How in heaven’s name did we fail to notice the significance of these Freudian slips?
The Labour Party’s news website, Maltastar, today:
Muscat said that one of the options available to produce electricity at a cheaper rate than present is the one offered by EU Commissioner John Dalli and which Prime Minister Gonzi is dismissing.
And there was dim-witted Anglu Farrugia, letting the cat out of the bag on Bondi+ with his unguarded reply ‘Bil-pjan ta’ John Dalli’ to Lou Bondi’s question about how Labour plans to cut the cost of water and electricity.
The wording in both casts John Dalli as the broker.
The broker, you understand, not the EU Commissioner who just so happens to be altruistically and disinterestedly (but all the same, unethically) recommending one type of technology because of his nagging environmental conscience.
This puts in an entirely new light John Dalli’s relentless conspiring to undermine and defeat Lawrence Gonzi. It is not just protracted bitterness after all. There appears to be a considerable financial incentive.
It’s a cinch. Labour can’t afford to lose another election. John Dalli & Associates want their eye-popping commission from Sargas. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.
John Dalli does what he can to undermine Lawrence Gonzi and his government, working to a Labour victory, even if this means frequent appearances on Super One television which make a mockery of his position as EU Commissioner.
In return, Joseph Muscat promises to buy his client’s power station, and John Dalli & Associates strike gold.
We can stop asking ourselves why Malta Today has begun to sound like something bought and paid for by the Labour Party.
Read my column in The Malta Independent on Sunday, tomorrow. Meanwhile, watch this with new eyes:
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Is this new-found friendship between the EU Commissioner and Labour another of Fondazzjoni Idejat “big thinks”?
So Labour doesn’t want a power station running on heavy fuel oil… only for it to want one fired by coal.
Remember that mise en scene of Joseph amidst the soot containers? Has he worked out how many of those we would need with that power station?
And is Barroso aware of Kommissar Dalli’s shenanigans?
The soot containers for the extension should be ten times as much he had in the background and if we have surplus electricity it would be twenty times as much.
The Burmarrad pseudo-economist had his calculations wrong as Ciccio20010 had pointed out then, those had to be two containers per week if we run on heavy fuel oil.
Comparing like with like, brown coal together with the limestone and the olive pits(I like this one), will produce more than ten times the amount of ash for the same amount of heat generated by these different fuels.
His behaviour is in conflict with his role as EU commissioner.
His behaviour is in conflict with his role as cittadin Malti.
However, not in conflict with a snout in a trough.
Is it just me who finds it odd that some people keep wanting to make more and more money even though they are very well off? Recently I came across a North American study that concluded that the amount of money that can give you maximum happiness is $75,000. After that there was no measurable increase in happiness.
People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett know this so why don’t some Maltese businessmen intent on destroying what is left of our natural environment know it too?
It’s a pity that the PN media will remain silent on this. Their hands are tied. They can’t reveal the truth about ‘one of their own’.
[Daphne – I don’t agree with you at all. If I were in a position to decide, I would use scorched-earth tactics, go to town, force his resignation and solve all these problems by wiping him out for good.]
P Shaw is right though. PN works like a dull Maltese lawyer’s brain. They stick to rules and conventions. Why, John Dalli was even feted in a recent AZAD seminar where he was guest speaker. Scorched earth is what politicians do. Ours aren’t politicians. Still less leaders. They’re goddamn Maltese lawyers.
Why do those three gentlemen in the clip keep showing us drawings of their plant, rather than photos of the real installations?
When their first big plant is up and running (2020maybe) there’ll be a great difference between the “original” plans and the “as built” ones.
Will Joseph Muscat call for a corruption investigation just lke he did for BWSC? I don’t think so
Any idea which Maltese contractor company will be subcontracted to carry out the development work on the dry dock and breakwater necessary. One immediately comes to mind. You will do well to dig deeper into this story
Sargas. Dalli. Labour. Joseph Muscat. Ghaqal.
Maltastar has removed the wording ‘the one offered by EU Commissioner John Dalli’.
The idiots did not realise that Google had already scanned and tagged the page.
This is PL in opposition.
Just imagine PL in power.
Lorry Sant revisited.
Lorry dilettant hdejhom.
“The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in our selves”.
When Dalli was minister responsible for Customs, it was a hotbed of graft and corruption. He did nothing to weed it out – this was the late eighties/nineties.
He later cooked up the VAT law, which has singularly failed to deliver what it promised – less direct tax. This resulted in the middle class footing 90% of the bill for this country.
During Dalli’s time as Minister of Finance, Malta’s deficit increased exponentially on the back of a wild spending spree of huge projects that inevitably overran and were delivered late anyway.
Daphne may have woken the rest of you up to Johnny Cash’s tricks, but I’ve been off the guy for over 20 years. The trouble is, I did nothing about it. Mea culpa . . .
