Joseph, Queen of the Bitchy Remark (no wonder he clashes so badly with Jason Micallef)
Published:
May 14, 2013 at 8:09pm
In parliament today:
Dr Muscat said that Dr Gonzi’s term as Speaker and chairman of the National Council for Persons with Disability (KNPD) stand out in his career, as he managed to create great awareness about the rights of persons with disability.
The prime minister also lauded his former political rival for his work in the creation of permanent parliamentary committees in the mid nineties.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-05-14/news/house-pays-tribute-to-lawrence-gonzi-1594556417/
More arse-kissing from the Island of Duplicity. Why do we feel we have to “laud” all former anythings?
No, sorry Baxx, it’s not ‘arse-kissing’. As we say in Maltese, everyone measures by his own yardstick. Your assessment sounds like implying there’s no need for diplomacy in international and/or national relations.
I still think that in spite of our bad manners (generally) towards each other, we, as a people, still have a deep sense of the occasion. Few of us for example would expect a PN Prime Minister to pass a remark like that in Parliament when paying tribute to his rival predecessor.
On the other hand many, many people wouldn’t be surprised seeing as it is coming from a(nother) Labour prime minister who has continually opposed any major decision Dr Gonzi took – be it the Euro, the Libyan crisis, or the winding up of the Drydocks, and many others.
You, and many others, I suspect would still call this hogwash.
This isn’t diplomacy. It’s a charade. Genuine praise would have included references to economic policy, the Eurozone, political stability in a time of crisis and all the other niceties of diplomatic speeches.
And you don’t make the speech after five years of vicious sniping, on top of four years of sulking and propping up Alfred Sant, preceded by five years of lies and propagandising. Because there is a giant hypocrisy at work somewhere; either in the before or the after.
It’s not genuine praise. The point is to bitch about Gonzi’s term as prime minister. Muscat didn’t mention it, and that’s his point.
This from someone who has yet to prove his worth and, of course, never will.
The hypocrisy in our mentality.
This is a classic example of damning with faint praise.
I do see the need for diplomatic language. Among enemies – and let us not kid ourselves here – the way to do it is to keep the speech very short and the language terse, and to state the obvious.
But no. We have to make long florid speeches, inserting references to obscure facts. It’s not as if there’s any lack of obvious facts to praise here. Joseph Muscat said it himself. He owes the “healthy economy” to Lawrence Gonzi’s administration. So there. “Nixtieq insellem lill-predecessur tieghi ghall-amministrazzjoni ghaqlija tieghu fil-qasam tal-ekonomija, li tat rizultati pozittivi ghal Malta…”
It’s not hogwash, and it’s doesn’t smack of spite.
Joseph Muscat’s remarks are starting to cause embarrassment. He has no respect for what an occasion entails.
He considers himself sharp and droll. He’s not. Winston Churchill was an incisive and witty politician.
Joseph Muscat is no Winston Churchill. He’s more of a Benny Hill, a stand-up comedian.
Unfortunately he’s not very brilliant at that either.
Muscat is a stand-up comedian, but, as you say, not a very brilliant one either. The stand-up comedians I know do not perform in Parliament.
Little Joey should be aware of his own disability. It’s called lack of perspective.
Oh, and you forgot yet another political disability which he suffers from. It’s called hindsight. The EU, and Cyprus, come to mind.
Foresight, surely.
And Cyrus
Joseph Muscat is in fact politically myopic- and what a disability that is for the country.
This article just made me remember being present at one of Joseph’s online sessions where he would answer people’s questions, in which he was asked “What is the BEST thing the Nationalist Party has done in the last 10 years?”. His response was “They introduced many smoking bans”.
And I remember when he listed Mintoff’s main achievements of the 1970s. The legalisation of sodomy was among the top items in his list.
Joseph Muscat has a grave disabillity. He can’t control his mouth.
Muscat should cut the mickey mouse crap and focus on economics.
I suggest he reads into what the GRTU had to say this morning.
Joseph Muscat has many disabilities but he is brilliant to make money for himself and also for his close friends from our taxes.
He also praised Gonzi’s wife’s work. Sounded more like an attempt at beginning to justify his own wife’s salary.
Exactly, he’s starting to come across as Michelle’s poodle lately.
Where’s he hiding anyway?
And he forgot all that he said and did during the campaign to ridicule Dr. Gonzi.
No word neither on the fact that he used Debono as his “wepon” to get back at Dr. Gonzi.
His words of “praise” are superfluous when they are compared to the shouts of “Liar, liar, liar” in Dr. Gonzi’s face on TV during Xarabank.