Something doesn’t quite sound right here
The Young Female Lawyer Aged 37, said to have been dispatched by Swedish Match for a Malta meeting with John Dalli, is described by him as “knowing nothing about snus; in fact, she asked me for the information about snus and I gave it to her”.
Something isn’t quite right here.
If this lawyer was indeed engaged by Swedish Match, then it stands to reason that Swedish Match would have briefed her fully before dispatching her to lobby the EU Commissioner unofficially and in an undeclared meeting in Malta.
What is the point of paying somebody to do your work for you if you then fail to tell them what that work is, or to brief them to the hilt?
Either Dalli is lying once more about the extent of this Young Female Lawyer’s knowledge, or Swedish Match are just as disorganised and unprofessional as Peppi’s Kiosk.
Or the Young Female Lawyer wasn’t really working for Swedish Match at all, which is why she didn’t know anything about snus (if she really did not).
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A must read.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121026/opinion/Road-map-to-nowhere.442687
This extract from today’s The Times indicates that the Maltese lawyer was fully briefed by Swedish Match.
In fact her mission was to assess how much Dalli knew about the subject and presumably to address any lack of knowledge or misconceptions.
You would not send someone who is not knowledgeable about the subject to carry out this task, would you now?
So it is hardly believable that she “knew nothing” about SNUS.
“In an interview with the EU news agency Europolitics, Swedish Match’s public affairs vice-president Patrik Hilldingson said that his company had come into contact with Mr Zammit (…) through the young Maltese lawyer with a view to assess whether Mr Dalli was fully understanding of his company’s argument about the unfairness of the EU ban on snus. “She (the Maltese lawyer) agreed with us to set up one meeting with Dalli to try to learn what he knows about our case. Does he even know the word snus?” Mr Hilldingson told Europolitics. As a result, according to Mr Hilldingson, two meetings were held, one in January and the other in February. According to Mr Hilldingson, the Maltese lawyer told Swedish Match that Mr Dalli had explained that all arguments behind the snus ban were actually in favour of Swedish Match. Then he said that, as a health commissioner, Mr Dalli’s political career would be over if he lifted the ban on snus.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121026/local/-Zammit-pursued-lobbyists-after-60m-request-refused-.442662
Read the last sentence again, that is indeed the crucial point.
A young female lawyer going all the way to Gozo to meet kicked out of office Dalli, with no knowledge of what’s happening! Yeah,sure,
Just wondering if she’s a blonde?
[Daphne – Funny you should say that, because yes, she is.]
Did she travel all the way to Gozo, or is she from Gozo?? Hmmm.
[Daphne – No, she is not from Gozo.]
Is she into Logo competitions?
So you know who she is? Why isn’t anyone mentioning this lawyer by name, and more importantly is some journalist trying to get some replies from this person?
Actually, I suspect that the meeting with the “Young Female Lawyer” was not the one held by the pool in Gozo.
The meeting with the young lawyer was held in January.
I think that what Dalli had said is that the meeting by the pool was the one of August 2011 (hence Summer), in which a gentleman handed to Mr. Dalli the PWC reports about the positive contribution of the tobacco industry to the economy.
On Simone Cini’s programme he used the word ‘innokkwa’ to describe the meeting with the lawyer. An innocuous meeting.
He politely obliged to Musumecese.
Then there’s ‘tabbraccia l-argument’ (taqbel), fazul (bazwi) and more.
Innocuous meeting between Dalli lawyer and Zammit?
Swedish Match, manufacturers of snus, employed a lawyer, sorry scratch that, a young female lawyer, to go to Dalli and find out what snus was.
Happens all the time, you manufacture a product for decades but don’t know what it actually is. Thank God for people like Dalli, willing to interrupt their holidays to inform them. And all for free, apparently.
I think somebebody is going to end up with enough egg on her face to make a dozen omelettes.
[Daphne – Very difficult, my dear, given the facts of the case. And do please explain why you’re rooting for somebody the party you support used to call HuBastjan until fairly recently.]
“The Young Female Lawyer Aged 37”
Yippee! I’m 36. And there I was thinking that I’m getting old.
Fair enough, Mr. Bugeja, but do not underestimate the fact that the assessment of “young” in this case comes from a former EU Commissioner pushing 65.
So Dalli is saying that she didn’t know anything about snus, and Swedish Match said that they needed to know what Dalli knew about snus.
Maybe she played dumb to extract the information from him.
Even if Dalli was not directly involved, it looks that he still knew about the request and didn’t take action.
Let’s say she played dumb. Can you imagine a European Commissioner explaining about snus to some Young Female Lawyer he doesn’t know?
The minute he realised that she knew nothing, he should have politely sent her to Google snus and then maybe come back.
A lawyer dispatched by Match who knows nothing about snus.
Very unlikely, to say the least.
He is either lying through his teeth or else the Debono Syndrome is really having its maximal effect.
Dan irid jitmaghna r-ross bil-labra.
Minghalih.
I am 46, so if 37 is young, then that makes me virtually just out of puberty.
Still trying to square the circle, I see, Xerlokk. And yet so blind to the most obvious.
Komplu ilaghbu biz-zibeg, tfal tal-bambin.
[Daphne – Oh hello, Kevin ta’ Sharon. You tell us then.]
Oh look, Kev ta’ Sharon. You were out of sight, but not out of mind, as some comments on this blog confirm.
Why is it that you always see the most obvious, and fail to see what is less obvious?
His plate’s full. Or maybe not.
http://www.asti.lu/2012/10/09/new-rules-to-stop-eu-funding-for-racist-parties/
Mhux ahjar nilaghbu biz-zibeg milli bl-isnus.
Did she get lessons how to snus from John Dalli?