Enough about the sand
I began to write a newspaper column in 1990 after long months of wondering just why newspapers in Malta were divorced from those who read them.
The things people spoke about and the things you read about in the two English-language newspapers which existed then just weren’t the same thing.
Reading the newspaper was like ploughing through dispatches from another reality.
For the last few months, I’ve been feeling the same, and asking myself whether the growth of the media pool has led to the creation of a sort of alternative fish pond, with those who swim in it speaking mainly to each other and building up issues and stories that don’t really exist.
I can see how it happens.
You socialise together, see each other at umpteen press conferences and media events, speak to the same lobbyists, politicos and stakeholders time and time again, and then you run away with the idea that what you think is a big issue really is one, and that others are discussing it as avidly as you are.
I can also see why my perspective is different.
I don’t socialise with others who work for the media, speak only to my immediate colleagues in the field, don’t take calls from politicians (don’t call me, I’ll call you), go to perhaps one press conference in two years and hardly ever go to media events.
My life is conducted, strange though it might sound, away from media circles and in regular life among regular people – to put it that way.
So my perspective is different. I know when something has failed to galvanise people’s interest because I can see and hear it, and that is quite apart from the fact that it has failed to galvanise mine and I’m a bit of a bellwether when it comes to these things, probably because of so many years of immersion.
The Dwejra Sandstorm is one such non-starter. How long is it going to be before certain sections of the media realise that nobody cares, and that the whole thing has been blown right out of proportion?
No doubt, some Alternative Person will come right back at me with the rejoinder that People Should Be Made To Care, to which I have nothing to say but this: newspapers exist for their readers, and not the other way round.
If those who are whipping up a storm in their own little bubble really wish to know what people are saying about Dwejra, it is this: “Kemm se jdumu jeqirdu dwar id-Dwejra? Don’t they have any real stories to write about?”
Mark-Anthony Falzon wrote an excellent piece about this for The Sunday Times this week. I was quite cross at him because I had planned to say the same myself, and he beat me to it. But there you go.
As I write this (Tuesday), I can see that there is yet another Dwejra sand story to chew on. Let’s see for just how much longer this thing is going to be teased out, while readers tell themselves that we are indeed fortunate to live on an island where the big issue is sand chucked on a beach when it shouldn’t have been.
It was worth two pieces at most.
And what to say about the coverage given by the newspapers to the death and burial of a bishop (please, not ‘passing away’)?
The death of Nikol Cauchi took up most of the front page of one newspaper while the European Commission’s approval of a life-saving loan for Air Malta was shoved into a single-column story-bar to the right.
The bishop’s death – not a tragic or newsworthy one by any means, but the sort of death that occurs at the end of a long life – might have been important to people working for the newspaper, but it certainly does not mean it was important to the newspaper’s readers.
They were more concerned about the fate of the national airline, which would have had to file for bankruptcy like other airlines before it, had that loan not been approved.
The coverage given to the death of Nikol Cauchi was the kind that would be appropriate when, say, Mintoff dies. It is not appropriate for a mere bishop whose name and face most people don’t know and who had impact on precious few lives.
He was a nice man by all accounts, but there are many such here and heaven forfend they should all get that kind of overblown treatment.
Talk about not getting your priorities right: something that narrowly saves the national airline from bankruptcy, and which should be considered in the context of the terrible fall-out the collapse of Air Malta would have had for the country as a whole, is almost knocked off the front page, and left clinging by its finger-tips to the side, by the death of a bishop.
It’s unbelievable.
It’s bad enough that politicians are out of touch with people’s lives; we certainly don’t need to have our newspapers go down that road too.
Look at the way that Joseph Muscat and the Labour Party continue to harp on about the skandlu tal-BWSC. Yes, they’ve captured the imagination of their supporters and yes, they’ve also captured the imagination of those who didn’t like the government anyway.
They’re preaching to the converted, but the rest of us are bored rigid and couldn’t give a damn.
All we pick up is the nag, nag, nagging negativity while we try to get on with our lives. This might be hard to swallow, but Mr and Mrs Average don’t really care how a power station is bought and sold. All they care about is how that power station will affect their lives: will it give them better service or worse?
