Or the demise of “thinking man”

B’apologija lill kumplament tar-residenti ta’ Burmarrad u li ghandhom mohhom f’postu.

He is not an MD. God forbid!

TROY,
Mal-Labour ghandek cans tajjeb issir Serv-employed.
Fis-sens ta’ skjav.

Grazzi w looking forward li min prattikament ministru ssir ministru ta’ vera.

Ambassador to China.

They are repeating that promise like they repeat their new guarantee about the stipends. But the students must be careful about how Labour is wording their promise: “We will retain the stipends, and we will strengthen them.”
The catch lies in that qualification, “we will strengthen them,” which although sounding nice, is actually worded in a very dangerous way. A bit like the “reducing the water and electricity tariffs in a sustainable way.”
One could choose to strengthen the stipends system by, for instance, backing them with a loan, whereby the student would agree to pay back the stipend when the student qualifies and gets a job. That would guarantee the stipends, at any amount, for ever to those who would be willing to take the stipend.
As usual, the Times “journalists” and the other “free” media are not able to ask the Labour party to explain what they mean by “strengthening” and to give guarantees about its meaning.
The guarantee being given by Joseph Muscat is not different from the one given by Alfred Sant & Co in 1996, anyway. In Chapter 6, they had said “The stipend system will continue.”