A historic photograph (for all the wrong reasons)
Published:
April 9, 2013 at 1:33am
“This is not my Budget, but if I were to give it a name, I would call it A Stocktaking Exercise,” Edward Scicluna said in parliament yesterday evening.
AH, SO NOW WE KNOW WHO NAMED THOSE HORRID BUDGETS OF THE 1980S: Edward Scicluna, consultant to the governments of Dom Mintoff and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.
Those were the years when the national budget was christened before being released on an agitated public. Scicluna probably hasn’t noticed that no budget has been named since.
The one I remember best?
IL-BUDGET TAL-QAWSALLA.
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What? No reduction in the price of tuna and corned beer?
Issa hareg fil-berah, ma ghadux jistahba wara il-purtiera.
The Bagit tal-Impieg, piloted by then Finance Minister Lino Spiteri, was the more memorable for a different reason: 11,000 jobs in the private sector were lost in the following months.
Ah, but then there were 8,000 public sector jobs handed out by the KMB government in the few months before the 1987 elections.
Was it a gay budget, being tal-qawsalla?
And Muscat thanked Dr. Gonzi for his work. How very convenient. First he called the then PM “liar, liar” on Xarabank, then he vehemently attacks him PM personally during the election campaign and connecting all the “bad things” happening in this country to him personally.
And now he thank him for his work. What a hypocrite. A Muscatian new neurosis: I use you, I dump you, then I thank you. Same pattern with Anglu Farrugia.
Shameless.
I cannot understand the surprises! Labour has not changed a bit. Apart from saving petrol on the trucks that used to go out to cause destruction to PN clubs.
Which is not to say that they WON’T come. Just that they haven’t come yet. Wait till the Opposition is reorganised and functioning properly and, well, opposing, then we shall see.
The thing with the naming of the budgets is that the name always seemed to indicate what they hoped would happen as opposed to what actually happened.
If I recall correctly we also had a “Sena tax-xoghol” budget or something similar and, true to form, that year brought unemployment figures to a new level.
The tragedy of the Labour Party is that notwithstanding all the cosmetic changes that we’ve seen over the past few years and in particular during the campaign, they remain a bunch of amateur, chip-on-the-shoulder, bitter, and clueless motley crew obsessed with image, sound bites and cliches which all have a very short shelf life.
You can fool everybody some of the time, some all the time, but not everyone all the time.
Deep inside I always thought that Malta needed a five year term under Labour rule even if my heart told me otherwise.
Well here is a chance for those ex-Nats with no nuts who voted Labour, ‘to give Joey a chance’ to govern and to see how the country will be run.
Just as an example, is a Minister’s statement that overcrowding at Mater Dei A&E is a thing of the past, followed by a near riot next day and the same Minister was summoned ‘in order to restore order’.
The public had been warned but chose to ignore the warnings and now has to live with these dangerous clowns for five full years.
Miskina Malta.
Named budgets? It seems I’m missing a piece of history.
And now I’m curious… what was Il-Budget tal-Qawsalla? Or at least, what was the significance if the name?
[Daphne – The Rainbow Budget, as in the way a rainbow appears after a rainstorm. Except that it really didn’t, of course, but rather the opposite.]
BUDGET TAL-IMPIEGI ( with over 12,000 unemployed)
Did the Labour Minister of Finance lower the price of canned tuna and anchovies in the budget?
No, he only lowered his image and our esteem. Shame on you, Mr Prime Minister.
This article may be of interest:
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Geriatric-Park-20130408
Personally I would say ageism in the recent campaign was not much to do with age itself – at least in the case of criticism against Labour – but rather what the age said about the last time they were in power. And, as you’ve pointed out above, such criticism is apparently not entirely unfounded.
Can you kindly provide more information. I am 21 years old and I’m quite intrigued by this…
you are lucky not to have lived those horrible years
@Ken – Oh you are so so lucky.
Budgets were christened, like babies, with names that showcased parents’ expectations. il-bagit tal-qawsalla was one such pipe dream. There was no crock of gold; just thousands more unemployed.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130409/local/malta-heart-foundation-donates-defibrillator-to-house.464875
Yes, Xmun, the best thing that came out from Parliament yesterday.
Now let’s see the government side try to work out how it works! It should be hilarious with some of them.
Hope they get electrocuted.
Meanwhile, the peacock is leaving his roost (and is leaving us guessing as to where it is he is going):
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130410/local/jason-micallef-moving-on.465019
Two budgets were called ‘Mit-tajjeb ghall-ahjar’ and ‘Il-quddiem fis-sliem’.