Lino Spiteri ghamel ukoll budget li semmieh tax-xoghol – fejn fi zmien dan il-famuz budget il-qaghad sploda u l-uniku xoghol li kien hawn kien taht dixxiplina militari.

B’dan biss jista’ ‘jiftahar’ Spiteri. Ahjar imur jistahba bhad-dinosawri l-ohra kollha li ghandu l-Labour.

I completely agree with your last paragraph. May I add just one thing. Spiteri uses his pen to ward off criticism of his past, especially the time he was a minister.

Lino Spiteri jahseb li jista jinghogob maz-zewg nahat. Fil-verita, ma hu xejn hlief socjalista.

If you are creative enough, you can find some good in everyone. The fact remains that Mintoff did untold damage to this country and the social fabric of this nation. He is responsible for the great divide that there is following the British maxim ‘ divide and conquer”. He nurtured that divide as it made him stronger. The prejudice and the “ghira bazwija maltija” that he instilled in his followers were his greatest weopons.

The only reason he brought Sant down was because he did not control him unlike KMB. There was no altruisitic reason. It was simply spite. (This is in fact were one could draw a parallel with JPOS. Both spiteful, vindictive dwarves.) Mintoff started his political career the way he ended it, by bringing down a Labour Government. Should we thank him for that? yes I am pleased that Sant’s Government was hindered from creating further havoc in the business world but disloyalty can never be applauded. The one thing Sant may have achieved had he had more time – was to rid us of all those thugs who were part of the hideous ’80s. As it is, they hung on and the prospect of them being decision makers in our life again looks like it is going to become a reality.

As for lino spiteri he too is as guilty as the rest of them. Just because he has a fluid pen and is actually intelligent, he is not any less guilty. He may at times come across as being moderate but that is only because he has reached that stage in his life where he is only too aware of his mortality. In his own way he is trying to rewrite history. Just look at the way he writes about the National Bank. It is clear he wants to protect his own legacy even if it means distorting the truth or destroying the legacy of others. If anything his mild manner makes him even more despicable as the unsuspecting viewer is easily misled by him.

“If I gave you a hundred euros and then smashed your 500-euro vase, would you say I’d done you a lot of good?”

That’s a brilliant way of describing Mintoff’s work.

“The Labour government of the 1980s used to give its November budgets names” Someone please call Sasha Baron Cohen.

Imissu jisthi. Ahjar jitkellem kif kienu johorgu il-permessi tat-trade meta kien ministru hu.

same subject, different perspective, lots of confusion. It takes you hours trying to filter out what they’re saying, and by the time you’re done, no-one’s interested anymore.

http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20120723-cruise-passengers-from-non-eu-countries-35-less-than-2011

http://www.maltarightnow.com/?module=news&at=It%2Dturi%26%23380%3Bmu+tal%2DCruise+Liners+ikompli+ji%26%23380%3Bdied&t=a&aid=99839077&cid=19

[Daphne – The Labour government of the 1980s used to give its November budgets names, in a sort of North Korean way to do with sun and glory and so on. One of them, the one that has stuck in the minds of all the depressed and demoralised people who watched Lino Spiteri read it out on television, is il-Budget tal-Qawsalla. I believe it was the last budget of those horrible years, in 1986, when Malta couldn’t have been less rainbow-like and devoid of hope.]