Labour: the sexagenarian party
Louis Grech and Alfred Mifsud take time out for a little R & R
Let’s burst one of Labour’s many bubbles, shall we?
Thank you, the reader who sent in the details.
Labour tells us that they are young, fresh and progressive, and that we should vote for them for change.
So instead of taking Labour’s word for it, let’s tot up the number of sexagenarians and septuagenarians in each party.
The Labour Party has 14 sexagenarian candidates and two septuagenarians (Joe Debono Grech, 73, and George Vella, 70).
It also has very many who are in their 50s, including some, like Marlene Mizzi, who are knocking on 60’s door. Interestingly, it turns out that Marlene Mizzi (b. 1955) is THREE YEARS OLDER than Marie Louise Coleiro (b. 1958).
The Nationalist Party has just THREE sexagenarians, and the oldest of them is 63. It has no septuagenarians at all, but many people in their 30s and 40s and some in their 20s.
This is not about ageism. This is about facts. The Labour leader might be 39, but he has a gerontocracy behind him.
Muscat is running a show based on a bunch of old-timers who are looking at this election as a way to top up their pension and have one last shot at power before they bite the dust for good.
Not that there is any reassurance this is their last shot. I mean, look at Joe Debono Grech, who’s trying to get elected again at 73.
This is the Mintoffian hardcore, and they’re dead set on reinventing for the 21st century what Karmenu (Il-Guy) Vella calls the Golden Years.
There’s more: the Nationalist Party has eight MPs who are riding off into the sunset. The Labour Party has just three.
And even more: the last surviving member of the Fenech Adami 1987-1992 cabinet (Ninu Zammit) is leaving politics now, but the Labour Party is presenting for election AGAIN three surviving members of the Mintoff/KMB cabinet 1981-1987, which is even further back in time (Leo ‘Herr Flick’ Brincat, Karmenu ‘Il-Guy’ Vella and Joe Debono Grech).
LABOUR’S CUTTING-EDGE SEXAGENARIANS
Yana Mintoff Bland – 61
Johnny Buttigieg – 67
Joe Debono Grech – 73
Louis Grech – 65
Anthony Mifsud Bonnici Giordani – 62
Joseph Mizzi – 60
Victor Sultana – 64
George Vella – 70
Charles Mangion – 60
Edward Scicluna – 66
Karmenu Vella – 62
Anthony Zammit – 61
Manuel Mallia -62
Evarist Bartolo – 60
Anthony F Attard – 69
Leo Brincat – 64
By contrast, here’s the PN list:
Mario Rizzo Naudi – 60
Albert Fenech – 60
Frederick Azzopardi – 63
21 Comments Comment
Reply to Anthony Briffa Click here to cancel reply
Il-hanina dinja. Dawn ta’ Joseph huma qatta vecchi pixxatori bavosi e cafoni, bil-karta anzjan.
Imhatra li bejnithom m’ hemmx prostata wahda li hi fully functional.
Tajba!
This puts things into perspective.
And all this talk of Change, with a capital C, as if it is something good by definition. Not all change is good.
They are going to need a good supply of Tena Lady in the new parliament.
Karmenu Vella – 62 Various ministries under Mintoff , KMB and Alfred Sant
Joe Debono Grech – 73 Minister of Fish and Chips 1981
Joseph Mizzi – 60 Minister w/o portfolio 1986
George Vella – 70 Minister of Foreign Affairs 1986
Charles Mangion –60 Minister of Justice 1986
Evarist Bartolo – 60 Minister of Education 1986
Leo Brincat – 64 Minister of Finance 1986
What’s sure is that the PN still has a lot of punch..as that voter who refused his document has come to know!
[Daphne – Yes, right, because Maltastar, which reports that I fly around on my broom at night, is the fount of all reliable information. Iddahhaqx nies bik izjed, Albert. Surely you’re better than that.]
They have one thing in common, they are all capable of driving Malta gas down into a wall.
It takes many golden oldies with lots of experience to recreate the Golden Years.
What would fully tell the story would be a double bar graph of the age distributions for all the candidates, comparing the PL with the PN. Statistical programs like SPSS easily provide this comparison.
The aging skew of the PL candidates would be blatantly obvious. Any other characteristics for the distributions would also be made evident. The age distributions may not be statistically normal, or they may be, say for the PN. They can’t be for the PL.
In any case, with non-normal distributions, there are measures of central tendency [median, mode] or distribution [inter-quartile range] that would make for legitimate and interesting comparisons.
Sorry that I don’t have the immediate time or opportunity to provide you with theses results and their analysis now. But, I would welcome some enterprising individual to provide these results.
These OLD Mintoffian mentality will be LEADING L abour, even if they are not made ministers.
They will never change.
[Daphne – Do you honestly think that Leo Brincat and Karmenu Vella and Edward Scicluna and all the other Mintoffian sexagenarians will not be made ministers? That’s the only reason they’re standing for election. They’re not going to bother doing all this just to sit on the backbench for another five years.]
1026 vs 183 years
Four members of the 80s cabinet are standing for election – the three mentioned above and George Vella.
And that’s of course not including those people who were either active in the Labour Party in the 80s but not in parliament, and those who were giving a help hand on the side, such as Edwaaaaaard.
These people’s candidacy eschews ‘liberal’, ‘progressive’ and ‘Malta taghna lkoll’.
But that’s precisely why Joseph is talking about cutting-edge candidates: they’re all approaching the edge that cuts.
bil-Malti: ix-xifer tal-irdum
How come these very old-timers shout corruption now and were silent in their day.
So these 60+ pensioners have a karta anzjan and discounts such as cheaper bus fares and the extra pension given this year with the budget.
They also have a possibility of earning an EU MP pension of around 100K per year if they are elected or the pension and benefits of being a judge/magistrate if chosen by their Great Leader.
And to top it all, instead of going to the ‘universita tat-terza eta’ or at the ‘kazin tar-rahal’, they will be spending their mornings at the newly built Renzo Piano parliament telling us what to do, and their evenings stuffing their faces at parties.
What a life we’ve given them. Can’t they retire gracefully, hanina!
Joke of the campaign to date: Cutting Edge
So the average age of the 16 Labour sexagenarian group is 64. How progressive and modern.
We might need to have an ambulance permanently parked behind future ministries and parliament within a few weeks. I cannot imagine these sexagenerian being able to take the pressure for long. Then they will be replaced by turips.
Some tough beef we are heading to.
Comparing the Labour Party to the Nationalist Party slate of candidates is like comparing a wrecker’s yard to a new car showroom.
Are biex ha nitqannaw jekk intuhom cans.
Better have them contesting the election than turning renegades and helping the opposing party win the election.
Most of the Nationalists’ ex MPs, ex p/sects, and ex Ministers are doing their best to undermine their own party and hope for a Labour victory.
I wonder whether we shall see them celebrating with Labour supporters.
This explains why PL are adamant to reduce the honoraria