@Chris Ripard

You seem to be impressed by Dr.Azzopardi’s performance. How come you refer to him as PS….he was elevated to Minister more than two weeks ago.

This is called survival and obviously Sandro Chetcuti is backing the party he knows will be in office soon. This is common amongst developers in Malta and as the election gets closer you will probably see more jumping ship.

Also I wasn’t aware of the rule that stated that lawyers who are members of the Labour Party couldn’t defend developers who contribute to their party. Could be another reason for Sandro Chetcuti’s contributions to Labour, to get cheap rate defence in court. Well you never can tell with this country can you?

Personally, I think the real middle class – as opposed to the wannabe mittelklass – are sick to the teeth of footing the bill for gross frittering away of our hard-earned and heavily taxed euros. The new airport was budgeted at 16 million quid, it ended up costing 24. Mater Dei? Say no more. Roads meant to take 6 months (admittedly under that * * * hole Mugliett) took 2 years to do. The Cirkewwa terminal . . . 12 years (?) and counting. Wasn’t VAT meant to result in reduced direct (income) taxes? Yeah, right!

PN seems happy to bleed us dry, mostly to pay a bloated army of civil servants (sic) do work that’s got exponentially easier over the last few years thanks to IT.

They’re scared * * * * less of psychotic kaccaturi and do very little about many land usurpers (though, in fairness, Dr Jason Azzopardi has made some effort here and did a lot to correct socialist aberrrations. He really is a superb PS).

And, if I may be allowed to comment on an area where I have a personal interest and a certain amount of experience, I can tell you that the PN in government did precious little, if anything, for the local sign-based deaf community.

I don’t think anyone can dispassionately argue against the PNs track record on health. But again, there’s room for improvement, especially when it comes to getting the most out of our medical professionals, a lot of whom like to have both sides of their bread buttered by working a few hours at MD (to get their state pension), then go onto a lucrative and quite possibly undertaxed private practice.

The bottom line, I feel, is that the PN is great on principles and incorrectly assumes that this is enough. It isn’t. It’s useless having the principles but making a pig’s breakfast of their execution. If they want to have a serious chance at the polls, they need to go back to the grassroots.

Are you serious? The developers have been raping the environment for years now with the help of the Government through their authority MEPA. If anything they fear having MEPA dismantled and something useful put in its place!

[Daphne – Highly amusing, Joe. Which is why, I suppose, Sandro Chetcuti, developer extraordinaire and boss man of the developers’ lobby, raises funds and organises meetings for the Labour Party, and why he is currently being defended in court on his GBH charges by fellow Labour Business Forum member Manuel Mallia.]

Frans, with Labour one does not need to ‘assume’ anything.

We have proof of its past and present mentality which projects into future its behaviour should it be returned to power.

The fact is, that if its past was horrible and you elves consistently want us to forget it, then why does your leader declare himself as a Mintoffjan and invites back former ministers and MPs from the Mintoffian and KMB era? There is no assumption to be made here. These are facts and both the language used and the lack of (or secretive) policies, all point to another disastrous half decade if the MLP is elected.

Even the assumption that violence and corruption will not rear their ugly head since they were suppressed in the Sant years, would be dangerous. The mob which greeted the exiting Labour MPs while swearing and threatening government ministers are a bad omen should Labour govern.

The electorate seems to have a brief window of opportunity in order to evaluate both parties and satisfy itself as to which one is really ‘safe’, not by mere words but by deeds.

The choice should be quite obvious and indisputable.

“And obviously saying you are a PL supporter is like saying “No I don’t want that job, you go ahead and employ someone from your own party”.”

Bollocks of the year.

Malta is chock-a-block with Labour supporters and prospective MPs occupying the highest positions in the land, having landed there courtesy of a very naive PN administration.

Never said I wasn’t proud or ashamed of my political views. Though I was denied a vote in the last election for some reason though others were allowed.

[Daphne – Why would you have been denied a vote.]

You have dedicated your life to this politics game while I would rather go through it smiling and nodding when someone tries to start a political conversation, not because I think my argument won’t hold I just don’t care enough to.

[Daphne – No, I haven’t made it my life. It’s merely the most conspicuous part of my life. And it’s not politics, either, but writing about politics, which is wholly different. If you’re not that interested, you’re hardly in a position to have taken a proper decision on what party to support/vote for. That requires a certain degree of interest.]

