My, what a crazy movement: from homosexuals to hunters. And they call it liberal and progressive, instead of just plain nuts.
“You said it was a movement, Noah, not a bloody ark!”
If I were gay, I would be furious. First they stick me into their movement to make them look terribly liberal, and then when I look again, they’ve shoved the bird-shooters in alongside me.
What are the hunters doing there – are they the progressive bit?
On timesofmalta.com, this evening:
Joe Perici Calascione told The Sunday Times that a Labour Party technical committee had confirmed that proposed changes are possible under a Labour Government.
The FKNK recently requested a revision of the current framework legislation regulating hunting with a particular emphasis on a tenfold increase in the bag limit.
The law hammered out between the Government and the European Commission had established an annual 20,000 bag limit of turtle doves and quails.
According to the FKNK, this can be increased to about 200,000 per year without prejudicing EU laws.
When asked whether Labour has already agreed to these changes, Mr Perici Calascione said: “Labour’s technical people agree with our proposals and told us this is possible and that they will change things in accordance with EU rules.”
“There is consensus between us and Labour that we will move forward on this proposal. However, I am speaking on technical terms and not on political terms,” he said.
Labour’s spokesman on Home Affairs and avid hunter Michael Falzon is believed to be on the party’s technical team. When contacted, Dr Falzon refused to provide any details, saying it was not remit and he asked the newspaper to contact Leo Brincat, the party’s spokesman on the environment.
However, Mr Brincat said hunting does not really fall under his remit as “present and future policy” on hunting is delegated to a technical committee presided over by Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, the party’s president.
When asked to confirm whether the party has made specific promises to the FKNK, the Director of Communications confirmed regular meetings had been held “with the aim of streamlining hunting and trapping rules in accordance with EU legislation”.
(…)
“It is clear to us that what is being promised to hunters cannot be achieved. However, we are not surprised with these political promises on the eve of an election,” Birdlife Malta’s president Joe Mangion said.
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This is why I always thought that the issue of gay marriage should never have been tied down to one party – at least not in Malta.
I knew it would get included with other issues that I do not agree with, and that I would be faced with the problem of voting for a party that does not represent my views just to get what I want.
It is also why I think that ideologies are useless. People stop doing the right thing and do the “liberal” or “conservative” thing instead putting barriers of their own making in the way.
Most gay voters do not trust Joseph Muscat after all his U-turns on gay issues. Like all other people they care about their jobs, incomes and a steady economy.
Secondly, what’s most worrying is how does the MLP intends to uphold its promises.
By going against an ECJ judgement on the issue and be fined more than double what Malta has been fined already? Where have their environmental credentials gone?
Jiena ghandi partner ta l-istess sess u meta nara dak li joffru z-zewg partiti nhoss li Malta ghada wisq lura. Kull min jivvota f’elezzjoni jrid jara min qed joffri l-ahjar pakket ghall-pajjiz u mhux jkun egoist u jara xha jiehu ghalih innifsu.
Il-PL qed iweghdu iktar milli jistaw jaghmlu l-PN peress li dan ta l-ahhar huwa partit konservattiv, u ghalhekk ovvjament li xi floating votes ha jmorru ghal Labour, madanakollu ahna l-gays nafu li dak li qed jigi offrut mhux bizzejjed.
Ahna irridu nghixu hajja mal-partner taghna bhal kif tghixa koppja ohra, ahna nhalsu t-taxxi, ahna nahdmu bhal haddiehor, ahna bnedmin u jixirqilna li jkolna id drittijiet li f’ pajjizi ohra ewropej ilhom li dahlu.
Din l-issue ma ghandiex tkun ballun politiku, il-partiti jridu jqumu min hemm u jghatuna id-drittijiet li ilna nistennew. Kull min jghix Malta w ghandu hbieb Gays jaf li sfortunatament jghixu fil-mohbi tas-socjeta.
Familji stess ikeccu lil ulidhom ghax jkunu gays, tfal jigu bullied ghax jkunu daqxejn femminili.. il-problema hija is-socjeta u mhux il-partiti.
Jien il-vot tieghi ntih lil min jaghtini l-ahjar pakkett, u ghaliex le ghal min itini dawk id-drittijiet li ili nistenna. Jiddispjacini ghal-ghasafar, pero l-hut jinqatlu wkol ghal-ikel.
