Bilhaqq, smajt? Il-Partnership rega rebah.
Defeated? No, we won.
On Bondi+ last night, Chris Said made the point that Joseph Muscat’s reaction to the defeat of Anglu Farrugia’s ‘no confidence’ vote is just like his reaction to the EU referendum result.
Back in 2003, he had helped his boss Alfred Sant (the Labour prime minister he wants you to forget) push the ridiculous line that ‘Partnership rebah’.
When quizzed about how they had reached this conclusion, when the result was a clear and resounding Yes, they said that if you considered the total number of electors who defaced their ballot sheet, and those who didn’t vote, and added these to the No vote, then the number of those who DIDN’T vote for EU membership was greater than the number of those who did.
The stance taken by Alfred Sant and Joseph Muscat met with scornful laughter and was the subject of many jokes. But they took it seriously. In an interview several years later, when he was an MEP already (or was he actually party leader?), Muscat was asked point-blank whether he sees now that the Yes vote had won.
He replied that “with hindsight”, he did. It had taken him five years and four of them spent in Brussels – because it goes without saying that he was one of the first to take advantages of the opportunities he had not voted for.
Now he’s doing it again. Despite the ‘no confidence’ motion being defeated, he has struck to the prepared script which says it wasn’t. He has given the ‘national press conference’, with obligatory blue backdrop and no sign of a Labour emblem anywhere, and he has carried on grinding his stuck record of ‘instabilita’.
At least he has had the good sense not to rally his troops for a celebration outside Mile End, as he and his boss did in 2003.
Incidentally, that fake and over-prepared press conference yesterday was way too OTT. You don’t give a press conference like that to say you’ve lost. If the stage was set already, so what – just cancel plan A and move to plan B.
Even had he been victorious, it would have been inappropriate. Why? Because it makes him and his PR people look as though they took victory for granted. Which they did. It’s way too try-hard.
Whether you’ve won or you’ve lost, in a situation like that the only time and place to speak to the press is when you’re walking out of parliament. You stop at the door, and you speak. Whatever you can’t say in that off-the-cuff situation shouldn’t be said at all.
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During that famous interview, with Reno Bugeja, his words were ‘with hindsight, and given the electoral result that followed, partnership lost’.
Remember how Labour had stated that the referendum result didn’t matter whatever the outcome, and that only a general election would decide matters?
According to Joseph, given that they had proclaimed beforehand they intended to ignore the result, theirs was a legitimate position to take with the electorate.
And screw the Laburisti and all the those who wanted Europe.
That’s the whole point, Jozef.
The final stamp on the referendum ‘Yes’ vote was given in the general election that immediately followed it. Eddie Fenech Adami knew, from the results of the referendum, that the majority of the electorate was behind him, and he promptly opted for a snap election.
Lawrence Gonzi cannot do that now, after an ‘unclear’ (if it’s being compared to the 2003 referendum result, then I feel that it’s an ‘unclear’ result) result in the parliamentary no-confidence vote. According to surveys, he does not have the backing of the electorate, and he knows that.
No, it isn’t.
The point is that Labour chose to ignore a referendum result.
The fact they said they would, doesn’t give them any democratic credentials. It just shows what they think of us.
What gets to me is the resigned tones with which we have to discuss these matters.
yes we won !!
[Daphne – Which did you win, Joseph? And by how much? More to the point, WHAT did you win?]
Here’s your prize, joseph. Give it to your boss.
http://static3.beanscdn.co.uk/modules/ems-v2/article/featured/bucket_of_shit.jpg.jpg
At this rate, they will probably think that they lost after winning the general election.
Did you see the egg on his face during the press conference? One hell of a big yolk.
This idiot is at it again. Most of the comments below the article are brilliant.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120127/local/jpo-agrees.404133
“JPO agrees an election is the only way forward”
Who will be next to make the same statement? Mugliett, Dalli, Musumeci. I bet they are racing each other to be next in line to give their views to The Times or Malta Today ‘journalists’. Oh I forgot, they enjoy making a fool of themselves on Facebook more nowadays.
He won’t be contesting again and his partner will do so on the Labour ticket. So why not have an early election?
Fitch cuts rating of five eurozone countries – Malta untouched
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120127/world/fitch-cuts-rating-of-five-eurozone-countries-malta-untouched.404134
Maybe ‘with hindsight’, Muscat will also realise that the Maltese economy is still doing well despite the european economic crisis.
Qed tara. Kien baqa’ xi kopji tal-ktieb ta’ Alfred Sant “Il-Partnerxipp – l-ahjar ghazla” ghand il-librara. Ghandhom mnejn jinbighu.
Every word he says, every move he makes, it’s fake.
You’re too kind. He’s just inept.