Please read this
A newspaper’s leading article, sometimes known as ‘the editorial’ is its most important, hence the name. Yet it is also the most overlooked.
That is why I am reproducing today’s leading article in The Times. I really think you should read it.
The Times, Wednesday, June 27, 2012
LABOUR’S OPPORTUNISM AND POLITICAL HYPE
Grinning like a Cheshire cat after the Labour Party successfully brought down a minister and an ambassador, with the help of three disgruntled Nationalist MPs, Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat may think that the Premiership is already in his pocket.
He and his colleagues in the party, which they once loved to call socialist but which they now want to rehabilitate by constantly referring to it as a movement, may well feel it is next to impossible now to wrench victory away from them when the Nationalist Party is in such disarray.
But what seems to be impossible at this point in time may well turn out to be quite possible, the more so if, despite all that has happened over the past weeks, the Labour Party remains as unconvincing as its leader is projecting it to be.
True, the knock the Nationalists have received through the political unbecoming behaviour of three of its MPs is hard and may even translate in loss of votes.
However, the crude manner in which they have acted and the equally crude way the Labour Party used them in its bid to trip up the government may very well have a diametrically opposite effect to that which the Labour Party believes.
In other words, the uncommitted voters – ultimately that segment of the electorate that truly decides which of the two parties is going to make it to Castille – may well read through the sheer political opportunism displayed by the party and the politically selfish manner in which the three Nationalist MPs acted and back the party that has shown that it can well steer the island’s economy in the right direction.
Today’s Labour – insofar as it can be called “today’s”, considering the number of veteran members who formed part of the socialist movement that had done so much damage to the island’s social and economic fabric – have nothing to show for their leader’s hype about their presumed ability to solve all of Malta’s economic problems.
On the contrary, the more they talk about what they plan to do, the more they show how flimsy their ideas are.
Take, for instance, Dr Muscat’s commitment that a Labour Party in government would not raise the retirement age. Never mind his remark that he does not believe the Nationalist Party when it says that it, too, would not raise the retirement age if re-elected. What jars is his absolute statement that economic growth, coupled with increased female workforce participation, would make raising the retirement age unnecessary.
He speaks here as if he has the secret to ensuring economic growth and increased worker participation when, in fact, it looks like the party only has airy-fairy ideas to offer.
Why should the electorate take his word for it? Does the party know of a formula that guarantees growth that all the rest of the European countries are unaware of?
This is now getting a bit hilarious.
In fact, considering all the recommendations that have been made for Malta to ensure the sustainability of its pensions system, even the government would have to fully explain the stand it is now taking against the recommendation made by the European Commission to raise the retirement age further.
Dr Muscat told his audience last Sunday that the next government would face some of this country’s greatest-ever economic and social challenges.
Facing up to those challenges, he said, would require a united population, working together. What is stopping the Labour leader from promoting such a spirit of cooperation right now?
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It’s worth having Joseph PM if that means causing the irrelevant The Times clan to puke themselves to pukedom and back.
It’s Joseph’s only worth: watching the moronic Establishment tribe twist and turn to the rule of a Burmarradian.
Hudu go fikom, ja qatta pxat!
Dear Kev – being in Brussels has not made you more of a man than you really are.
I would have thought that mixing with well-educated and polite people would have changed you somewhat.
You are really not much better than JPOS – always complaining about Brussels and now happy about what happened to Richrd Cachia Caruana. You and your wife aare anti-EU – but you would not be there enjoying the good life and all the perks that go with it were it not for Cachia Caruana who was instrumental in Malta becoming a member of the EU.
I really cannot fathom what makes all the Labour Party supporters tick – what is it with them that they are always so full of anger, hate and spite towards those who do not agree with them.
There must be a reason for this attitude. I must revisit Freud and Jung.
JAQQ
No wonder you vote Labour, Kev. You’ve got the right sentiments in place.
My sentiment is not something you’d be able to identify, La Redoute – not you, of all people.
But I’d be rather more worried if the eurozone collapsed and we missed the opportunity of issuing our own SOUND currency due to lack of leadership qualities in both camps of the tribal system.
As matters stand, control over our budget will soon be in Eurocratic hands and no such opportunity will arise. So let Joseph eat cake. Gonzi’s had enough. And let’s face it, he hasn’t been much of an inspiration. Very much in your alley, La Redoute – bland, insipid and oblivious.
What currency are you planning to introduce in the Brussels suburbs? Token dishes or dish tokens?
Every time he speaks, it’s a disaster. Embarrassing actually.
He needs this fabricated crisis by instalments. Obtuse enough to be thrilled at the media hype.
At last.
Who, Joseph Muscat or kev?
Apparently it seems that the socialist people never read Nassim’s theory of the highly improbable.
The highly improbable is that you can have another Nationalist victory. The Labour people think, even the way they speak between them, that this time for sure it will be a Labour victory. As always, complacency and lack of the highly improbable theory.
Excellent piece.
If you were Prime Minister (not just for a day), what would you do in the current situation?
Exactly what the present PM is doing.
Ejja… fl-ahhar qisu qieghed idur rih fuq
Out of subject but look at this stupid oaf;
(Under the letter “An outdated colonial approach”)
[
Victor Laiviera
Today, 10:34
” There isn’t one single country that does not have its own parliamentary building.”