U-turns? He stated what he initially believed but always said that he is available for discussion. Same thing happened with Obama, he was initially against and then, after meeting with gay people and talking to them, he realized that they deserve equal rights just like straight people have.
What is wrong with that? It shows growth, maturity and openeness.
See Antoine’s comment hereunder “Real acceptance, real equality, is when a person’s sexuality, though known, is not an issue and does not even need to be discussed. The PL is half a century behind the PN in this.”
This explains why there are so many prominent gays (and I mean prominent in the sense of job responsibility, not media exposure) working with the PN – and few, if any, with the PL.
Then again, people like johnUSA justify the PL’s cynical approach of flashy promotion of gays with their simultaneous ghetto-isation.
“He stated what he initially believed but always said that he is available for discussion”.
No he didn’t. He stated what he still believes. Being open to discussion (which should be the default position of every politician) doesn’t impress at anyone except the gullible.
A “movement” that puts together the likes of Deborah Schembri and Cyrus Engerer with Karmenu Vella and Joe Grima will find nothing strange with putting gays and hunters together. Never mind that most gays are against hunting and most hunters use the Maltese pejorative for a gay man as an insult.
People should be asking themselves why the only openly gay person in the Labour camp is Engerer who came out while still with the PN. Similarly the only openly gay MP in parliament is Karl Gouder, but nobody in the PN parades him as the token gay of the party.
Real acceptance, real equality, is when a person’s sexuality, though known, is not an issue and does not even need to be discussed. The PL is half a century behind the PN in this.
In the current climate affecting the PL even the dead will be promised a Lazarus.
They have been voting in Maltese elections for years anyway.
So why not accomodate them too ?
Desperate situations call for desperate measures.
FuKiNK unbelievable.
The journalist should have asked Karmenu Vella il-Guy how he plans to change the EU rules to accomodate the desired bag limit.
Leo Herr Flick Brincat is Labour’s shadow minister on the environment, so he is responsible to speak about the Birds Directive.
Is Herr Flick suggesting that under a Labour government the “present and future” policy about hunting will be set by the President of the Malta Labour Party at Mile End?
Or is he suggesting that he has no policy?
A friend who is a keen photographer of nature is continuously harassed by hunters when he is seen with his camera in the countryside.
He’s one who lives in a world of his own, so to speak, you can never make out on which political side he is.
Yesterday he just told me that he was toying with the idea of voting for a change but after reading the FKNK article on The Times he will nail his voting document to the wall.
Another stupid utterance from Muscat and he will be running to the poll station to vote AD or PN.
He will be my benchmark on who will win the elections.
I don’t think Muscat is able to govern this country with all due respect. We be the laughing stock of europe. Come on lets be serious for once and admit the truth. I think that there should be someone else who shoudl take over labour. He made too many gaffes to remain credible. I don’t think that labour can win the next election. Even Alfred Sant spent too much years as laeder of labour. After 1998 he had to be changed. He anchored labour and even his other deputy leaders to the opposition benches. Even the last election the 1200 votes difference was too few to account for the real difference between the two parties. The country knows what the PN stands for and is able to deliver however labour is a problem he si unable to give economic stability which is the most important.
Even the fact that first he was against the EU than he came out as a bulwark of the EU. Well it is inconsistent. I have to say that he was in favour of the EU because his party said so. I do believe that he had no real expertise to say that the EURO was bad for Malta. He is a communications garduate if I’m not mistaken. His position has long been untenable however people semm forget quite easily as he still remains at the helm of his party despite his grotesque mistakes.
I noticed something. That when Alfred Sant said that it’s better to go for an early election he repeated UNCONVINCINGLY and without personal conviction that labour should go for an early election. Qisu immorru ghal elezzjoni ghax hekk qall alfred sant minghajr ma jaf ghaliex jew jekk il-labour verament jaqbillux.
Jien nigi naqa’ u nqum liema partit politku jaghti widen tas-sesswalita’ tieghi li tista’ tinsab f’minoranza jew f’maggoranza.
Jien nivvota ghal dak il-partit li 1) kapaci jiggverna; 2) jiehu hsieb l-ekonomija tal-pajjiz; u 3) jaghti kas tal-valuri.
il-Lejber mela hi !!!!!!!!!!!!!
What if you’re gay AND a hunter?