What you wrote above reminded me of Alfred Sant and his readiness to make a pact with the devil as long as he wins the election.
Joseph Muscat proves to us that he is the ‘political’ son of Alfred Sant. He should say ‘gvern immexxi minni’ once more. Maybe we will believe him.
Ara Xerlok f’hiex qed tinhela. Mur ara kieku kellek tassew tkun taf x’qed jinhema!
They say ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’. I’d say ignorance of the facts is the essence of blissful living.
Mela, mela… mur obsor ghal Gondalli, hej. In bed ma Joseph, tarax! Qabduh red-handed tal-wiccan community!
Kevin McCarthy strikes again. Your superior knowledge could be put to good use. Start up a blog and publish it.
Funny that you should say that, La Redoute, I spent much of yesterday experimenting with different satirical styles for a possible maltafly resuscitation. One apt piece is in English – I had posted it in reply to you here but it seems to have disappeared, unless Daphne found it offensive… it did mention Bidnija… but in a weally, weally good light, pwomise… I mean, I sweaw.
[Daphne – Kevin, I deleted it because it’s far too long for a comment. If you want more coverage for your panegyric, upload it elsewhere and post a link. Oh by the way, Kevin, I read somewhere that you were one of the police officers who searched Joseph Grech Ellul’s house in response to a complaint by then minister John Dalli. Is this correct?]
Thanks, Daphne, that was very kind of you.
As to your question, I would say I accompanied the AC, who chose to be present during the search, otherwise I generally trusted my subordinates to perform such jobs. Also, I was not the investigating officer, as by then I had a supervisory role – and since, as I said, the AC was present, I had nothing much to supervise so I had what the Keystone Cops would call ‘an accompanying role’.
I hope that solves your riddle. If not, I’d be glad to upload and link a detailed explanatory missive with notarial certification.
X’qed jinhema, Kev? Il-Fourth Reich?
John Dalli is the pits.
A floating power station is a new concept and is a big risk indeed for a PM to undertake. One bad storm can wipe out a power station in a flash with millions down the drain.
Malta doesn’t need to take such great risks. With the interconnector Malta can buy electricity from Sicily and most of the funding is done by the EU.
A gas pipe line from Europe is a low risk technology and also will be funded by the EU. With the Delimara power station, the interconnector, a gas pipeline, solar energy technology that is growing fast, and with wind mill technology Malta is well prepared to handle the energy growth.
John Dalli should spend more time on his job as a commissioner than instigating trouble for the PM.
And with CCS technology attenuating emissions from Delimara installed when and if it is proven to deliver the results required. That includes the questions to all its claims.
Possibly funded by the EU when the technology is fully endorsed
Obviously after a due diligence exercise is carried out, a call for interest issued and a serious analysis of what’s on offer made.
No conflicts of interest please.
So €4million commission is a scandal but €45million commission is a Godsend? Now why does Joey’s motto “the end justifies the means” sounds so realistic if PL is in government?
“And there was dim-witted Anglu Farrugia, letting the cat out of the bag on Bondi+ with his unguarded reply ‘Bil-pjan ta’ John Dalli’ to Lou Bondi’s question about how Labour plans to cut the cost of water and electricity.”
When the orchestrators realised what had happened, and that secret meetings with the Labour Party, and Labour’s cunning plan to reduce tariffs, had been revealed by a slip on Bondi+ between one “on di rekord” and another, they thought it was better to pretend everything is being made public.
So they went on the most “independent” of all daily English papers and organised some very “balanced” interviews in which there were no challenges to the proposal.
They also decided to organise a public forum, which, from its attendance, looked more like a Labour annual conference where people chant “Viva l-Labour, Viva l-Labour.”
This email from Kurt Farrugia greeted me this morning:
Gonzi asks questions – Joseph Muscat provides solutions
On Monday, Joseph Muscat outlined his vision for a better Malta. His message of hope is the key to unlock our future as the PN government is increasingly paralysed by a fear of real leadership.
Only a vision built on confidence in the Maltese people can defeat this fear.
Our nation has always succeeded in the past because we never feared the future.
Our goal to be the best in Europe calls for us to compare ourselves with the achievers not the failures of Europe. However we need to be sensible in our decisions.
In a time when we expect honest and prudent decisions, Prime Minister Gonzi has turned to Joseph Muscat for solutions to rescue Maltese families.
Joseph Muscat answered Gonzi’s 10 questions with 51 solutions.
51 solutions built upon one vision: economic growth, confidence, sensible judgement and stability.
A government led by Joseph Muscat pledges to reverse the Eur500 weekly increase taken by Gonzi and his cabinet and will instead appoint an independent commission to determine salaries to political appointees.
A government led by Joseph Muscat pledges to reduce energy bills in a realistic and sustainable way whilst investing in greener technologies.
A government led by Joseph Muscat pledges to reduce bureaucracy and let businesses and self-employed thrive unhindered by the state.