The Labour Party would have had more success in getting us to listen if it managed to find evidence that the new power station extension is going to poison us all in our beds. Joseph Muscat understands this, and he actually tried that gambit first. But when it failed (some creditable environmentalists crawled out of their sand-holes to rubbish the rumours) he was forced to borrow from his former mentor Alfred Sant, with the well-worn ‘I am morally convinced there was corruption’ tack.
Yes, I know it’s terribly difficult having to fill a newspaper or news bulletin every blessed day, whether things happen or they don’t. But where news doesn’t exist, you really can’t create it, especially not out of sand or smoke.
This article is published in The Malta Independent today.
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“They’re preaching to the converted”
They are drumming it into their heads as a unchangeable fact, through repetition, i.e. if evidence suggested the opposite it will not change their minds.
Has Joseph Muscat given his OPINION on Ireland and Portugal, yet?
I fully agree with your article.
On another note, I was astonished by the courts’ decision to grant the father full custody of his sons, and I quote: “The court noted the evidence produced showed the woman was principally to blame for the breakup of the marriage even though she was not the sole cause. When the man was convinced she was having an affair”. (http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101125/local/note-betrays-wife-s-adultery).
Further the court decided: “Authorising their separation, the court ordered an equal division of assets and granted full custody of their two children to the father.”
Is this some sort of punishment for the adulterous woman ?
Well this was actually another story that should NOT have been a main news item except in a tabloid.
However children should never be considered a reward or punishment for either parent, but only their best interests should be considered.
Having said that, sleeping around, apparently left right and centre, hardly provides for a stable environment does it so it’s not a surprising decision from the courts.
How sad for the third child though!
And the writer of the note is an evil beast.
Some other examples:
– Black dust in Paola
– VAT increase on tourism
– Bus fare saga (tourists vs. locals)
– Mintoff’s in hospital, Mintoff’s out of hospital
Enough already.
“…newspapers exist for their readers, and not the other way round.” I think that’s partially true. A responsible media organisation will feed its readers/viewers/listeners what they want but it should also try and educate where possible. Harping on non-issues like the above hardly qualifies though.
What about timesofmalta.com?
Before, I used to ignore the comments, but now I can’t even take the articles.
Who cares if there are people with a higher salary than the President?
Who cares about some random fight that happened at Paceville, which mind you, happens all the time?
Sometimes I wonder if I’m reading another version of Maltastar, with the extra bonus of ignorant comments.
I sent a comment to timesofmalta.com saying that the news item about how many people earn more than the President was going nowhere if they did not include the amount of the President’s salary plus fringe benefits. Obviously my comment was dumped by the moderator.
On the other hand, grocer’s queue type comments and irrelevant sniping between people who post jeering comments about each other are fine.
I have been reading The Times for more years than I care to remember and in the past few years both editorial policy and content have gone astray; the one item that is a constant is the emphasis on UK news – this even applies to the sports pages.
A really good article! prosit
Not to mention the school children’s outing to see the dead bishop, going round in circles around the coffin – what away to spend a school outing. Long gone are the days of a day out at Buskett, with a packed lunch, a football and a Safari tal-peach.
Noel Zarb has mentioned a good point regarding school outings. What is so interesting in visiting a shopping centre and supermarkets? I saw little school-children at Galleria Fgura and Pavi Supermarket. Not to mention that the children at Galleria were so small that they had to literally climb the escalator as they couldn’t go up the stairs without help.
I missed this one. I don’t want to believe that this is true. How old were the children?
The children I saw at Galleria in Fgura were pre-grade children. I don’t know which school they came from. I remember that they were wearing a yellow polo t-shirt as uniform.
The children I saw at Pavi were grade 2 or 3 boys coming from a popular church school in the south of Malta.
Interesting point – and one I have pondered in the past.
Having lived abroad twice over the past decade, I often look at timesofmalta.com and wonder to myself when the insanity will end.
I always end up cherry-picking which stories to read as certain non-stories are not worth wasting time on. On the other hand, when living in Malta, these non-stories become the main topic of conversation because, I found, a number of people would pick up on the stories that the media push and talk about nothing else.
This is a good thing, of course.
The media should highlight important stories and its readers should turn to it to find out what’s happening and inform themselves on the issues of the day.
The problem is that the media in Malta rarely focuses on the issues of the day but regurgitates whatever is fed to them through press releases and hastily convened press conferences instead. We have a brain-dead media in Malta and this leads to a brain-dead population (although the reverse is not necessarily true).
