“If I had an extra €80 million I wouldn’t have squandered it on a new Parliament.”

You bet. He would have spent it on himself.

I stopped at the word “cul”.

Col. H.P. Baxxter (formerly 6/9 Bty, RMA, popped in from next door’s post)

With so many economists on board, they cannot come up with an answer to a simple question such as: If they plan to reduce taxes, reduce water and electricity tariffs, keep free health and education, fix ARRIVA, how do they plan to reduce the deficit while at the same time have less revenue and reintroduce subsidies?

Can their ‘economists’ please explain? Maybe with some leftover Gaddafi US dollars?

It’s unfortunate that these people can’t think, but can vote.

The money invested in the Piano project is a capital investment which will start giving a return on completion.

Subsidising the water and electricity bills indiscriminately is literally throwing money down the drain.

Selective aid to industry, in the manner so effectively engineered by the government, is the only subsidy that makes sense.

Gonzi is not and does not aspire to be a financial wizard. His job, which he does so well, is to weigh up the options and decide.

If only the brilliant economist Alfred Sant, of CET notoriety, was that humble.

Muscat is Sant’s clone, only with an inferior IQ and a greater propensity to screw up.

I often say that we Maltese are excellent at learning other country’s mistakes. That is learning to make those mistakes.

Joseph looks very promising in that respect.

Perhaps at some point in history someone mis-translated “Learning from others’ mistakes” into “nitghallmu l-izbalji ta haddiehor”

This economic simpleton has just exposed the nation to the danger of electing a know-nothing to run the economic affairs of the country.

And the one about the three pigs and the other one about golf and lobster.

In a changing world, considering the eurozone and the fiscal situation, I can’t bind myself to certain details today. I can’t change my position in 10 months’ time.

@ Bus Driver

I hope you are not serious…

Government will not save any money from slashed W&E bills! These are simply not considered as part of its revenue. It is WSC’s and Enemalta’s revenue. Why do we still find it so difficult to think of these entities as separate from government?

[Daphne – MADONNA! GESU HANIN! That comment was IRONIC. Malta – Land of the Doggedly Literal.]

Should the government find a way to slash water and electricity bills, it is us the consumers who would be saving money and not the government itself. Please remember that we have higher tariffs because government cannot subsidise (and rightly so) our bills anymore. People need to get it into their empty echoing heads that nothing comes for free in this world.

Unless WSC and Enemalta invest in more efficient means of producing water and electricity (besides reducing their payroll by, first of all, making redundant all those employees of theirs who are on the social security payroll in all but in name – you know the ones given a job overnight in 1987!) we cannot have lower tariffs. With lower tariffs, actually, there is an increased possibility that WSC and Enemalta will have even less funds to invest in new and more efficient technology.

I remember quite clearly Michael Briguglio on Xarabank (in the programme where Dr Gavin Gulia was also on the panel – besides the Prime Minister) stating that his bill had actually gone down following the revision of the tariffs. I was glad to hear that because even mine had gone down and I could not understand all this screaming, shouting, whining and stamping of little feet. I just thought I was living in a bubble or that my meters were stuck.

This is just a mantra being repeated ad nauseam by the PL simply to create a feeling that the tariffs are a problem for the economy.

Subsidies are.
Hiding the real costs is.
Expecting the government to pay for what you consume is.
Having a party in opposition with an “economic policy” taken right out of the Seventies (ours anyway) is.