Labour: politics as a game show
I have the adulation of the crowds, so why doesn't anyone else take me seriously?
This is my favourite bit of the Wikileaked cables from the US Embassy in Malta to Washington. It makes the Labour Party sound like a game show team, led by an ‘ex-TV and radio personality’ in his 30s.
The meeting also raises the issue of how secure Joseph Muscat’s position as PL leader is.
At 35, ex-TV and radio personality Muscat is the youngest person to have served in his position. He was elected as leader following PL’s defeat in 2008 General Elections, replacing long-time leader Alfred Sant, who served from 1992-2008.
Muscat’s ceding the lead in this discussion of Malta’s national security policy to old-line Labor politician Vella may suggest that he has some way to go to consolidate party control.
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Brilliant. Looks like a cross between Jesus Christ and a badly-dressed Teletubby.
Wonder how they categorised this one. JosephMuscatBadPic/ugh?
More like a wine bottle opener.
Yes, if you use his square mouth.
No wonder the ex TV personality has friends and admirers like Successful Jeff:
http://loubondi.blogspot.com/2011/09/have-you-tried-it-on-rexin-sofa-jeffrey.html#more
Weak analysis if you ask me.
Security of tenure and party control have nothing to do with this at all.
It is that Joey knows nothing about international affairs now and knew even less then.
Bordonaro’s comments about most of the politicians seem to be spot-on.
“…Muscat is the youngest person to have served in his position. ”
But is he really? If memory serves me right, Dom Mintoff had beaten Muscat to it. Back in the early 1950s Mintoff was not just party leader, but also Prime Minister at the age of 30 – or was it 33, and at that time was the youngest PM in the British Commonwealth.
Dom beats Joey hands down.
Party leader at 33. PM at 39.
Yes, the youngest PM in the British Commonwealth of Nations.
So bloody what ?
Well, age certainly seems to be important to Joseph Muscat, whose party was hell-bent on depicting Gonzi as old and decrepit during the last general election. They have got to realise that age has absolutely nothing to do with it, and that it’s the experience and the competence that count. In my eyes, Muscat has neither.
In my eyes too, 39 is not young; in those of the “new” electorate he is even less so.
So bloody what?
Just look at his record of doing business, like begging for alms from dictators of the Communist variety, from unsuccessfully tackling Malta’s unemployment problems, like letting the infrastructure crumble, like leaving the island without water (remember ‘take baths together’ or ‘go for a swim’?), like not planning for increased electric generation, like waiting two years or more for a ‘party line’?
All seem to be the works of a 33 year old hot dog who did a lot of barking and let his naive henchmen do all the biting for him. Some of the henchmen are still on Joseph’s team.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vzXHaPL4kCQ/TmHgrkD5bAI/AAAAAAAAAKw/wndrq7Ribic/s1600/jpo22_247250_2404164_n.jpg
INHOBBKOM!! Ahh the similarities…
I do not think that Muscat has trouble consolidating party control.
However, he clearly looksout of his depth at important meetings.
This is the reason why he always takes someone with him.
Doing so, he assumes that people see him as progressive, when in fact, they see him as weak.
Time will tell, when he is the PM (hopefully not), and he has to decide something important, whether he has the balls to do it, or goes to cry to ‘daddy’ Sant.
He will appoint AST, George and Karmenu Vella(s), Fredu Sant and, if Mintoff is still crawling, as special consutants so that if anything goes wrong, he can always blame someone else.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/-depth/09/03/11/wikileaks-cable-libya-gave-p5m-ramos-1992-presidential-bid
He reminds me of King Julian of Madagascar (the movie) with Kurt as Mort.
Teletubby? Well guys, unless the whinging stops, that 35-year-old with no mind to call his own, except for expediency, will be PM in the next 18 months or so. Enjoy!
I like this picture title… healing service anyone?
I am totally against Wikileaks but these cables are good fun, if for no other reason, because they show that Bordonaro was an intelligent and observant woman.
I have no personal grudges against Joseph Muscat. However, as somebody else said here, I feel he is out of his depth.
As Daphne says, he has no breeding to speak of and he is totally unpolished, to start with.
I think he looks like a peasant in a suit.
And, what’s more, he gives me the impression that he actually knows that “postu mhux hemm”. His body language is not natural and his posture is all skewed.
I might be wrong, but when he attends high-profile meetings he comes across (to me at least) as horribly inexperienced and a fish out of water. He is not a natural.
Unlike Gonzi and George Abela who ooze confidence and experience, he always looks like he has been delegated to represent the boss, except that he is the boss.
Somehow Muscat feels he is inferior but he convinces himself he deserves to be there, because at the same time he was raised to think he is a star – I can see that.
I am not saying this to denigrate him but rather because that is how I perceive him.
Somehow I feel Muscat believes politics is a game in which he is somehow scoring.
We will still have him as a PM in 18 months’ time but that is certainly not through his own doing but through the PN’s – and also a stroke of luck of his being made leader of a party which has been stuck in opposition for 20-odd years.
Little Joe and The Dinosaurs………..want some toys to play with … please send donations to RED HQ, Mile End