It is shameful that there is no such thing as a true and proper free media in Malta – I know this column & blog combo is free, but we need a minimum of a whole news channel to be free, whether this is radio, print or TV is a separate discussion.
PS: “I’m a bit of a bellwether when it comes to these things” – while true, this sort of statement makes you come across as being a little presumptuous. It doesn’t suit you. Just my 2c, worth of course.
[Daphne – Presumptuous is a word you’d use for an inexperienced beginner, and not somebody who’s been in the business for more than two decades. Look for another word – ‘annoying’, maybe.]
Presumptuous is a word you’d use for an inexperienced beginner
My guess is that he was thinking “pruzuntuza”
The media has to be very careful! The probable shock they gave to Giovanna when she got to know about the sand through the papers! Min jaf!
What also irks me more is that all this noise and no mention of anybody assuming responsibility and liability. What abot the film company may I ask? Or the person who issued the permit?
So…we shouldn’t give a damn when one of the few places of natural beauty is vandalised, we shouldn’t give a damn when the auditor general very, very clearly smells a rat (or sees smoke) regarding the award of one of the biggest public contracts ever. So, what should be give a damn about?
This is the PN machine beginning its work in preparation for the next general election: killing issues.
Already, vocal groups which were previously so vocal have all but disappeared: of note especially is Astrid Vella’s complete departure from the scene.
[Daphne – The curious thing is that people like you fully expected somebody as silly and frivolous as Astrid Vella to have staying power. She was just filling a temporary gap in her life, and has most probably found something else to fill it with now. Ballroom dancing, I believe. And no, I am NOT joking.]
Will the script have the same ending as before? I am so curious.
Well, this is exactly why I follow your blog.
No matter how meticulously I scan the newspapers I never get the feeling of what is *really* going on in Malta.
On a related theme, timesofmalta.com’s first headline this morning was about somebody who found an anonymous note on his windscreen.
It seems that the spicy details of an unfortunate separation case have suddenly become IMPORTANT NEWS.
The pits that newspaper has descended to! It makes me sick!
Thank you.
Mark Anthony Falzon’s piece was excellent, as much as that chippy fellow Peter Gatt’s comment was ridiculous.
My comment to this chap was obviously deleted by the sensitive moderator.
You seem to have missed the letter to the editor in yesterday’s The Times entitled “too many chiefs, but not enough Indians”. If that isn’t racist, what is?
The Times has really gone to the dogs.
Daphne, out of curiosity did you see this comment in the ToM online today (under the article saying that Malta has to guarantee part of the Irish bailout?)
See how the comment ends – how did it slip past the timesofmalta.com moderator?
Kevin DeGiorgo
Oh yay!
One of the poorest EU countries guarantees the debts, reckless overspending and bailout of the filthy rich banks of the 3rd RICHEST EU COUNTRY.
Why didn’t Ireland put in place a proper corporate tax to cover its expenses?
But it is Air Malta that is competing unfairly…
U mbaghad biex jiehdu 4 klandestini llegali diga’ ghaddew 6 snin u hlief kritika, priedki, studji u glied bejniethom ma rajniex.
F’ghoxx l-UE.
I like the EU and the Euro because I think they offer more advantages then disadvantages. But I cannot help but sympathise with this angry guy.
However I don’t approve with the way he decide to end his comment and the moderator should have been more attentive.
Probably because he or she can’t spell Maltese, after all it is an English language newspaper…
Here’s a piece of blatant bias from the Times editorial no less. (23 November).
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101123/opinion/editorial
“A mixture of incompetence, complacency, insensitivity, lack of accountability, greed and blame game playing characterised the way the issue was managed.
….. most of the parties involved seem to be more interested in calming the justifiable anger of NGOs and the majority of the Maltese people at what appears to be blatant disregard of the natural heritage than to pronounce an overdue mea culpa …..
What has happened in Dwejra over the last few weeks is an affront not only to a minority of tree-hugging environmentalists but to the majority of Maltese people who know this fragile natural environment is a scarce resource that will, ultimately, affect the quality of people’s lives both economically and socially.”
And all this for what? All this because someone, not the regulatory authority, did not abide by the conditions of a permit. All this when the net impact on the ecology of the area may well be ZERO!
By hyping up the story, the Times undermines its credibility. For most people, this Dwejra “disaster” is a non-issue.
