Alan Deidun’s farewell note to Jeffrey on facebook:

TIME TO DRAW A LINE AND STOP THIS NONSENSE

Dear Jeff, I am de-friending you since it’s the only way to stop this nonsensical tit-for-tat as:

(i) I have already too much valid time, which I should otherwise be dedicating to my family or to work;
(ii) since, contrary to what some of your acolytes are saying, I have no appetite for becoming the leader of any local movement and I feel I have bored people enough with my hogging the limelight so far and
(iii) since I am deeply disillusioned with your actions over the past few days.

Namely, you try to come across as a moderate, level-headed individual who exposes all sorts of extremism in this country and you complain that during the Mistra saga you yourself were the victim of a concerted attack by the PN and others (incidentally I was at Nature Trust at the time when we bestowed the Green Politician of the Year upon you and I never joined the bandwagon in attacking you over the Mistra issue). At the same time:

(i) you recruit the services of Maltatoday and its trademark one-sided reporting in order to support your agenda – yesterday’s despicable piece, in which they relied solely on your claim that I accused you of being pro-abortion, without deigning to check with some of their journalists who had access to my fb wall, will remain in the annals of below-the-belt behaviour; incidentally, since you fit their liberal stance, Maltatoday never take you to task over your inconsistent immigration stance, which verges on racism, something they would surely have picked on if any other common mortal was involved; worth mentioning too is the fact that Maltatoday finally published one of my 3 online replies to their falsity of an article and this only when I threatened to take legal action;
(ii) you seek to instigate the reaction of your acolytes by deliberately twisting my words – for instance, you said yesterday that I referred to individuals whose marriage had failed as ‘spineless’ ones, whilst in actual fact I was referring to those who go with the flow and simply profess liberal views for populist reasons – you know this very well but you never retracted your statement;
(iii) a third signature tactic you resort to is scare-mongering, by harking back to dark ages involving Church-State strife; as a result, you have contributed in no mean way to the public in general being cynical about recent positive initiatives taken by the Curia – for instance, the Church Green Commission – (which has received very little public support so far), since you support the stereotype that being a conservative cannot mean being green at the same time (pigeonholing people at its best)
(iv) I fully believe that you are genuine when you state that ideologies are archaic, since your opportunistic views are neither here nor there, but simply amount to elastic principles which can be relaxed according to needs.

Bottom line Jeff – you love to be in the limelight and that is why I will gladly leave my share of it to you – back to the science now (the real stuff, you know)

Wait, wait. Why a new scheme?

Last year I remember Tonio Fenech and Dolores Cristina launching a training course for persons on the minimum wage. They were to receive 100 EUR a month, which I think is actually higher than Caritas’ proposed increase.

I’m under the impression that this scheme was a complete failure – not for lack of effort by the organisers – but precisely because very few minimum-wage earners turned up for these courses.

Which effectively means they were comfortable enough to ‘afford’ losing out on 100 EUR. That I guess would have covered at least the water and electricity bill.

In one of the several documentaries I watched these last three days and where the same reference was mentioned, there was also a comment that Dr Tabone spoke his mind, was tough to convince, but that once he saw the merit in whatever was proposed, he supported the initiative with all his strength, always remained loyal to the leader and the Party. And here is the difference between the late ‘gentleman’ and the yahoos of today who place their pompous asses before Party loyalty and before the good of the country.

Sadly, this week we lost two great men. Great not because they had a Nationalist Party connection, or because of looks, status or wealth, but because of their huge tangible contributions to the Maltese society at large.

May both enjoy each other’s company for eternity, along with other all time greats .They certainly would have much to talk about!

Surely you mean these four? I came across a Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando III facebook page yesterday.

I read Daphne’s column, and I’ll wager that come Tuesday, Lawrence Gonzi will announce a new “skema” ta’ “personal skills” co-sponsored by Caritas, ETC, and the Ministry for Social Policy. Because that’s how their brain filters everything.

The solution is not to raise the minimum wage, but the median wage. Our ridiculous wages have led to nothing but further income disparity and the strengthening of the lower classes, when the aim should have been the creation of a real middle class with real disposable income. In the end, Mintoff still lives on.

WOULD CENSU HAVE A PLACE IN TODAY’S PN? George Borg Olivier used to refer to Censu as his ‘Minister for the Opposition’. He was the epitome of what a loyal politician should be-speaking out where he felt he should, for the good of the party and the country. WOULD HE HAVE ENDED UP SIDELINED AND….WORSE, TODAY? I hope that the Prime Minister, with the help of Simon Busuttil, manages to remold the P.N. back into the inclusive party which drew many of us to it in the past.

Can you imagine Censu Tabone behaving as badly as Jeffrey or Franco?

[Daphne – No, and not just in politics, either. That’s why the word used most repeatedly in his obits was ‘gentleman’, a word that will never be used to describe either Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando or Franco Debono.]

These two have seriously corroded and eroded brain cells.