“l-ezempju ikaxkar. Now if you must insist on behaving like that, then blame your manners and conversation, not perceptions of your politics.”

I never said people view me as violent and ignorant. But I see it often enough from my friends. When viewing someone being “hamallu” they go “mhux xi laburist injorant” or saying something like “le mhux hamallu ta dak nazzjonalist” or the classic “Le mhux il laburisti hamalli, il hamalli laburisti!”

[Daphne – Yes, well, you have to admit that this falls within the same kind of generalisation as ‘Germans are tall’ and ‘Maltese are short’. It’s not true of everyone but it’s ‘true’ as a generalisation. Take the mass meetings, for instance. Labour mass meetings are predominantly chav fests and full of rough-necks and tarty girls; PN mass meetings have those too, but are predominantly ABC1 and there’s no getting away from that. I always find it fascinating, studying those mass meetings: the atmosphere and the crowd are so different.]

And yes this blog does work hard to create a bad impression of Labour.

[Daphne – I don’t work at all hard. Apart from the fact that these things come naturally to me, Labour itself hands me material on a silver plate.]

It does so by cherry picking stories and careful use of diction (which I have to say if not so hateful, very impressive).Didn’t see that video of the nationalist supporter cussing and claiming victory over the speakers casting on this blog did I?

[Daphne – Diction is spoken, not written. My, you mean there’s one video of a Nationalist supporter cursing? Impressive. Should you be hanging around with a video camera the next time I stub my big toe, you’ll have another.]

Completely untrue.The other way round if anything.Most PL supporters have to play the floater card wherever they go because the PN supporters would assume you are of the violent and ignorant type(due to blogs like these that work 30 hours a day to give that impression).And obviously saying you are a PL supporter is like saying “No I don’t want that job, you go ahead and employ someone from your own party”.

[Daphne – ‘Pretend you’re a floater’…well, I’ve known for a long time that people who say they’re floating (I always think of rubber Lilos when they say this) are just too embarrassed to say they’re voting Labour. Be proud of your choice, and if you’re not, ask yourself why. Why are you voting for a party that you’re ashamed to be voting for? Or more to the point, why are you ashamed? I say defiantly that I’m voting PN, even when surrounded by crowds of whiners going on about how they need a change. I love it. And no, people won’t automatically assume that you’re an ignorant savage because you vote Labour. L-ezempju ikaxkar. Now if you must insist on behaving like that, then blame your manners and conversation, not perceptions of your politics.

This blog does not ‘work 30 hours a day’ to create a bad impression of Labour. It contains my views, collects random items I find interesting or amusing, and serves as a forum for others to express their views too. I set it up because people who think as I do had begun to feel marginalised and in the minority, the media having been taken over and literally over-run by Laburisti and ‘we need a changers’. The common denominator of such persons is that they lack, almost entirely, a sense of humour, and anything they produce tends to be boring. The tension and negativity just leaps off the pages.]

Unbelievable!

[Daphne – They are not pointing that out. They are pressing for an election. They being Joseph. If he had any strategic ability at all, he would not be doing this. The election was just a year away anyway. Exactly why he is trying to rush it is anyone’s guess. The thinking is crazy. The damage to business is great.]

No the uncertainty is already there because GonziPN couldn’t keep his backbenchers in order through bad leadership FULLSTOP.

[Daphne – I wish on you somebody like Franco Debono or Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. Believe me, at the end of it you would be stretchered out dosed on Librium.]

If you expect any opposition in the world to just sit back and go “Oh no take your time, sort this out, do whatever it is you need to do just tell us when you’re ready and we’ll meet back at the parliament in say 3-6 months”.

I’m sorry it just doesn’t work that way.

[Daphne – In fact, that’s exactly the way it works. The national interest comes first, before the interest of political parties. We – and I say we intentionally, to mean the country – are in this mess because of the egocentric behaviour of two men, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Franco Debono. Jeffrey made Franco possible, by spending three and a half years undermining the prime minister, with a little help from his spiteful, vengeful friend Mugliett.]

We all know what happened to our economy and political situation when the old people still within the NEW PL were ministers between the 70s and 80s.

I honestly cannot understand the promise made by Joseph Muscat himself when he said that he is going to give us the best people to govern this country if he is elected. Can he at least mention who these people would be and which ministry they will be responsible for?