Do you honestly, in your heart of hearts, want people like Karmenu Vella, Alex Sceberras Trigona, Joe Debono Grech, George Vella , Joe Grima, to run Malta?

I much prefer the present bunch. If they change this lot I might (repeat might) think of bringing in a Labour group. As things are, with Labour harping nostagically over their dirty (very dirty) past, I really wish that people will consider seriously the consequences of a Labour government.

La Redoute, what you’re talking about isn’t hotel porn!

They’re wasting their time. Hotel porn is a dying industry. Downloads are all the rage as they save a voyeur’s blushes when checking out of a hotel.

You are right, red nose. I checked again, and his hair is not white yet.

No Daphne, I don’t agree here. Carm Mifsud Bonnici agrees with Adrian Vassallo… I feel sure about this. Carm may not be a hypocrite and all that but still he is as conservative as one can be. I think he might actually be happy that Vassallo brings such issues up.

[Daphne – I doubt it.Nobody wants to have to deal with that kind of hassle.]

Meanwhile I hate the fact that Carm Mifsud Bonnici seems to be giving Adrian Vassallo loads of time re porn in hotels and ‘immorality’ in general. I have the feeling that CMB agrees with Adrian Vassallo.

[Daphne – No, dery, it’s called giving people enough rope.]

I suffer from no nostalgia whatsoever. That is what I was trying to say earlier about selective memory. People look at the past with rose tinted, no, opaque glasses. Bring on the future :-)

[Daphne – You’re a bit young for nostalgia. It sets in after 40, and then only if you are somebody like Toni Abela.]

“Daphne – I don’t mind Gonzi at all, actually. I think he’s rather good at the job.”

As I see him at present – he is good at damage control. And you must agree with me that he has surrounded himself with ministers who are extremely conservative.

That is where my point about my wanting to have people with more liberal ideas in positions of power comes in.

[Daphne – I know what you mean, but I’m not a throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater type. And frankly, I see a rather frightening level of right-wing conservatism on the Labour side, starting from how they’re all waxing nostalgic for the 1970s. Nostalgia – it’s always a dead giveaway.]

Yes, I know and thanks for your explanation. If I may say what MY ideal solution would be: “Voting in PN but making sure that the more liberal candidates are elected. But that is just me.”

[Daphne – I feel the same way.]

I do not want Gonzi, Carm Mifsud Bonnici (my god!), Tonio Borg et al to determine my life.

[Daphne – I don’t mind Gonzi at all, actually. I think he’s rather good at the job. It’s just his bad luck that he came in at the tail-end when people are at that bitchy stage in a relationship.]

There are others that I prefer but I only have one vote and I do see myself convincing any number of people to vote for PN candidates that will give us a more modern Malta.

Any Idea how I can achieve this, Daphne? :-)

[Daphne- You stick to your guns, like I do, and when there are conversations going on around you about how awful the government is, how hopeless Gonzi is, how blah blah blah, you say ‘Really? I think they’ve done a bloody good job. And I hope you’re not going to be one of those who are going to foist a Labour government on this country. I thought you were smarter than the sort of person who thinks that Joseph, Toni and Anglu can do a better job than the current team, let alone the current team with all the erratic ones weeded out by electors who now know better than to vote for them.’ I never join in any kvetching conversations. I can’t stand them, and kvetching feeds on itself.]

Bob: I meant the “insult” ‘illiterate’ in the same way that Daphne uses it to denigrate some other people who are unable to speak or write proper English.

[Daphne – You were talking about one identifiable individual, dery, who you do not know, have never met, and haven’t heard speak. You assume that because he farmed, he couldn’t think or speak or read or write. I do not denigrate people who can’t speak or write proper English. I denigrate people who, despite all the benefits of compulsory education, still can’t write or speak even one language, their own. And I denigrate people like Anglu Farrugia and Toni Abela who, despite six years in tertiary education and exposure to all the benefits their way of life brings them, cannot communicate properly in English to the extent that they are unable even to pronounce simple words or to distinguish, in Farrugia’s case, between the ‘Empire Station’ and the Statue of Liberty. That implies a degree of stupidity that is quite phenomenal.]

I do not for a moment doubt that he has managed to keep or make Safi a very quaint and attractive village. My original points had nothing to do with his ability as a mayor of a village of 2000 people. If he keeps getting elected he must be doing something right.

Daphne, as regards your ‘checks and balances’ that keep a democracy functioning… I have just discovered that the original story about Pietru Pawl obtaining permission to build villas in illegal zones was outed by Labour Party newspaper Kulhadd. A good opposition forms part of a good democracy.

[Daphne – The role of the Opposition is not to ‘out’ permits given in what it thinks are dubious circumstances (but then only if the people involved are linked to the other party). That is the role of the independent media. The role of the Opposition is to write policy and render itself fit for government. If the Labour Party thinks that its role is to ‘out’ politicians it doesn’t like and to persecute them, then it is no wonder at all that they think I am part of the Nationalist Party machine.]

Oh, and for the record,I have always thought that what was done to Pietru Pawl Busuttil was despicable beyond words. He was not the only one. One must also remember that the police force that carried out those despicable acts is essentially the same police force today.

[Daphne – With one notable exception, dery, who is now deputy leader of the Labour Party and will be deputy prime minister in 24 months.]