Famous leg update: Joseph Muscat leaves the house

Published: September 21, 2010 at 8:33pm

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Amazing, isn’t it?

Joseph Muscat’s leg problem keeps him away from places where his presence is expected, but then allows him to go to places where his presence is not required.

He has had his wife, Toni Abela and Anglu Farrugia deputise for him at key engagements over the last few weeks.

Then today he turns up to make a point of laying a wreath at the Independence Day monument, something which – protocol dictates – the leader of the Opposition is not required to do.

So he shirks his duty and blames his leg and then he turns up to do something that is not his duty to get some extra mileage of the wrong sort.

In his insistence that the leader of the Opposition should be permitted to lay flowers at the foot of the monument with the president (head of state) and the prime minister (head of government) he shows that he hasn’t a clue what his role and that of the other two really is.

Lawrence Gonzi did not lay that wreath as head of the Nationalist Party, but in his capacity as prime minister – representative of the people of Malta. George Abela represents Malta, the state.

The leader of the Opposition represents the Opposition, which has no role on an occasion like this. He is not there as the leader of the Labour Party.

In three years’ time, he will be prime minister and laying flowers at the foot of the Independence monument while the Nationalist Party leader stays home and reads the newspapers, or goes to the beach.

Implicit in his insistence that the Opposition leader should be part of the ceremonies is his conflation of ‘Opposition leader’ with ‘Labour leader’.




12 Comments Comment

  1. H.P. Baxxter says:

    I think I have confused them with my admission that life is far from being perfect. They expect anyone who doesn’t vote Labour to think the sun shines out of Gonzi’s arse, and have his cup running over.

  2. Grezz says:

    He’s even found the time to visit the horrible bastard in hospital for the third time running: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100921/local/mintoff-expected-to-be-taken-out-of-itu

  3. p dimech says:

    Prepotenti, m’hemmx izjed xi tghid !

  4. ciccio2010 says:

    Sometimes Joseph literally puts his foot in it. How on earth is he going to explain the word “protocol” to his followers who think they are mittilklass but who Joseph will put on a living wage.

  5. Bob G says:

    He was at the prime minister’s reception at the Upper Barrakka too this evening, on his own two feet.

  6. Joseph Borg says:

    So would you believe that when the PL is in power they will be celebrating Independence Day? How wrong you are. You had already forgotten 1970-1987 and 1996-1998.

    Do remember the days when they did not allow any priest to celebrate to celebrate Independence Day mass?

    [Daphne – I may be in the minority here, but I think the sooner we all relax about Independence Day, Republic Day and Freedom Day, the better. It’s not like we won Independence or full statehood or ‘got rid of the British’ through some great bloody struggle involving major loss of life. They all came in the fullness of time, so to speak – the first because of the decolonisation process, the second because there was no point hanging on to us, and the third because the lease agreement was up. But of course, we had to whip ourselves up into a frenzy of hysteria. Remove the Labour/Nationalist bipolarity from these celebrations and you’ll see that nobody will celebrate them any more, which is exactly as it should be. It’s about time we grew up. Independence Day in the United States and Bastille Day in France are big deals because of the bloody struggles they recall.]

    • Grace says:

      I’m not sure what used to happen in the 70s and 80s, so I will not comment about those days, but when Alfred Sant was Prime Minister he did celebrate Indipendence day by putting flowers at the foot of the monument. If I remember correctly, some silly PN supporters tried to spoil this ceremony by shouting insults at the top of their voices.

      As I said these were a handful of silly persns, I’m sure the PN administration were not behind it.

      As for not allowing priests to celebrate mass, please don’t exagerate your lies because they’ll show you up for what you are. And people will not believe what you say even if it’s true. Remember the story of the boy who called wolf.

  7. Reborn says:

    ‘In three years’ time, he will be prime minister and laying flowers at the foot of the Independence monument while the Nationalist Party leader stays home……..’

    I really hope you are wrong on this one Daphne.

  8. claire abela triganza says:

    Mintoff belongs to the past of the Labour Party and he’s not in power any more. These visits should not be given any importance or publicity.

    If Muscat wants to visit Mintoff then it is his private business and he shouldn’t publicise it. Propaganda minn fuq dahar il-perit!

  9. GiovDeMartino says:

    claire abela triganza thinks that Mintoff belongs to the past etc etc. Some time ago the WSC, as a sign of goodwill, decided to clean and repair Mintoff’s water cisterns or whatever they were, for free.

    Minn fuq daharna, naturalment.

    In the meantime 12 days have passed since I reported no less than 10 water leaks in Mosta and not one has been fixed. But who cares?

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