Lampuki (Lampughi in Italian) were more than 9 euros per kilo in Catania in November whilst in Malta they were only 2 euros.

LOVE minestra and most food, except certain fish and horsemeat.

But, to get back to cost of living here, it’s only cars that are ludicrously more expensive than almost anywhere else in the world. Only in Denmark do they cost (slightly) more (and you’d have a job persuading me Danish salaries are remotely comparable with ours).

Sopra i corni, we have the worst roads and the worst driving and the most traffic to enjoy our ultra-expensive vehicles with.

That is very typical of the Maltese butchers. Always with a queue of people waiting to be served.

At least in Malta this problem doesn’t exist yet, and the state schools are accommodating everyone. People like Tereza think that ‘abroad’ there is someone working miracles for the citizens or that everybody in other EU countries is earning millions.

I’m sorry but the more children you have, the more you need to work and much more money is needed. I think this is just common sense. In my opinion a mother of 8 should work more than the rest of us.

Sure. Ideally you budget how many children you can afford. That is why middle class families with high expectations and standards have the lowest amount of children, if any. How do you weigh or outweigh?

By the way – our “punitive amount of tax” is 5% lower than what we would pay in Malta for the same salary.

And your point is? Some things will be cheaper, some things will be more expensive. That’s life. No one artificially keeps prices high unless they have a monopoly.

If fish is expensive in Malta, it’s because getting it to the customer is expensive. If it was cheaper, you’d probably have cheaper fish.

Council tax, parking, health costs etc etc. For example, someone living in the south-east of England may have a decent wage, but deduct a season train ticket (which can easily hit £1500 a year), parking (sometimes you have to take your car to the station and park it before catching the train (easily another £800).

Then you’re at work, you have to eat right? Well that’s not cheap either. Oh and at home you have to pay for central heating, electricity (it’s not just expensive in Malta), council tax and so on. What you are left with is not that much. Try catching a bus anywhere else in Europe for 47c for example (is that the price now?).

Jaqaw il-Belt go demostrazzjoni ikunu qed jithallsu min jigi intervistat.

Kemm teqred din Stacy, mur giba kienet tghix 30 sena ilu xkienet taghmel l-anqas bicca cikkulata ma kont issib. Eqred eqred, Maltese gemmgemm.

It all depends how much each measure costs. By how much do you think your income tax would decrease if the parliamentarians were to trade their collective raise to a reduction in our (and their) income tax contribution. I suspect it would not be more than a handful of euro annually. So all this hullabaloo is just a storm in an otherwise very calm teacup.