I have a different point of view.

The PN can take whatever position it likes. It has its own statute, its own structure, its own leadership and its own membership.

But the Nationalist MPs – the Parliamentary group – form a different entity and they account for the majority of the legislative body. They have different rules of procedure and code of conduct. They even get a separate honorarium, and the cabinet members get a salary, out of public funds.

They are led by a separate leadership – the PM (who incidentally is the leader of the PN, that’s okay). In my view, that group is free to have a different position, based, in this case, on the result of the referendum in which the people has asked the MPs to legislate FOR divorce.

This is the traditional separation of party and government.

@me
There are two liberal parties in Malta already.

http://www.freewebs.com/liberalalliance/

http://www.freewebs.com/alphaliberalparty/eldrpartyandotherlinks.htm

Spot on .

Your argument is fine as long as there are a majority of MPs in the House who will vote ‘Yes’, which, in truth, seems to be the case.

And one MEP (Simon Busuttil) plus one high official (RCC).

That would be a repetition of 2003 with different actors. Lawrence Gonzi in the place of Alfred Sant.

There’s never been a better time for another party but who? Surely not the AD? They come across more braindead than the two main parties.

Trust, you say? A person who jets off with prominent businessmen and when quizzed about says ‘I got permission from the prime minister’! A person (amongst others) who gives himself a raise! A person who will not shoulder the responsibility for the VAT debacle! A person who has no qualms about the issues just mentioned yet seems to hear Our Lady speak to him and his conscience only when it suits him!

I say that together with Austin Gatt, Tonio Borg, Edwin Vassallo and Dolores Christina, are the biggest liability to the PN.

If Dr Gonzi said they are going respect the people’s Yes vote I believe him and the divorce legislation will pass one way or another and that’s what it is most important.

[Daphne – No, it is not what is most important. Equally important is the survival of the Nationalist Party in a fit state to fight the next election and keep Joseph Muscat from becoming prime minister. The Nationalist Party does not capriciously sign its own death warrant in a vacuum.]

Now whether PN MPs vote all Yes or some vote No or abstain I see nothing wrong with that. After all that clown Muscat has been promising the Bloody Free Vote all along since he became the Great Leader. So where is the bloody free vote that he’s been talking for 3 years?

Not even a free vote for the motion of the referendum because the PL parliamentary group signed hush-hush a piece of paper and that was it. And our beloved Jeffrey and Mugliett voted with PL – how’s that ?

Did we vote for Pullicino Orlando and Mugliett on the Labour ticket? I know you’re going to stick to your guns, but this is honest opinion to this whole saga.

Well, the way the PM and the rest of the Conservative faction of the PN MPs will vote in parliament on divorce legislation will show whether the PN has really changed dramatically in its admiration for Hitler and Mussolini.

[Daphne – The problems that the PN has been encountering recently with thousands of its supporters are the result of an edging-back to right-wing Italianate fascist thinking. The immediate and most obvious result of this is the near-total alienation of thousands.]

If the PN conservative faction joins the ‘ayes’ it will show that it does not have a conscience to speak of and may well be buried in history along with il Duce and die Fuhrer.

If thay vote ‘nay’ then they do not know the electorate as you have said, in which case, they should hand the leadership to Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s faction.