A person holding a sensitive office like that and having some good sense would give wide berth to anything that exposes his personal life such as social networks.

A seasoned diplomat (which is purportedly Mrs.Frazier’s background) would run miles from Facebook. Her membership of that site speaks for itself with regard to her grasp of professional ethics.

Her contacts with the US Embassy show an even poorer diplomatic “savoir faire”, still less of the workings of democracy.

Take for instance, her suggestion to incrementally increase the benefits to military staff working for NATO who visit Malta (because NATO is the other party to the contract and not the US at all, make no mistake, the US is just acting as a broker here).

Any such transaction would amount to the evasion of proper parliamentary scrutiny and the bottom line is nothing less other than trying to surreptitiously circumvent due parliamentary process which would be required by a formally concluded SOFA with NATO.

That is what her suggestion of small increments, discretely agreed via diplomatic letters, boils down to.

Is this acceptable from a senior civil servant privy to matters of state that are top secret and confidential?

Some might argue that colluding with a Third State to the detriment of your own country’s legislative institution is tantamount to high treason, precisely because the person making such a suggestion is the effective Defence Minister of Malta.

Others, probably Mrs. Frazier herself, might just consider this a plain waste of time and dump all distinctions for the institutional roles played by the legislative, executive and judiciary bases in a democracy.

I expect the future prime minister to be in the know about every detail of his party’s take on foreign policy.

Especially if he presents himself to the American ambassador.

Companies wishing to invest in Malta look for stability and clear cut policies. They refer to their foreign affairs ministries for advice regarding these criteria.

The information available is the responsibility of the ambassadors residing in that country.

It is the basis of any rating.

When Sant started messing around with taxation, foreign direct investment dried up within months, leading to the mother of all deficits.

You seem to have an interest in things Italian, albeit disingenuous.

Guess what? Berlusconi laments the fact that he doesn’t have the powers of a prime minister and Italy is the lowest rated country in Europe for foreign investment.

Please watch THIS:

Former 4-star U.S General Wesley Clark admits to America Foreign Policy Coup: http://youtu.be/MMAONc7GeIc

Albert, Vanessa Frazier’s mother is the woman in this photograph, with ‘Soho landlord Jean Agius’ and Dom Mintoff.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maltatodaypics/4862737621/in/set-72157624534674993/

The US embassy also seems to be unaware that Vanessa Frazier’s maiden surname Grima is the same as that of George Vella’s wife, for the simple reason that they belong to the same family.

He forgot to mention, or perhaps does not know, that prior to working in television he was a hotel receptionist at Malta’s own ‘Fawlty Towers’ in Qawra. With a CV like that what else do you want, I wonder.

And she is also related to George Vella, yes the same person mentioned in this report.

Why do you imagne that governments have ministers and the opposition has shadow ministers?

They all have delegated fields, and they are expected to specialize in them.

Do you expect the P.M. or the leader of the opposition to be ‘know all’ in every sector?

I would rather have a leader who listens to his experts, than talk about everything under the sun just because he is the boss.

Handling of a cabinet meeting, or any other, does not mean that he should be the only one who speaks, more importantly is the one who takes the decision and shoulder the responsibilty.

That, Jozef, is called leadership.

[Daphne – You’re quite wrong, Silvio. Each cabinet minister or shadow minister has a portfolio, but the prime minister/opposition leader is responsible for policy and should be on top of all that. It’s the details he’s not expected to be concerned with, but policy is his pitch. It’s Muscat who should decide on Labour’s stance on PfP membership, not Vella. The buck stops with Muscat, not Vella. But apart from that, when the opposition leader is accompanied to a meeting by one of his shadow ministers, the leader leads the ‘delegation’ and also the discussion. The shadow minister defers to the leader and not the other way round. This is basic manners and protocol, aside from anything else. George Vella’s job is to bolster up the presence of his boss and his persona as a leader, not take over.]

Joseph is a young inexperienced twerp.

Joseph is no match to the hardliners he himself resurrected from their slumber.

That the likes of George Vella is a bad omen if he is ever a PL government minister.

That the PL is directionless, has no perceptible roadmap for leading Malta.

That the LP/GaddafiPL has not changed one iota.

All these observations were made by an independent diplomat, unless of course, he was deemed by the PL as having been in Gonzi’s pocket.

The more we read such comments from people who had the fortune of not being politically brainwashed by Maltese politicians, the more it becomes apparent that toying with the idea of electing Labour in 2013 will be an act of suicide.

“SECURITY COOPERATION DILEMMA: WITH LABOR PARTY IT MAY BE A NO-GO, WITH RULING NATIONALIST PARTY A SLOW-GO”

She is not a minister. She’s simply a civil servant in the Office of the Prime Minister.

Now, a word on our defence policy (will Kevin leave the room, please?).

Not once, not ONCE, has the PM, who is responsible for defence, or Vanessa Frazier ever visited the AFM on deployment, either overseas or on Maltese territory or territorial waters.

We snigger when leaders like Medvedev pose alongside their country’s troops in full kit. But I’d rather have that – jingoistic though it may be – than a political class which thinks the military is infra dig.