Spot on, Ciccio2011 me old mucker. And the Le People who are preparing nooses and cyanide capsules in case Daphne’s vote and mine tip the balance next Saturday would do well to remember that divorce law will have to be introduced by parliamentary vote. If indeed the voting ever takes place.

Reuben Scicluna –

When you say “Per se it is a moral issue and in our Catholic frame of mind it is an attack on a part of our collective identity” – who exactly are “we” in your use of the word “our”? How many persons in one do you represent?

I always speak for myself, and my comments reflect this. I have no right to speak for a community, and especially on moral issues of a personal nature.

I do appreciate that divorce has civil implications – indeed, I believe this is where the No movement can score most points. But then, individual freedoms and rights must not be crushed for the sake of something loosely called “common good.”

Too much harm has been done in the world under that false premise.

As far as I am aware, on 28 May, the Maltese electorate is not voting on “the proposed bill”, but on a long-winded question drawn up at the Centru Nazzjonali Laburista.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110125/opinion/divorce-and-nationalist-values.346943

Quote:
“The Nationalist Party is at a crossroads. I sincerely hope we take the right path. Thousands of our compatriots are depending on us to do so. If we continue to ignore their suffering, the injustice they have been exposed to due to years of procrastination, they will turn their backs on us when the time of reckoning comes.

I know that we will make the right choice.”

True, but their leader is in favour of divorce, so in-naghag ta’ bendu must follow.

The same applies to divorce, Daphne. Those who can afford it (like JPO) can apply for a divorce abroad. But now we feel we need the divorce law, but why not the abortion law?

[Daphne – Divorce is not a matter of ‘affording it’. Those who say this wish deliberately to mislead. You can have all the money in the world, but unless you are prepared to up sticks and register yourself as resident in another jurisdiction, with the relevant changes to your tax status, and all the other administrative and life-related difficulties if you already have a life and business or professional practice in Malta, you can’t do it. Divorce in another jurisdiction does not depend on money. It depends on moving to that jurisdiction, and Jeffrey was disingenuous when he said that registering his daughter’s London flat in his name would be enough to do it. English divorce law is one of the strictest in the world in this respect – no fooling around there. I know a British man, married to another EU national (not Maltese) who battled for years to get a British divorce and encountered all sorts of obstacles because neither he nor his wife were resident in Britain and both lived in Malta, and this even though he is a British subject.

With abortion, it’s just a matter of booking an appointment at a clinic and getting the next Easyjet or Ryanair flight out and back. You don’t need ‘money’, unless you’re really on your uppers and living off social assistance.]

I will be voting no with conviction because I believe that the introduction of divorce legislation will result in more breakups of families.

The introduction of divorce will change the nature of marriage.

Without divorce, marriage is a commitment for life – for the marriage to work one needs to work at it everyday.

With divorce legislation, there will be more people who opt for marital breakup (i.e. divorce) because they perceive it as the (relatively) easier way out.

Divorce legislation will affect all society and not just those who consider using divorce. Therefore, your reference to imposition on minorities is misplaced. I also disagree with you when you say it is a ‘right’. Marriage is a lifetime commitment. Backtracking on that commitment cannot be described a ‘right’.

Jien dudu tal-art li jaf xi jrid Alla ghax IHOBB lil Alla, ghandu relazzjoni INTIMA ma’ Alla u m’hu xejn minghajr Alla.

Oh dear, do you go to bed together?

Letting immigrants drowning is illegal and you cannot be made legal by parliamentary vote. So is murder!

[Daphne – Yes, exactly – hence the immigrants. But we’re not talking about murder, and I have absolutely no interest in getting involved in yet another pointless discussion on whether abortion is murder. We are not talking about abortion here, and as I said earlier, we will not be talking about abortion any time soon because Maltese women are well catered for by the clinics in Catania and London.]