With a clear pledge on maternity leave, a government led by Joseph Muscat will extend maternity leave by 4 weeks and improve paternity leave.
These are just a few proposals that Joseph Muscat is putting forward as part of his vision for Malta.
Click here to view the full list of 51 pledges and proposals from Joseph Muscat.
Kurt Farrugia
Director of Communications
Partit Laburista
*********
Sigh.
It seems that someone gave them the unviersity’s email list – now this is something for Muscat to investigate.
Maybe someone from the PL hacked the university’s server – who knows.
If Labour were a serious political party having Maltese consumers’ and taxpayers’ interests at heart, they would be talking about the amounts Maltese taxpayers (or EneMalta billpayers, or both) will have to pay every year for years to come for this coal/biomass power station that will cost upwards of 1 billion euros.
But Labour are certainly NOT serious and this shows clearly in the way they’re behaving in this Sargas issue.
From shouting down anything proposed by John Dalli (of, in their own words, Daewoo-scandal fame), they are now the cheerleaders for a foreign conglomerate while it is negotiating with the government/EneMalta, giving this conglomerate an advantage over Maltese taxpayers/billpayers who will ultimately foot the bill of being the guinea-pigs of what might yet be a very expensive faliure.
What about the media?
Shallow journalists cannot see that Sargas is quoting a ‘raw’ price per unit of electricity they will produce based on the present price of coal and biomass. At 7.5 cents per unit, that’s apparently half the 16.1 cents EneMalta charges us per unit of electricity.
But that 7.5 cents price being bandied about in the media by shallow (or ‘interested’) journalists does NOT include:
* the capital expenditure of 900 million euros (that will certainly be higher, perhaps much higher) on this new power station;
*its maintenance;
* payment for the use of the electricity distribution grid built over the years and maintained by EneMalta (in Britain, for example, the grid is a separate company); and
* payment of interest on the capital expenditure and a reasonable amount of profit any entrepreneur justly expects.
These are included in EneMalta’s price per unit and Sargas is not comparing like with like. Neither is Sargas taking in consideration what EneMalta pays in salaries to its employees.
What journalists and impartial media need to ask Sargas is: * how much are Sargas going to charge the government or EneMalta (or both) for the power station they’re saying will cost 800-900 million euros (which will certainly be more),
* how much they’re willing to pay for use of the electricity distribution grid (in which they have never invested anything),
* how much they’re willing to pay for use of the interconnector with Europe (for which, again, they would not have spent a cent) if they export any of the electricity they produce,
* what reasonable return-on-capital-employed they’re expecting (just 5% a year = 45 million euros a year), and
* what kind of interest they expect to be paying on 900 million euros they’ll invest at the outset (or, if they’re paying for it out of their own funds, the opportunity cost).
Serious leaders and journalists should be asking, further, whether it would be at all prudent for Malta to put all its energy eggs, as it were, in this one Sargas/Daewoo basket.
If we were a country having a hunded power stations, it would not be imprudent to choose to experiment with this new concept of carbon-capture from a coal-biomass power station. If it all goes wrong, it would only be a minor dent. But what about Malta where we will have just one power station (after Marsa is soon closed down)?
Prudence and foresight are seriously lacking in public life in Malta nowadays, going by Labour’s behaviour and what the media are NOT asking.
After 25 years in government, and presumably tired and in need of a rest, it’s only the Nationalists, and especially Prime Minister Gonzi, who’s asking the questions, evaluating options and negotiating without being rushed and keeping at heart the interests of Maltese taxpayers. That’s being serious.
2 points
1. On Budget night Tonio Fenech explained late in the evening on TVM (the programme hosted by Natalino Fenech after the speeches) that the John Dalli proposal was being evaluated by the experts. He also stated that the proposal involved – COAL. What was Karmenu Vella’s reaction? “Mhux hekk qalli, Johnny!”.
I was shocked that Karmenu Vella uttered those words as it was evident he had been briefed ‘in person’.
2. In 2007 this was touted as the best things since sliced bread – but it hasn’t exactly taken the world by storm. Why?
How you can get richer even when a prisoner — in Brussels.
Prosit ghalik sur-cittadin if it’s true.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111127/local/Sargas-and-cheap-electricity.395746
“For weeks people were left wondering what this plan to reduce electricity rates was and how EU Commissioner John Dalli featured in it.
Mr Fleischer explains that Mr Dalli is his friend. The two got to know each other a couple of years ago when the former Nationalist Party minister acted as a consultant to Mr Fleischer’s company Sargas”
If John Dalli and Associates requires political patronage, it doesn’t say much about its sustainability does it?
Basta bil-green jobs.
Daewoo MK II in the offing.
Let us keep our fingers crossed that it will be nipped in the bud.
The pressure MUST continue inexorably.
Does the EU approve of such an apparent conflict of interests viz a viz an EU commissioner?