance?
Is the failure of the Labour Party to admit the mistake and to apologise to other passengers further sign of the infiltration of arrogance into the system?
This is sheer irresponsibility!
Narcissistic personality disorder will be better known as the ‘Muscat Syndrome’ some day.
Andrea, good point. I have often wondered if there was a relationship between a Muscat and a Muskrat–a medium sized, semi-acquatic rodent, with a rotund, paunchy appearance. So named because it produces a yellowish, musky-smelling substance that it deposits along travel routes, probably as a means of communication. I find the similarity amazing.
@Andrea. Best one-liner to date.
Manners maketh man
Cinnu, nkella ma narawhx diehel, habib! Anke fil-funeral irid jisraq ix-xena. Min jaf kemm capcpulu u kantawlu meta tela fuq l-ajruplan.
Irriduh, Irriduh, u lil Zeppi irriduh!
Brace yourself australia the muscats are commin, the bloke is a smart arse and his sheila is a bit of a powza.
Shame on Emirates for not leaving without the Muscats. This is not a late arrival because of a tight connection, but just a drive from “beur marrad”. Emirates should compensate the waiting passengers with a free upgrade, and not the persons who delayed the flight.
Veru laghqi, Sur Demicoli.
Oh, stop complaining people! Even you, Daphne! Joseph Muscat, keep it up please. I am sure that all Labour voters will follow suit and arrive an hour late at the polling booths come the general election. It will be the nth time that the PN wins an election thanks to the MLP.
Sew jghid il-Malti – “Min qatt ma libes qalziet, l-ewwel darba li jilbsu jahra fih!”
I do not understand why Emirates bothered to wait. That’s very poor customer service for all the OTHER passengers. Try and do that in the USA and see where it gets you.
I feel sorry for the kids with parents like that.
Failing to be punctual, time and time again could be lack of self-discipline and weakness of attitude which are signs of weakness of character.
I call it arrogance.
DOES HE CONSIDER HIMSELF AND HIS CLAN TO BE V.I.P.s? A FRIEND OF MINE WHO WAS ON THE SAME FLIGHT PHONED ME FROM LARNACA SAYING LI KELLU MSARNU F’SAQAJH LI SER JITILFU IL-CONNECTING FLIGHT.
Why would a woman who is a stay-at-home wife have a nanny? I understand a full-time working mother employing a nanny but not one who does not work outside the home. I read somewhere in some interview that there are 2 full-time nannies in the Muscat household.
I heard that they have 4 nannies, two maids, a cook, a gardener, a chauffeur and a body guard each.
When I heard that I got disgusted and decided to vote PN next time.
Charles J Buttigieg
Well my friend, that wouldn’t be the first member of your family to vote PN.
Veru,veru, Troy, they saw the light before I did.
One of the nannies might be for Joseph Muscat himself; he seems to need one more than his children.
*sarcasm on*
Because she’s the first woman in the whole world who gave birth to a couple of twins. Multiple births in a human are unheard of, so she would need the extra help.
*sarcasm off*
It seems that the people over at Labour think that being pregnant, giving birth and raising children is something uncommon, and at times treat it like it’s a special condition, almost a disability or disease. Look at the way they spoke about Justyne Caruana a couple of days ago: “Mario Galea is on medication to cure his depression, and Justyne Caruana is pregnant ta!!” And the fact that women actually approve of this attitude makes it worse. Simply sickening!
This is not ignorance but arrogance!
His arrogance stems from ignorance.
Even the response from the government-in-waiting reeks of arrogance. The chip on their collective shoulder is growing by the minute, fed by their desperate thirst for power.
Why would the Australian Labour Party fund a visit by an MLP delegation? It doesn’t make sense. This is Australian Labour, right, not the Australian branch of the MLP?
@ H.P. Baxxter, I don’t think ‘LALLU’ knows what he’s talking about.
At the expense of the Aussie Labour Party my arse!
You gave yourself up Roy,now we know who you are,the Melliehi-Canadian who dreams of Chinese building a bridge between Marfa and Gozo. You are so smart!
[Daphne – No, he isn’t. I know who Troy is. He’s not anonymous to me.]
Australian Labour has nothing to do with the visit.
What normally happens is that Malta Labour Party representatives in Australia knock on doors of Maltese-Australian businessmen and ask them to fork out money to cover the expenses.
If they don’t, they will quickly find themselves in the black books of the community which might affect their business. So they don’t have much choice.
Now I’m really confused. That organ of grammar The Times of Malta said that he was invited by the Australian Labour Party, and implied that they also financed the visit. So did (obviously) Maltastar.
So the visit was organised and financed by the Australian branch of MLP? Australian branch? Of MLP? Alas, and so the darkness spreads.
Can’t say I’m surprised really. All the tedious letters sent to the Times from Queensland or Ontario seem to come from hardcore Labourites, if not outright Mintoffians, with 1950s sentiment and the vocabulary to match.
Yes like they knocked on doors to buy EFA a Mercedes and milk and bread prior to 1987.
Really disgusted by Ms Michelle Muscat’s decision to be upgraded to business class while her daughters are with the nanny in another part of the plane. My, oh my … very very motherly indeed.
X’gharukaza hux!!!!!!!!
If Sarkozy may be late for an appointment with the queen due to personal needs, so can Joe Muscat. Joe has a habit of imitating statesmen.
While reading The Sunday times yesterday, I could not understand why this piece deserved to be on the front page.
Beat the guy by not giving him publicity over and above what is necessary, because to be forever in the limelight is what he wants.
I once read somewhere that being too early for an appointment makes you look too eager, being exactly on time as being somewhat of a control freak, being late as not giving a damn.
This is about being five minutes early or late. Being an hour late, apart from force majeur, looks like a total failure in organising one’s affairs or total disdain/contempt for everyone else.