It is sad to see the Times allow itself to be used by people with an agenda which has nothing to do with love of the environment.
you may argue that Dwejra is just another beach but it is NOT. It is unique in several aspects. The nation/mepa/other people may learn a lesson from what happened there and hopefully the same faith won’t happen to somewhere more ecologically important than Dwejra.
If it’s an ecological disaster to put sand down at Dwejra, then it would make sense to report on the facts from that point of view – once, or maybe twice.
In the wider scheme of things, the sand at Dwejra is a non-issue. There is too much insularity already. Why encourage more?
I can’t quite follow your argument, La Redoute. How can an ecological disaster be a non-issue on any scale?
I said IF it is an ecological disaster. The first reporting objective should have been to determine that. The matter has been treated by the media as though it were an ecological disaster of apocalyptic proportions, yet the reports we see are of who said what to whom, what the come-back was, how various organisations are upset, etc. etc. To which the only appropriate response is “yes, and?”
As things stand, it is a non-issue IN THE WIDER SCHEME OF THINGS.
Does that make sense now?
Father Joe Borg – Blog – The Times
Copy and paste:
Back to Malta
On the flight back to Malta I was reading a copy of Saturday’s The Times. On page seven there were opposing views about the Dwejra controversy. There was a photo of a certain Baldacchino who was showing us a shrub which is called Darniella something or other.
On page one The Times gave us a photo of the poster of the Evening Herald of Ireland. The screaming headline said: 3 weeks to Save Ireland.
The struggle over there is not to save a shrub but a country. Aren’t we lucky?
Daphne, excellent article!
My personal suspicion is that the pro-Labour media is building a whole castle on the Dwejra sand, attacking MEPA, because MEPA happens to be in the portfolio of the Prime Minister.
In doing so, they are, in my view, only undermining the authority of MEPA as one of the important institutions of the state.
I agree with what is said here about Dwejra and about newspapers getting their priorities wrong. It is only with Air Malta and bishop Cauchi that I feel that they got it right for a change. We are terribly bored of hearing about financial failures these days and its too complicated to figure out whether we should be better off without a publicly funded airline or otherwise. The death of a simple and loved man and eventual narration on his life was the breath of fresh air we were all looking for. It was a glimpse into the other world. That is what the simple man looks for at the end of the day.
I felt a little guilty when I grumbled and got fed up with the excessive couverage given to Bishop Cauchi’s death and burial. I thought about my father when he died 6 years ago there was no fuss.
About the power station in my backyard I and thousands care if it will be run on gas or dirty fuel…this administration HAD favoured gas before BWSC came along.
you are out of touch with local realities daphne. more so when you dare to speak the way you did about our dear Bishop Nikol Giuseppe Cauchi, a humble man of humble origins but yet a wise cracker at that. Just ask steve mallia about him and he’ll make you eat your words. It’s the people who glorify you and not vice versa. For him, all those eulogies would have made him like a tomato in the face. But he deserved all that was given to him.
Hmm, a typical conversation about this issue:
Person A) Smajt li miet Nikol Cauchi?
Person B) Iva ta. Kienet fuq it-Times.
Person A) Yup.
———————————————-
It was certainly news worthy but one or two articles would have sufficed.
Are we forgetting that the media have to cater for ALL types of people including the illiterate. It’s like the soap operas on TV – I flip over within half a second, others are glued to the set.
‘The media’ are not an amorphous mass. And there’s more than a little irony in your suggestion that newspapers should cater to the illiterate.
A headline from Timesofmalta.com:
Woman stumbles on two thieves at home
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101125/local/woman-stumbles-on-two-thieves-at-home
What was she doing in the home of two thieves, and how did she miss seeing them before stumbling on them?
10 ON 10 FOR THE SPIN!
What Dwejra sandstorm? I thought does things happen only in deserts.
Bishop Cauchi died? May God give him rest…he was old anyway.
BWSC? They’re still nagging about it! I thought the power station was up and running already!
For a very good number, working in the field is only a gap filler till they get their LLD. The result is what it is. Tal-biki. Can’t say ‘tad-dahk’.
According to yesterday’s The Times, Leo Brincat said that “heads must roll” over the sand affair. Guess how many readers bothered to comment about that story? Zero.
Yeah, his! cause he’s on Joseph’s ‘must get rid of’ list.
