He could at least have picked up the damaged coffins and chopped them up to sell them for firewood. 800 coffins would have been enough wood to serve a household a few years.

Quite rightly he should.

Too many cowboy entrepreneurs – any type of insurance is an unnecessary overhead which one can do without until the heavens open and all hell breaks loose.

When they apply for bank facilities and the bank asks for property insurance, fire/theft cover over stocks etc, they get the shock of their lives at money being thrown down the drain.

Muscat called Dr Gonzi giddieb, imma xi tippretendi mit-tifel ta’ Salvu id-Doggie.

He has no class or style. He went to St Aloyiuos for nothing. Tuba kien u tuba baqa, u zattat.

[Daphne – I don’t think you understand how insurance works.]

Another thing… what about insurance premiums for such businesses/residences? For every flooding they get (and they happen very often in those areas believe me) the premium goes up. Do you think this is fair?

[Daphne – Yes, it’s fair. It’s the same with your car insurance. Premiums are calculated on the basis of risk. That’s what insurance IS.]

Do you think Tonio Fenech can shed responsability to all this with a simple statment?

[Daphne – He is not responsible. You, as a home-owner, are responsible for insuring your own home. When racist maniacs set fire to our house, we didn’t sue Norman Lowell for damages. We filed an insurance claim, because our home is insured. We did the same when we had rainwater flooding some years ago.]

The focal point of all this argument is that floodings like the one we just experienced can be managed/prevented unlike other natural disasters like earth quakes/ tsunamis/ hurricanes. This is where the government’s responsability comes in.

So your argument does not hold water and yes the government is ultimately responsible. Tonio Fenech’s statement is sheer arrogance from an immature minister.

[Daphne – The government is not responsible. You might as well sue everybody in the area who doesn’t have a well (read the report in The Times today). That is poor reasoning which begs for the rejoinder: who told you to buy a house there in the first place?]

You were right about the 800 coffins. I saw only one.

Won’t this be a case where those who did not afford a new car will pay for those who do? Socialist ideology at its best!
We need one of your articles about this subject!

[Daphne – I wrote about it at the time.]

Calling the prime minister ‘GIDDIEB’ , interrupting, shouting and behaving like an unruly schoolboy is not material for a prime minister.

[Daphne – I really don’t know why you’re so surprised, John. One of my abiding memories of Joseph Muscat is from the 2003 election/referendum campaign: one of those Broadcasting Authority press conferences in which a party leader is interrogated by journalists. Muscat was one of the ‘reporters’ grilling Fenech Adami, who maintained his dignified composure while Muscat screamed at him ‘Giddieb! Ghid lil-poplu Malti x’ se jsir minnu jekk Allahares qatt insiru membri tal-Unjoni Ewropeja! Giddieb! Giddieb!’ He was vile. I kind of knew at that point that Labour was going to lose, and when Muscat’s boss Sant behaved in exactly the same fashion during the final BA debate between the two party leaders on TVM, I was pretty much certain – though I still worried like hell, of course. I share your shock, though, that Muscat hasn’t made the mental or intellectual transition from Super One reporter to leader of the Opposition at all.]

Joseph Muscat told us to drop the “Doctor” and just call him Joseph, now I can understand why.

I pity Dr Gonzi, who looks hurt at having to face this ordinary guy.

By stating that the car registration refund case is “a won case” isn’t he putting pressure on the magistrate?

I assume his coffins are made of wood.

Anyone who does not insure a quarter of a million euros worth of wood against fire, at the least, is in need of urgent help.

That’s a good one…