Excellent point Daphne.

Recognition of what lies behind a bond lasting a lifetime isn’t the state’s, even more so since divorce was introduced.

It’s a cultural shift, which cannot rest on the instruments of legislation. Regulation is there to inhibit the exact opposite.

Seeing certain comments being passed this week directed at Busuttil, they betray a horrific gut instinct.

[Daphne – You don’t have to agree with me, Luigi. This isn’t a matter of opinion. It’s a solid fact: civil marriage is a contract. Civil union is a contract. The rights and obligations are contractual.]

Explain this. So if couple of the same sex get married abroad, why isn’t it recognised in Malta.

[Daphne – It isn’t recognised elsewhere, either, where there is no same-sex marriage. Even within the United States, every state has its own legal regime. Same-sex couples can marry in one state but not another.]

What the PN is proposing is a simple contract which does not cover this.

[Daphne – Have you asked Joseph Muscat how his civil union contract will differ from 1. a marriage contract and 2. a cohabitation contract?]

Religious rites are simply for those who believe in it and have lots of money to waste.

[Daphne – Religious rites don’t cost money. Priests don’t charge a fee to marry two people. It’s the dresses and parties that cost money. Those are not part of the religious rite, and most people have them with a civil marriage too.]

Even poor families, make it a point to waste so much money. But, that’s their belief.

If only the Labour media would accord the same courtesy of a reply on questions regarding national interest.

Say, the fantasy about building an unnecessary power station?

Who the interested ‘investor’ is and how much he is willing to chip in?

Where exactly does Joseph-Konrad-Toni-Louis et al plan to build the gas tanks?

How long will it take to construct the ‘tanks’ assuming that a decision is at hand whether to build above ground or underground?

How long will the process take for MEPA’s approval?

Will MEPA be abolished before any application is presented? To whom? Certainly not to the EU.

Has a company which will build the power station already been selected?

Would that not contravene rules regarding tendering process?

Has Labour already arranged to receive only one ‘acceptable’ bid?

Is this what Labour refers to as ‘transparency’?

If all this is accomplished in 24 months, does it mean that the inter-connector and EU financed gas pipeline will become history?

Who will build the three gas tankers needed to deliver LNG and how much?

True, a billboard is a marketing and propaganda tool.

But would an entity advertise a product it does not firmly believe in?

What does Labour honestly believe in, other than jumping on other people’s bandwagons?

[Daphne – Ah, you voted Yes to EU membership and then PN because you will still young back then, and therefore, impressionable and gullible, I imagine you wish to suggest. What do you think a civil union is if not simply a contract? What do you think civil marriage is, if not simply a contract? The only form of marriage that is not ‘simply a contract’ is a religious rite, which is not a contract at all, except where explicitly recognised by the state, as with Catholic marriages in Malta, which turns them into a contract by making them subject to marriage law. The law and the state deal in contracts. They do not deal in Hallmark cards.]

[Daphne – My pleasure.]

Let’s put it this way, the main election issue is to what extent Labour’s lying.

Better still, to what extent Joseph’s lying. I’ve noticed an empty space opening around him lately.

Only Louis Grech seems comfortable posing next to him.

All good except for your paragraph b). Do not be misled – a billboard is nothing more than marketing and propaganda.

[Daphne – And other societies have ‘God willing’, Luigi, but in none of those languages is it only an expression. It’s used by those who believe it. And no intelligent person would ever link God’s will to civil unions, if only for the simple reason that it makes no sense at all, and – in societies more alert than ours – it would also cause massive offence. Precisely because it is offensive. Fenech Adami was and still is a true believer. Muscat patently is not.]

You have to come across your audience now and tell us what do you think about Labour’s proposal on Civil Union. This had to be in the PN’s electoral manifesto if they want to be consistent with their logo of diversity. Diversity is not about religion only but also about different people and minorities.

[Daphne – I can’t understand why Labour gays are so pathetic and content to accept a different form of discrimination as progress. Isn’t marriage what you/they want? They why are you allowing yourselves to be fobbed up with a second-class civil union, and thanking the person who promises it to you. How does that work, exactly? Joseph Muscat tells you/them specifically and explicitly that he does not approve of and will not legislate for same-sex marriage, but you can have a token civil union instead to shut you up, and you salivate at his boots. This is the equivalent of women being told, in the days before equal pay for equal work, that discrimination against them was going to be removed by making it mandatory to pay them two-thirds of what men were paid, instead of just half. I still don’t think that not allowing same-sex couples to marry is discriminatory, because technically it is not. But you seem to think it is, so why don’t you demand the whole hog.]

Karl Gouder the openly gay MP, is coming across as an imbecile. You can’t be a gay MP and not campaign for civil liberties. He is on the wrong side. If I were him I would feel embarrassed by his own party.

[Daphne – Karl Gouder is right. Cyrus Engerer is wrong. Nobody should EVER allow themselves to be defined, still less make the mistake of defining themselves, by their gender or sexuality. Why should women politicians be ghettoised into speaking about women’s issues? Why should homosexual politicians be ghettoised into speaking about gay rights? Our gender and sexuality are incidental – that is exactly what equality is all about.]

In my opinion, the PN is not the social liberal party anymore. It was in the past. It’s not anymore. When I say it was in the past, only from an economic policies point of view and not from civil rights of minorities and majorities point of view.

[Daphne – Not to be patronising or anything, but I don’t think you know enough about this subject. What did the PN do for civil liberties? It took us into the European Union, against the massed forces of the angry Labour Party. There’s nothing more to be said, really.]

You have a problem with the Labour Party and I don’t blame you not to see anything good in them. That’s your opinion and we know it.

[Daphne – There is very little that is good in the Labour Party, Luigi, and that little is far eclipsed by outrageous bad.]

But I truly believe that if there’ll be another party other than the Nationalist Party, say the Party of Strickland, you would shy away from the PN, because I can sense it that you are not comfortable with their policies when it comes to civil rights.

[Daphne – I am very comfortable with their policies on civil rights. I campaigned for EU membership, not against it. You can’t have ‘civil rights’ in a democratic vacuum, this is what you don’t understand. There was divorce in the Soviet Union, Luigi.]

Policies aren’t only about the economy and democracy is not only freedom of expression. Democracy takes into account that minority rights are respected as well. The basic civil right i.e. divorce had to be introduced in this country with the Prime Minister voting against the people’s will, in parliament.

I bet, you won’t upload this comment, because it hits the nail on its head.

[Daphne – On the contrary, I appreciate the opportunity to address some of your issues. As I said, there was divorce in the Soviet Union and yes, freedom of expression is the essential underpinning of all democracy. Everything else derives from that – including respect for minorities.]

Hate to say it but if he wins, and this remains the main election issue, he will have a mandate and it will become his prerogative.

Where is Gonzi’s rabbit?