If Malta had been (or remained) part of Italy we’d have won the World Cup four times.

[Daphne – There you go again, David. Allow me to return your pedantry: Malta was never part of Italy and Italy did not exist until the 19th century.]

@ HPB

“Oh come. It’s not as if the British were going to hold on to Malta, and keep it as a permanent drain on their national coffers”.

This is a non-starter. Then, why would Britain have offered to renew the Defence agreement with Mintoff (on their terms)?

With regards to your comment “We were GRANTED independence”, how else?

If you mean, we did not have to shed blood to obtain independence or declare it unilaterally, then you may hqve a point. However one cannot obtain anything unless one asks for it.

Oh come. It’s not as if the British were going to hold on to Malta, and keep it as a permanent drain on their national coffers. We needed them far more than they needed us.

What makes you think Kenneth Cassar votes Labour?

I myself voted PN and Yes in 2003, but I would still have voted for integration over independence if I’d been offered the choice.

I still believe this country is too small to be independent. However, we cannot undo the past, and EU membership is the next best thing, since Cecil Rhodes’s gone out of fashion.

See my comments above. You seem to be implying that Britain sent for Borg Olivier and told him to prepare for Independence.

For accuracy’s sake, I would like to remind you that Borg Olivier went to London to negotiate for funds to balance the Budget and had asked for somewhere around a million sterling.

The British offered 200,000 sterling.

It so happened that shortly before the London meeting an English football player had been transferred to an Italian team for exactly the same amount. Upon hearing about the amount Britain was offering, Borg Olivier replied, “If you are treating our nation the same way you treated one football player, then I request Independence”.

The rest is history.

To claim otherwise, it means either of two things: either you are misinformed or forgot the details, or you were born after 1964.

George Borg Olivier never claimed that he got the British out.

Borg Olivier NEGOTIATED the terms of obtaining Independence and signed a 15 year Defence agreement with Britain which was designed to provide basic funds to enable the government change Malta’s economy from that of a military base to one underpinned by tourism and light industries.

This agreement expired in 1979 (1964 + 15) and is the same one Mintoff did not renew.

There was no ‘kicking out’ by Mintoff, but rather the Brits left as they had intended even before Mintoff started his antics.

A couple of years ago I researched this and came across declassified minutes of the British government cabinet setting limits to compensation for the use of Malta as a British forces base.

The MLP then as the LP now, had a tendency to spin unfavourable news into an asset for the party. They have the expertise since this way is the only way they can ever try to justify their existence.

@ John

“British pay up OR go home’, is more like it, if I remember correctly.

I doubt that the British would pay up (Mintoff’s asking price) and leave the island at the same time.

This further proves Mintoff’s confused mind because after the Integration failure he was using the above slogan which, in reality meant that at a price he was ready to accommodate the British and let Malta continue to be its colony.

Such clear thinking baffles minds.

Mintoff never begged for ‘Dominion Status’ – that was for decades, the Nationalist Party idea of an autonomous status within the Commonwealth. Eventually, in 1964 the Nationalist government obtained Independence within the Commonwealth and Malta became a nation and no longer a colony of Britain.

Mintoff having changed his mind (forced by the electorate) regarding integration, went helter skelter against the British. “British go home” became the MLP’s slogan.

Malta’s baptism of fire came during Mintoff/KMB’s reign and we were lucky that we experienced that period with relatively low casualties although I would not dare tell that to Raymond Caruana’s relatives.

The sacrifices of Raymond Caruana and others were the bitterest prices Malta paid for the eventual restoration of democracy and freedom of expression and the relegation of the (M)LP to the status of an Opposition Party for all twenty five years less twenty-two months.

@ Kenneth Cassar

Please tell me that you are not real.

Are you, by any chance, embarrassed by being Maltese or perhaps, ashamed of our flag?

Maybe it is silly of me to ask a person with as confused a mind as the Labour Party’s confusion in the last fifty years ever since Mintoff wrenched control from Boffa.

Integration or Independence?
Becoming one with Britain or “British go home’?
Independent within the Commonwealth or ‘Neutral’ Republic with a preference to Libya’s Gaddafi?
Renew Defence agreement with Britain or go abegging to Kim Il Sung, Caucescu, Gaddafi, et al?

Such was/is the tahwid fl-imhuh (jekk jezistu) tal-Lejber. There is nothing new.

This is not even going into what KMB , Sant and Muscat have been and still are confused about.

No2EU – but in hindsight it was OK.
No2EU – No, abstainers and dead men voting won, but….
No to euro – but as it turned out the euro saved our skin.
Reception class – or ridiculous computer missprint?

Humanitarian assistance to immigrants – or let them drown?
Post a quota on immigrants – then send them back?
Reduce electricity bills – but don’t tell them about much higher taxes?
Accuse NP government of coming charges for Health services – in case Joseph is elected and then say ‘the Nationalists would have done the same’?
Hide behind Marsascala Council and obstruct the construction of the PS extension – but to hell with Marsa residents who will have to suffer longer the pollution of their PS?

Such confusion, only confused minds will ever vote Labour.