Exactly, if I weren’t so damn in favor of divorce, I’d vote NO because of Joseph, JPO and Bartlu, but I’ll vote YES because of NO’s nonsense.

Don’t you dare!

If the spouse is mentally fine and physically healthy, calm and serene, who never spent 1 euro at the lotto boot and doesn’t like alcohol but “jaqlibha lil mara minn fil-ghodu sa fil-ghaxija”, what shall his wife do – stay married to him? So of course we need divorce.

“till death us do part” is also a promise.

[Daphne – Yes, exactly. And presumably that’s why they go for a declaration of nullity by a church tribunal, because they are fervent Catholics who believe in their marriage vows. So why ‘lie to themselves’? It is precisely because ’till death do us part” is a promise that divorce is more honest: it is an acknowledge that the marriage existed but could not last beyond that point. Anything else is a lie. People who really love their spouses continue to love them even when they discover that there were psychiatric problems or gambling habits they knew nothing about (difficult not to know, I must say). So what you’re saying when you go to the church tribunal to have your marriage declared null because of these reasons is really “I changed my mind about this person and want to get rid of him/her”. That’s why it’s dishonest.]

Annullment is given only for very valid reasons, like cheating before the actual wedding, a disease which that partner did not disclose before marriage, an addiction not disclosed before marriage (e.g. alcoholism, gambling, violence etc) or other reasons similar to these.

There’s a fee to apply for it and it takes around six years. So in my opinion, if a separated person wants to marry again, and they apply for it as soon as they apply for the separation, it only takes two more years than the divorce legislation would. Bottom line: if there is a real reason, the annullment will be given, therefore divorce is not necessary.

[Daphne – Very confused thinking. You don’t need a reason to divorce, other than that you can no longer live with the other person, or the other person can no longer tolerate you. A declaration of nullity is NOT a divorce – it means that the marriage never existed because consent was vitiated or because the parties (or just one of them) were not in a position to consent or to know what they were consenting to. That’s all. Divorce ends a marriage, it doesn’t declare that there was no marriage. I happen to think that declarations of nullity, except in extreme and unusual cases, are immoral and deceitful. You marry for better or for worse, and that includes gambling habits or psychiatric conditions that might not have been previously disclosed. Divorce is more honest.]

What a shame. Effectively divorce is a U-turn to a promise made. I believe that when things go drastically wrong they would in fact have started on the wrong foot. Sometimes there is fault and those at fault should compensate the aggrieved party.

Zero sum xejn. He’s positioned himself as a nuisance and a liability, and everyone rushed to pacify the petulant enfant terrible.

In the process he managed to bag: a parliamentary secretary’s post, chairmanship of MCST and a position as one of Malta’s top bullshitters-in-chief, direct access to the OPM, wall to wall media coverage, not a few admiring fillies, and a yet more powerful connections.

Not bad for a zero sum game.