We DO have our “own parliamentary building”, Mr Meilaq. It is the imposing building facing St George’s Square, which has been housing the supreme authority in Malta ever since it was built.
This palace is the natural home of our parliament, the place where it was born, developed and matured. It lends it legitimacy and dignity. Moving Parliament out of the Palace will be like cutting a tree from its roots.
The fact that the President and his minuscule staff occupy part of the Palace is no hindrance – in fact it is a plus. Article 51of the Constitution states, “There shall be a Parliament of Malta which shall consist of the President and a House of Representatives. Thus the President is an integral part of Parliament and moving the House out of the Palace will mean splitting Parliament in half.
Countries which have a proper respect for their traditions and conventions would not dream of such a thing. Just imagine the House of Commons moving out of Westminster!
]
He doesn’t even understand that the Constitution is referring to the speaker of the house.
U Victor mimli bil-hdura. X’jifhem int!
He replied in the same way when I challenged him on this some weeks ago. Apparently he keeps a record of what he writes, and cuts and pastes as necessary.
He’s so thick that he doesn’t realise that he’s so wrong about the President’s office and Parliament being in the same building.
In Italy the President’s Palace is the Quirinale, Parliament is at Monetcitorio with the Senate at Palazzo Madama. He’s as hopeless as the party that he supports.
Mr. Laiviera is one deluded fanatical dumbwit. He doesn’t realise the harm his blog posts do to his party – scaring off moderate voters from casting a Labour vote because of radical elements with twisted thinking.
When talking about a new Labour government, one point everybody seems to be missing is The Great Leader’s, and advisors’ intelligence, ability to troubleshoot problems while formulating avant garde solutions and projects. One of the more recent of brainwaves was the idea of increasing Malta’s surface via reclamation.
Did he had to go to blinking Dubai to realise what recalmation is or means! I’m sure it was MEP 456 who noticed that a palm archipelago was not the work of mother nature.
Joseph is counting his chickens – http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20120627-election-29-september-or-october
They must know something that JPOS didn’t tell us.
” Facing up to those challenges, he said, would require a united population, working together. What is stopping the Labour leader from promoting such a spirit of cooperation right now? ”
Answer: A chauffeur driven BMW 7 series and a Floriana facing office.
That editorial did not say anything that has not already been said ad nauseum here by various posters.
What is stopping the Labour leader from promoting such a spirit of cooperation right now?
The difference between the numbers 38 and 39.
But, please, don’t read this:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120627/local/beppe.426230
If I didn’t know better I would have said that you’re writing The Times editorials as well now, Daphne.
Very good analysis of the OPPOSITION leader, in my humble opinion.
Very well written.
Who needs cooperation in parliament when Dr. Muscat prefers the personal excitement of building his “Political Movement”? See Charlie Azzopardi/Facebook, last Sunday’s public post: http://www.facebook.com/charlie.azzopardi.16
“Democracy” in action is the power of the “representative” party in government. Who needs politics based upon reason and parliamentary cooperation with political parties? (Sounds like Simon Busuttil.)
True democratic cooperation is your accepting my new majority (forget about dissenting minorities, unless you join my coilition).
No, the domination of Parliament, as a “more representative” and “more democratic” political movement, is to be preferred over the separation of powers. (Forget the Constitution.)
As Leo Brincat says even today, Parliament is supreme. That’s why: “…a vote of no confidence was required to restore the supremacy of Parliament”. (Even the Courts, therefore, are subservient to Parliament.)
Oh yes, “party reform” and “Constitutional amendments” would be high PL priorities (under a Labour government). Elect us and then we’ll show you what we mean by cooperation. (It’s just that we don’t cooperate with people who do not accept us and our sole interpretation versus the Speaker’s of Justine’s vote).
We expect everyone to unite behind us. Come, join the movement, don’t be left behind; see peace; see utopia; see the solutions to all of your problems: vote PL, or else.
Unfortunately, the situation described by the Times above in its editorial is not hillarious. It caught my eye immediately this morning.
It is more serious by virtue of the fact that Labour has been unelectable (rejected by the voters)for decades, and that occasionally and eventually the PL will be voted in (perhaps, not yet; and then again perhaps, too soon; the margins are almost always too narrow).
Of course, there are polls conducted by the political parties.
And so the PL refrain continues:
It’s our turn, see; mhux fair. We get to govern too, you know. It’s our right in a normal democracy. This is tyranny, maybe even oligarchy (where did I get that word?). You’ve been there too long, now. Come on, let’s have an election; you no longer reflect the “majority,” you know, like our truly democratic “political movement.”
Mhux fair. You’re just clinging to power. After all, you’re an illegitimate government, you know. Let us have our election now!
We deserve my turn to run the show. You’ve had your chance. Come on. Hey, you’re not listening to me. You’re starting to make me ANGRY.
Let me show you how it’s done. Come on. Lawrence, if you don’t do as I say right now, I’ll make you go. Mhux fair. I know I can do it. Mhux fair. Jeffrey, Jeffrey, where are you?
I thought that Allied Newspapers were Joseph Muscat’s ally. This editorial is a piece of much needed news.
A party divided will never win the election.