@ Daphne: re your comment: [The only people who impose a way of life on others who don’t want that way of life, liberal, are those who walk out on their spouse and children. Nobody else is imposing anything on anyone. We all have free will here, including the free will to be total tossers.]

I think you’re being just that here – a total tosser – when assuming that people just walk out of people’s lives for the sake of it… take a trip down to Merhba Bik in Balzan, Shelter for abused women and go ask them why they chose to leave their homes and did not stay in a marriage where the husband beats the living daylights out of them. You can’t talk about the colour of s**t because you are just guessing as you go along.

[Daphne – I have been to Merhba Bik several times and was the first person to write about the life stories contained there around 18 years ago. I was also a fundraiser for another shelter though I no longer do that. If you were a constant reader, rather than a sporadic one, you would notice that I make exceptions for precisely the sort of situations you describe. They are, however, not the rule. Most people walk out of their marriages because of boredom, not violence. which is precisely why most of them are women (in the UK) and men (in Malta). And yes, they are total tossers and I am sure you will agree with me once you have met some, if you have not done so already. At this point in life, not being 25, I no longer have to guess at these situations because they are all around me.]

@ Bajd u Laham & your comment: “That’s precisely the divorce stance of the PN – Eddie and Lawrence are happily married and so should the rest of the country, period. That, in my book, is the antithesis of liberalism. But Daphne thinks that voting the PN and being a Liberal are not mutually exclusive. Go figure.” I totally agree with you and would like to add that the likes of Eddie Fenech Adami do not need divorce in Malta because if his marriage breaks down he uses his connections with Curia and obtains an annulment instantly like his son did! But the man in the street needs to pay lumps of money and wait years before he even gets a hearing.

Daphne you might think that divorce is not a deal breaker, I think you’re very wrong. I have voted PN since the EU Referendum, but not anymore. This is a civil right and if Gonzi thinks he can take it lightly he is deeply mistaken.

Perhaps Bajd u Laham does not know that in 1987 Malta’s workforce was a mere 100,000. Men did not even bother to register for work, much less women. The situation was desperate. Of these, only 60,000 were in the private sector.

Today, there are 110,000 working in the private sector, an increase of 50,000 jobs in the private sector, let alone all the jobs created to compensate for lost jobs.

The only complaint I can perhaps make about the Nationalist government is that it could have moved faster in closing down the shipyards and reforming public transport. But at what price could that have been done? Social unrest by the trade unions would have had to be factored in.

We have perhaps forgotten what the GWU was like 20 years ago. Today it is a spineless sleeping pussy by comparison. This is precisely because slowly people have realised that it is not trade unions which create jobs , but they actually lose jobs . The same transformation happened in Thatcher’s Britain, admittedly at a more aggressive rate, but again I ask at what price?

And this whole thing about gay rights! Where has the PN ever discriminated against gay people? There are so many gay people ( openly gay, even with a partner) in very senior government postions, but these people go about their lives without the need to smooch in the middle of Republic Street as the PN Sliema deputy mayor likes to do .

Does this make him more liberal? No, more of a charlatan if you ask me.

For people who were adults in the pre-90s era, PN is a liberal party because over the past 20 years, it restored their freedom and rights. They can see a tangible difference between then and now.

However, for people of younger generations, the baseline set of freedoms and rights is what we have now. If that doesn’t move forward, as it is the case for quite some time, it’s understandable that they perceive PN to be a conservative party.

By the way, my comments are more concerned with social issues rather than economic ones.

Well, if Hitler claimed he was Christian, the Taliban and Al Qaeda profess they’re exemplary Muslims and that joke of an Italian prime minster is convinced he’s a champion of democracy. So why shouldn’t PN die-hards think they’re liberals? Nothing surprises me any longer. Even if Hu Jintao wakes up one morning and claims he’s a guardian of human rights, for that matter.

“Bringing in the same old crowd the Maltese had to battle in the past. ”

Now that is a remarkable statement. I hope Joseph Muscat gets to read it.

Why should the Maltese battle against the same despotic lot more than once, considering that blood was shed in the process?

Those responsible for the atrocities of the past should move aside, or else, the leader of the party should move them aside.

At least Alfred Sant had the decency to do so.

It would be interesting to know Toni Abela’s view of what is happening. He resigned from the party, with Wenzu Mintoff, because he objected to those elements. But it seems that for all of Alfred Sant’s efforts, the Partit Laburista is back to where it left off in 1987.

I understand what Bajd u Laham and David are saying. People in Malta have either voted blindly for their party they adore, or voted against the party they abhor.

There are some floating voters, but they are, for the most part, the exception. Hardly textbook definitions of conservative and liberal supporters. So lets not use text book definitions to describe our parties.