Maybe he’s trying to suck up to the Mintoffjani who so admired their hero for leaving people waiting, sometimes for hours. Another pebble for building up his macho image maybe?
“The parents sat in business class while their children sat in economy with their nanny. What sort of people do that? ”
Tal-Mile High Club.
Bin-nanny issa – mela jekk Joe jkun il-prim xi jkollhom? Xi butler u xi lady-in-waiting?
That’s great – Michelle Muscat supports her husband all the time that’s why she has two nannies. In fact you can see her most of the time having coffees sans kids at St Andrew’s, Sliema and the like. They didn’t take the nannies along when they went to meet the pope and instead they exploited their toddlers. If the Muscats don’t even respect their own loving twins – how would they react with the nation. The MLP is being made to pay for his kids’ nannies while Mrs Leader goes around sipping coffees.
If this bloke can’t even get his family to an airport on time what chance does he have running a country?
Some very intelligent observation Andy, that should be on top of our priority list when assessing who is the best person to lead this country.
With these comments you seem to love Joseph Muscat and his family very much, God help you.
And you too. After all, chances are that in two years’ time, the whole of Malta will be feeling his “terrimot”.
It is one of my principles to be on time and I cannot stand people who are late. I think they have an egoistic personality and believe the world owns them a living. How can we ever trust such a man! Also, when they were already so late, they went to spend a penny and delayed the flight by another 20 minutes. And how arrogant the Labour Party’s statement was….I thought the Nationalists were like that.
“Mr Clegg began his speech setting out the government’s plans for political reform – focusing on what The Liberal Democrat Voice (an unofficial website run by a collective of Lib Dem bloggers) calls “three more Rs: repealing infringements on freedom, reforming politics and redistributing power” – at about 11.15 a.m. British summer time. He was late, again helpful Ms Treneman informs us, adding that this seems to be a habit with the man. “Clegg-time,” she announces, “runs about 15 minutes behind BST.”
– Joseph Muscat’s guru, Mario Vella, in The Times. Oh, so it’s OK to be late because Clegg does it as well? Ask those passengers who were kept locked up in that plane for nearly an hour. And those who had flight connections to make.
This too: “The man – a former journalist and MEP ” referring to Clegg.
Why exactly is the opposition leader using the ministerial lounge?
[Daphne – Because he’s a VIP. It’s the VIP lounge.]
Why on earth did Emirates wait? I would imagine that a plane would only miss its slot for a very important reason and it seems to me the leader of the opposition had none. I’m getting the feeling everyone was looking for them in the departures lounge where they should have been.
Tajba tat-tfal fuq wara – its a pity li Emirates ghandhom il-first u l-economy class biss u m’ghandhomx mitilkless ghax kieku kienu jintefghu kollha hemmhekk. Cajta Buttigieg tiehux ghalik.
[Daphne – Fil-fatt, Emirates ghandhom il-mittilkless u hemmhekk kienu Joseph u Michelle. Emirates’ seating classification system is economy, business and first, and the Muscats were in business class.]
he he tajba daphne!!
About the VIP lounge to my knowledge there is the VIP lounge known as the La vallette club and then there is a special departures/arrivals sector which is usually reserved only for government officials and state representatives on official business. To my knowledge this is called the ministerial lounge – as the times reported. The place is nothing special but it allows dignitaries to pass through swiftly and in a manner that shows that they are kept in high regard. If this is the ministerial lounge the opposition leader used i think that he is breaching protocol or the protocol has been changed…
Oh mate, what I find amusing about this DownUnder “epic journey” of Joseph Muscat is not just the shameful delay on the Luqa tarmac, but what actually happened in the country of the Waltzing Matilda.
1. Joseph Muscat meets the PrimeMinister on 24 May, but no mention on the PrimeMinister’s official website:
http://www.pm.gov.au/
2. If you google Joseph Muscat Kevin Rudd, you will find no reference to this meeting anywhere on the Australian media, Australian Labour Party website, or KevinPM’s Twitter! The only posts are in the Maltese media. Quite unusual, given the sizeable Maltese community in Australia and that a federal election is due in Australia in a few months. One would have expected the ALP and Labour government to advertise this as widely as possible from Perth to Sydney to rally the Maltese vote.
In fact, it probably explains the timing of Joseph Muscat’s visit on an invitation by the ALP.
3. Now have a look at the pictures of the meeting.
See how it is reproduced on l-orizzont:
http://www.l-orizzont.com/news.asp?newsitemid=63045
On maltastar:
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=9330
On the Joseph Muscat website:
http://www.josephmuscat.com/pages/lc/articleDetails_lc.asp?id=2440
But now watch the full picture on the timesofmalta.com:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100524/local/muscat-meets-australian-pm-kevin-rudd
Mr. Rudd with his left hand in the pocket meeting the Great Leader. Well, that is some fair dinkum justice done for the injustice suffered by those passengers on the Emirates Malta-Cyprus flight of 19 May.
‘Yes like they knocked on doors to buy EFA a Mercedes and milk and bread prior to 1987’
Yes before 1987 there were also people knocking on doors to get a government job or government flat, and most of them also paid good money to corrupt people to be able to get this. But that was the order of the day.
Il-LALLU is old enough to remember the statement by Joe Debono Grech ‘ il-bieb tieghi miftuh ghall-Laboristi biss.’
Charles J Buttigieg, Yes my friend BLUE but never green with envy. I’m actually very pleased that you and your family still enjoy the fruit of your hard work at AIR LABOUR so why all this grumping and moaning? Just enjoy life and move on.
I would be very interested to know if he keeps them waiting on the return trip. Anyone willing to bet that the Aussie authorities will hold the flight for his highness?