Thank you. That’s quite gratifying. It warms my heart to know I’m not alone.

But I don’t think I would be popular or even likeable.

I have now realised that what the Maltese like in a man are all the qualities which lead to bad governance: familiarity, contempt for rules, low culture, blind patriotism, an unhealthy interest in money, a bit of skirt-chasing and that profoundly Maltese dictum to guide his life: Min hexa mexa, min ma hexiex inhexa.

In my own small way, I tried to stand up for what is right, but there is only so much that a man can do.

I could circulate a Manifesto for a Normal European Country, published as a one-page open letter and signed by like-minded citizens.

Perhaps it would jolt into action our few remaining political brains. But ad space in the papers is terribly expensive. And I doubt whether the top echelon would understand.

As far as they’re concerned, they’ve given us free schooling, free healthcare, and social benefits, and kept off the worst of the financial crisis, so why should they change the script?

To be honest I did not understand what you are trying to imply. Daphne must have corrected you for a reason.

Sorry, I meant 2002 not 2004.

H.P. Baxxter – we need YOU as our prime minister, but the stupid electorate will never vote for you.

Qeghdin Sew: There are those who suffered. You don’t dispute that. And you also seem to understand that, naturally, those who suffered are going to be against Mintoff. So far so good.

But then you say that those who had it good under Mintoff obviously aren’t going to hate the man and have nothing to be ashamed of. That is where you are wrong.

Those people who had it good under Mintoff knew very well that it came at the expense of others, and that immoral decisions were sometimes a factor. They knew that people were suffering but they did nothing.

The Labour Party is built on crowd hysteria – that’s where all the intimidation and bullying comes from. It is that sort of environment which leads to ordinary individuals carrying out horrific acts and then being utterly ashamed of themselves afterwards, while using self-protective mechanisms not to admit to that shame, sometimes even to themselves.

That is why they cannot face their past. They are as appalled by it as I am.

It would also mean having to say goodbye to those days when they were “on top”, so to speak. Because those days were bought with the lives of others and were not rightly theirs.

It’s also ironic that the SMU thugs were rewarded (in various ways) by the subsequent PN administration that used to demonise them so much in public.

This while the PN goes on about the violent Labour thugs of the 80’s until this very day. Qualcosa non c’entra.

[Daphne – Yes, well, it never did as long as a certain minister was around, did it.]

I’m not a believer in the you-weren’t-around-so-you-cannot-comment argument and neither do you, from your comments. Yet this doesn’t stop you from using the same argument against the pro-Mintoffians whose parents had it good under 80’s Labour (and therefore have nothing to complain about, unlike you), as was the case with whomever sign his post as “Fucking Bitch”. That’s all.

[Daphne – Your premiss is wrong, that’s the problem. You make the fundamental and common error of equating all parties involved (this is like when people start off from the point that the Nationalist Party and Labour Party are equal and build their argument from there). Edward Caruana Galizia’s parents can be credited with giving their children a more accurate, educated and credible account of what occurred than the parents of some of the unfortunates shouting ‘bott l*ba’ at me on this website. Also, Edward himself is, for a variety of reasons, better able to collect, assess, analyse, digest and form an independent opinion on the facts than are those same unfortunates. I trust you now understand the difference.]

Don’t get over excited over a paltry comment sweetie. “has” was not necessary and I don’t bother with standard turns of phrase. I’ll leave those to you.

You’re the wordsmith-cum-sub-editor after all…

[Daphne – It takes a lot more than a comment from a barely literate Labour Party supporter to excite me, Mr Borg, still less over-excite me.]

Likewise in what is now considered a ‘trendy’ locality for the nouveau riche (thanks to whom I’ll never be able to afford my own shoebox tsk tsk)

Tough shit for you. You chickened, so its your damn fault. Don’t blame it on the PL Govt.