That’s real arrogance: spending time and money making permanent changes to a permanent Parliament House to accommodate your temporary cabinet
Well, they can all camp out in the Speaker’s office. I’m sure he’ll be delighted to have them.
So the prime minister appoints a 22-member cabinet (making 23 with himself) and then they have an “Oh My God” moment when they discover that the new Parliament House only has enough office space for a 16-member cabinet.
And you’d think that would be sufficient for the government of a population the size of a large town somewhere on the continent, right? Wrong, apparently.
Now we’re told that the plans are going to be rejigged – you know, like this is a layout Mrs OPM Chief of Staff (an interior designer) is doing for somebody’s kitchen or living-room.
Imagine the hassles and the cost of doing that – the way the carefully planned interior is now going to be compromised, the waste of time and money.
And why?
So that Joseph Muscat can keep his key people on side by distributing cabinet portfolios to avoid having to face the situation Lawrence Gonzi did, with grown men behaving like nasty children denied their sweets.
In other words, Parliament House has to be permanently changed to accommodate the prime minister’s desire to buy the loyalty of potentially difficult characters and problematic egos for five years.
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Joseph Muscat has included everyone in cabinet, to avoid tantrums being thrown by anyone left out.
My judgement tells me that he will now have tantrums thrown within his cabinet. How is he going to control a cabinet of 14 ministers, 8 Parliamentary secretaries, and their 22 volunteer spouses?
In fact, I suggest that unless they want to find out that they have underestimated the space again, they should include rooms for volunteer members of cabinet too – a further 23 of them.
And the laughs just keep on coming.
Vote Labour – The Gift that keeps on giving the full five years.
After a wikipedia search:
Malta (450K Population): PM + 14 Ministries.
Iceland (320K Population): PM + 7 Ministries.
Cyprus (1M Pop.): 11 Ministries.
Estonia (1.2M Pop.): PM + 12 Ministries.
Slovenia (2M Pop.): PM + 13 Ministries.
Ireland (4.7M Pop.): PM + 7 Ministries.
Finland (5.2M Pop.): PM + 12 Ministries.
Denmark (5.5M Pop.): PM + 20 Ministries.
Belgium (10.4M Pop): PM + 12 Ministries.
Germany (80M Pop.): PM + 15 Ministries.
A bit of of simple logic thinking. Anyone? Please!
The other reason would be that Malta is only ran by the government, like a North Korea system. Meaning that everything is controlled by the government. Which is not. As Malta is meant to be an open and have liberal economy. A government, an open government, that Muscat buzzed the word around, would mean, less government control, leading to less ministries. And less influence from the top. Meaning that I don’t need to get a job thanks for a blessing from a ministry.
Another thing. How can the government approved an five month old budget? With such an increase in expense in government running costs.
No wonder the new parliament’s floor space is little now.
Last thing. They argued and argued that it was expensive and so on. Without never issuing a press release that it was going to be small for Muscat’s planned cabinet. And now its going to cost more given the additional roofing on the theatrical space. Which makes sense. And the need for more office space.
Insomma, hekk jiġri. Meta tixtri l-ħut fil-baħar tmmadar bla ebda sens ta’ prinċipji vi’ jew va’.
. . . simple reason for Denmarks 21 ministries: got a Labour Government 18 months ago :-)
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130401/editorial/Wobbly-start-for-new-Administration.463685
Is the Times trying to win its readership back?
It has a long way to go. Once trust is lost it takes a long time to be regained.
Joseph should heed this too. He has already lost the trust of some people who were vocal in their support for a change in government. Others will follow.
Joseph should remember that the higher the pedestal the higher the fall.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130331/editorial/Labour-s-blue-eyed-boys-.463538
Ministers are at their wits’ end, and it only took them three weeks to get there.
What wits?
In this day and age CEOs and Directors in many parts of the modern world do not have an office but share offices or “hot desk” as they call it on this side of the Atlantic.
Why cannot ministers and MPs share offices in the new Houses of Parliament and adapt to the modern working world?
They should be working in a paperless environment and their laptops, iPads and mobile phones should be the source of all the files at their fingertips and not the mountains of paper.
Which is why parliament had to be moved from the palace.
Fitted carpets, soffits bolted to cassettone, plastic white low wall units fixed to damask, second hand generator (Mintoff’s idea of course) mounted directly to its plinth vibrating every grotesque out of its senses, toilets fitted into niches, the list goes on.
Were it not for GonziPN, we risked an application notice next to Roosevelt’s plaque.
‘To remove tapestries and install modular structure in double height chamber’.
The Ombudsman’s doing it.
Keith gets to place some of his folding walls finally. Lofty.
Where the hell is Joseph – is he still holidaying around somewhere in Europe?
Now that Super One has been emptied, Kenneth Zammit Tabona has become the chief propagandist of the MLP in government.
First, he was the first to rush on FB to announce that he was scandalized that Castille was robbed by the outgoing administration, and now he is shocked at the incompetence of the designers of the new parliament for not providing enough space.
Since I do not think that he is that stupid, my only conclusion is that he is deliberately dishonest.
he IS that stupid
The Times is trying to win back some of its lost dignity, most probably as it is feeling the punch of lost readership.
Too late for that. One should neither forget nor forgive. These editorials should be labelled as “dmugh tal-kukkudrilli”.
The best April Fool joke I heard yesterday was that this Labour Government is already showing itself to be better than the previous PN administration.
A close contender was Marlene Farrugia’s assertion that she will assist the Minister for Health, her partner, on a voluntary basis.
Yet another contender was Joe Mizzi’s declared intention of amending the plans of the new parliament building to cater for an over-sized cabinet. Joe Muscat’s criticism that the new parliament building is a waste of money is still fresh in our minds. What would they have done if there was no new parliament building to go to? Build cubicles in the palace corridor?
Is Gino volunteering too ?
http://zekzik.com/2013/04/02/min-qed-ihallas-lic-ceo-il-gdid-tal-partit-laburista/
What we are witnessing is Meritocracy 2.0, also known as Meritocrazy. The idea that people merit a reward if either (a) they have done something in your favour in the past, or (b) they may cause problems in the future, and should be placated now in order to head off said problems in the future.
As for the rest of the voting public, the MLP got their votes and now don’t give a damn. They finally control the huge pot of tax payers money that they were after all along. Sit back and watch them piss it (and the country’s future) away.
The Times online has just reported that ‘Tony Agius Decelis has been appointed consultant for the elderly and will be based at St Vincent de Paul Home, which is Malta’s largest home, hosting some 1000 people. He will not be paid a cent over and above his MP’s salary, she said.’
It seems that the ‘gratis et amoris’ bug is going to hit the whole of the Labour parliamentary group.
It’s only been a couple of weeks and I’m already sick of the lot of them. God help us.
Can’t two ministers share an office in Parliament?
No, but they can share a bed at home.
“Renz, could you please convert the washroom to a penthouse and a couple of offices?”
Imsieken dawn zgur ser imutu bil-guh. Jien niftakar jghidu li xi hadd qata t-tallaba mit-toroq Maltin.
Isn’t this what they did with Mater Dei during 1996-1998 – fiddle with the plans of a building being constructed, change it beyond all recognition and then having the cheek to complain about extra costs and building time?
Whoever believed that by calling the PL a Moviment their way of doing things would change and voted PL was really naive. Unfortunately there were many, many such.
it’s labour’s way to finally accept Reno Piano’s masterpiece. They have been against it (in public) from day one, but now that they are in power, some minor (or major) adjustments and hey presto, they like the finished product.
We have seen this all before; Mater Dei, EU, now parliament, who knows what’s next – the Delimara power station?