If Malta had a genuinely independent BBC style news channel the country would be more prosperous, more beautiful, have cleaner air, be a cleaner country with less corruption, less ignorance, less bigotism, less fanaticism .. the list goes on and on. In fact I lay the blame for the country not progressing as it could have done to all those responsible for the state of public service broadcasting in our country. From the sickeningly partisan Mintoff days to the pathetic (and mind-blowingly boring) notice board style we have today.
The Times has become a joke, while the columnists remind me of Harry Vassallo’s column before last election – they keep repeating the same message. At one point, a reader just gives up.
Time is precious, and we need to be selective. I feel that this site is a must, while Mark A Falzon, Alfred Mifsud and at times Noel Grima are worth reading. The rest are either plain dull or written with an attitude.
As for the reports, one needs to be selective as well. I do not even bother to read an article written by certain reporters, who seem to be regurgitating their prejudices in the guise of a news report. Certain ‘old’ reports seem to have disappeared. The Times seems to be void of an effective editor, and gone astray.
I have stopped going to the so-called mainstream news sites for the news and log on to DCG instead. Especially since the so-called news sites just offer news titbits and no comment whatsoever.
From the comments above it seems that a lot of people read timesofmalta.com.
Daphne sees Bishop’s Cauchi’s death as less important than Air Malta’s troubles, and the sand problem at Dwejra as a storm in a teacup.
[Daphne – Nikol Cauchi’s death IS less important than Air Malta’s troubles, John. It’s not a matter of opinion, but measurable fact. Impact of Cauchi’s death: zilch, except for the sadness of those closest to him. Impact of collapse of Air Malta: doesn’t even bear thinking about.]
Well, I can speak for myself but I found the stories about Bishop Cauchi more interesting than Air Malta’s. I am confident that there will be a way out for Air Malta, there is too much to lose on every side, so they will find another (political)solution.
[Daphne – That’s the trouble, John: your attitude is illustrative of so many other people’s here in Malta. It’s the belief in Father Christmas, that some deus ex machina, some great daddy in the sky, will solve our problems for us so that we can carry on being children. Without the approval of that loan by the Eur Comm, there was going to be NO Air Malta, and the trouble is that the adults in this country are too childish and childlike to understand that this is real life, in which sometimes there are no solutions, people get thrown out of work in their thousands, and shock waves reverberate through the economy. There are people here who think that the sand at Dweja is an ecological disaster. That’s the scale of our thinking. If Dweja is an ecological disaster, then what in God’s name was the Exxon oil spill?]
The Dwejra debacle showed us how things work here in Malta: there is no sense of belonging and no sense of national pride. Mepa showed us how it has two weights for two measures.
In a report in The Times, Minister Giovanna Debono declared she got to know from the papers about the filming at Dwejra, and in the commentary box a certain George Vella vouched that he sent her an email informing her about the sand at Dwejra before the paper reports.
It looked like Giovanna is busy on other things or that she has been sidelined.
In the Dwejra debacle a Grigale storm would have hidden all these obvious finger pointers against the authorities, but it did not materialise. So another kind of storm brought the mismanagement of our heritage to the surface.
It is worth noting that Dwejra’s Azzure window was being proposed as one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
[Daphne -Proposed by whom, John? Anyone could have proposed anything in that competition of which you speak. It wasn’t proposed by some international committee of beauty experts but by a group of navel-gazers from Gozo, who have seen so little of the world, either on television or in real life, that they think the so-called ‘azure window’ is wondrous. It isn’t. At all. And you should know that, as a well-travelled man.]
I wasn’t waiting for some deus ex machina to solve the Air Malta debt approval by the EU. But my feeling about the problem was, and still is that it is something which can be solved round a table and I can’t do much about it by WORRYING.
On the other hand I liked listening to Bishop Cauchi’s talks on RTK, read his articles on the papers and found this person to be highly intelligent , down to earth , witty and informed on social issues. He preferred to reason things out rather than be dogmatic. His Gozitan accent or dialect sort of covered his intelligence.
All I can say about the azzure window and the Dwejra area is that they are Malta’s best natural wonders, together with the Blue Grotto/Filfla/Wied iz-Zurrieq area. And what we get? Sand and oil rigs in the vicinity ruining the scenes.
Daphne is right. Anyone who watches the Travel Channel or reads National Geographic will tell you that ‘windows’ like the one in Dwejra are a dime a dozen.