This has been the dynamic of politics in Malta for a very long time. It has never been about voting conservative or liberal.

The PN has conservatives in it but they were not put there because of their conservative ideals, and they have plenty of liberals within the party. People say the PL are the new liberals, but they can’t even come out with an official stand on divorce.

Perhaps they are worried that some members might run away to Iran, or maybe they are too busy booking package holidays for President Mubarak and his people- they’ ll need the rest.

What gets me is that there are many people who don’t see this. And I think they don’t see this because it threatens their poltical agendas.

But what is more laughable is the fact that the PL can let its new supporters believe it is a liberal party while still allowing the likes of Karmenu Vella to have a role within it. Bringing in the same old crowd the Maltese had to battle in the past.

When I became aware of this change I thought it was a joke. Changing a party takes more than just changing the goal posts, Dr Muscat. I find it all very patronising too.

Bajd u Laham, PN is not totally conservative. It is conservative when it comes to social issues, which for me is its biggest paradox. I don’t believe the full economic potential of a country can be fulfilled if, simultaneously, certain minorities are being treated as second class citizens.

Daphne, though being in favour of gay rights and divorce do not necessarily make a liberal, belief in human rights and civil liberties do form part of the package. We may not be Tunisia, but we are still considered the conversavative backwater of the EU for our archaic censorship laws and absence of divorce, amongst other things. If we are in te EU, aren’t we automatically going to compare ourselves with the “big guns” of Europe?

[Daphne – The last time I looked, most of Europe was busy voting conservatives and right-wingers into power, David.]

True, liberalism has nothing to do with divorce, but it has a lot to do with giving whoever wants to divorce, the blessed right to.

[Daphne – Yes, I agree with you. But it’s not a deal-breaker/maker for me or for most people. Pro or anti EU in the run-up to 2003: now that was a dealbreaker/maker.]

If one imposes a particular way of life on others then he is not a liberal.

[Daphne – The only people who impose a way of life on others who don’t want that way of life, liberal, are those who walk out on their spouse and children. Nobody else is imposing anything on anyone. We all have free will here, including the free will to be total tossers.]

That’s precisely the divorce stance of the PN – Eddie and Lawrence are happily married and so should the rest of the country, period. That, in my book, is the antithesis of liberalism. But Daphne thinks that voting the PN and being a Liberal are not mutually exclusive. Go figure.

[Daphne – No, they are not mutually exclusive because, as I must remind you once more, the PN is an essentially liberal party. It is the party that has restored our freedoms and basic rights over the last 23 years and liberalised (you have a clue right there, in the verb) the economy. The Labour Party, on the other hand, is right-wing, totalitarian and autocratic, and even if it takes a stance for divorce (which it won’t, because its supporters are conservative and so are most of its MPs), it can by no stretch of the imaginatino be called liberal. A stance for divorce does not make a liberal. Most of the people I hear speaking in favour of divorce are intolerant and autocratic. Or hadn’t you noticed?]

Now that’s a comment (really) worthy of the statement “truer words have never been spoken” (in this blog at least)

I cannot in the life of me understand how one who considers himself a liberal can possibly vote PN. None of the big parties in Malta are liberal but if there is one party that screams conservatism from every pore, it’s the PN. The handful of true Maltese liberals and clear thinkers either do not vote or vote AD, period.

I, for one, admittedly, am not a clear thinker, because I’m so taken by my abhorrence towards one party in particular (and the horrid baggage that comes with it) that I end up voting their adversaries even at the expense of turning a blind eye (or two) to their evident dreadful imperfections.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of 98% of the Maltese voters, including yours, dear Daphne. We (sadly) vote for what we think is the lesser evil, which is a far cry from voting the party that truly represents you. Liberalism and clear thinking my foot.

[Daphne – I’m sorry, but you couldn’t possibly be more wrong in my case. I vote for the Nationalist Party because I agree with all its policies and think it has done a WONDERFUL job. I can’t believe it has done so much, overhauled the country completely from the Tunisia it was in 1987, to what it is now. It’s unbelievable, really incredible in just 20 years. I’m not religious, so other people’s religion doesn’t bother me. Precisely because I’m a liberal, I don’t regard other people’s religion with intolerance. Also, at the risk of repeating the same argument I have made a hundred times elsewhere on this blog, liberalism has nothing to do with divorce or gay rights. It is mainly about the economy (survival of the fittest), but above all, it describes a political outlook and attitude. In my experience – perhaps I meet the wrong people – people who call themselves liberal meaning they are in favour of divorce and gay rights are generally insufferably intolerant and autocratic. They are the opposite of liberal but the flipside of the Norman Lowell coin. I vote Nationalist not by default but because they are really worth voting for. Exactly what more would you have expected by way of performance? L-ilma jisfen?]