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 is in fact politically myopic- and what a disability that is for the country.

The hypocrisy in our mentality.

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.

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.

Exactly, he’s starting to come across as Michelle’s poodle lately.

Where’s he hiding anyway?

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.

And Cyrus

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.