Marku, if these are the only ‘jewels’ which we have , shouldn’t we take good care of them?
I’ve seen marvellous places around the world for real not on TV but am still proud of the ‘little’ things we have.
HBO chose this site and other sites because they are beautiful.
They could only do certain things only here, like spreading soil or sand on the marble floors of Verdala Castle. The clean up, fortunately was successful.
With your kind of argumentation you would tell me that it doesn’t matter because Verdala castle is not the Palace of Versailles or Saint Petersburg. Verdala is just another dime a dozen building.
Marku, the more you travel the more you appreciate how much we have to take care of, on this handkerchief sized island.
“The clean up was successful”
So, no major ecological disaster, then, and hardly worth the reams of news paper (no, that’s not a spelling mistake) wasted on such a topic.
It depends how one defines success! “The grave was successfully cleaned” is more appropriate.
How would one remove the fine particles of sand from the rock pores, or crevices? How would one revive the eco-system in the affected area?
“The cleanup was successful”.
I quoted you there. Have you changed your mind?
@ John Schembri
What eco-system? If I remember correctly, during the press conference Stevens from MEPA siad that the ecosystem on the site is the same as any eco-system anywhere else along the shoreline.
The eco-system which is specific to Dwejra is not on that site and therefore was not affected.
The site in question was included as a buffer to the more sensitive sites nearby – the sites which warranted designation as Natura 2000.
We are really scraping the bottom of the barrel when we start worrying that some fine particles of sand could not be removed from the rock pores – in a buffer zone. I always believed that nature can take good care of itself.
@La Redoute “They could only do certain things only here, like spreading soil or sand on the marble floors of Verdala Castle. The clean up, fortunately was successful.”
The successful cleanup was of the marble floors of Verdala Castle where they just finished restoring the Cali` frescoes.
Marku , it seems National Geographic don’t have pictures to fill up their pages , so they stumbled on this picture of this dime a dozen Azure Window in Dwejra of which I’m very proud. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101130/local/dwejra-s-beauty
La Redoute please read carefully before you write.
Here’s the link :
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/travel/photo-of-the-week/#/gozo-malta-diving_27045_600x450.jpg
Pity Mlta is so small with so many people with small minds.
Hope that you would not continue to run your blog as inexperienced beginner because I am sure that you have the capabilities to run it professionally. Hope that you will not make personal attacks, be more democratic and not be biased and try to demonize your opponents. Honestly I read your articles on The Independent and are very interesting and make sense. Currently I am reading your blog but I am quite disappointed. I assume that my comment will not be submitted.
Wrong assumption, Mark!
Hey Daph,
I just commented on Raphael Vassallo’s blog and he edited me out. I suppose he could not take the truth about his not having a girlfriend to help him get his mind of the sand at Dwejra. I also mentioned that I thought that he needs a haircut. What double standards? Freedom of expression my a..!
[Daphne – His boss Saviour has a new wife and a baby on the way, but that hasn’t helped, has it. I thought it might, but it turns out it didn’t.]
Hey, I know, why don’t we film ‘Clash of the Titan’s 2″ we can have Raphael as the indomitable Jason, Saviour as the Beast fighting it out on the sand at Dwejra
Here is James A. Tyrrell’s comment on the suggestion for a Malta – Gozo bridge, in a letter to The Sunday Times:
“Speaking for myself I actually like the idea of a bridge or tunnel. It doesn’t have to be an eyesore as someone said and high winds would only be a problem if the design hadn’t taken this into account. The main problem would be funding the thing and to that end approaches would have to be made initially to the EU for funding.”
What double standards! Here is someone who objects to anything which remotely affects ‘the environment’, failing to notice that a bridge across the channel would create havoc on the seabed during construction.
This is someone one who objected to the Hondoq Rummien development and the Gozo airstrip. He also, I believe, commented on the Dwejra “disaster”.
Double standards galore.
James Tyrell? Double standards? Surely not.
You mean “here is someone who vehemently opposed Malta’s membership of the EU and loudly and vociferously campaigned against it and now wants the EU to fund a tunnel so that he can get to and from Gozo in comfort, and hang the environmental impact if it means he can get something out of it.”
Not to put too fine a point on it, Ireland won’t be paying for this. Nor, I imagine, would James Tyrell himself.