Not so fabulous anymore
The new PN leader has paid a courtesy call on the old Labour leader. A newspaper photograph of the meeting drives home the reality that the latter has lost, literally overnight, the ‘youth and looks’ advantage he had over the PN leader and overplayed.
Just as Muscat is having difficulty making the transition from thinking, speaking and behaving as though he is in Opposition, to thinking, speaking and behaving like a prime minister, so the mental and attitudinal shift from ‘I’m so young and fabulous and the PN leader is so not’ is going to be absolutely traumatic for him, I suspect.
For five years, he has built himself up and shaped his thinking and behaviour, his public image and his self-image, by playing off Lawrence Gonzi.
Now he will have to make the shift to playing against a PN leader who is not only his contemporary, but also far more telegenic/photogenic than he is.
Busuttil is also more eloquent and sharper than Muscat, but then so was his predecessor. We needn’t concern ourselves with those two factors because apparently, the electorate doesn’t.
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Toni Abela is now looking younger than Joseph.
Toni qed jizboh xaghru.
Anke l-mustacci, nahseb.
I myself think Muscat is looking quite tired in his latest photos…
Kif waqaghlu xaghru Joseph.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-05-12/opinions/the-best-man-lost-1570406409/
Well, so Noel Grima was rooting for Mario de Marco and he is now rubbishing Simon Busuttil in his opinion piece.
Why is it that Mario de Marco was expecting a no-contest with no other candidates for deputy leader, as if it was a consolation prize for not making it to party leader.
I prefer Beppe Fenech Adami any day to Mario de Marco as deputy leader. Beppe is a “degno figlio di suo padre “; after all so is Mario with all it entails.
Lestrade, the Labour game for the next five years is to keep PN down.
Right now they are doing this by fomenting division within the PN by actively promoting discord between those who favour Simon and others who would have preferred to see Mario leading the party.
Remember Minister Vella (il-Guy) unnecessarily declaring that he would vote for Mario in the PN leadership election? And the comments on timesofmalta.com by the Labour elves pushing Mario and denigrating Simon?
Truth is that Joseph Muscat is terrified of a resurgent and united PN led by Simon.
PL has already demonstrated its inability to govern properly and is set to lose its 30,000 voter majority by huge chunks as that horrid reality filters down the line.
The PN on the other hand has been reunified and that will accelerate the closing of the voter gap.
If we had to base it on looks as opposed to capabilities, then Muscat is to Busuttil what Wayne Rooney is to George Clooney.
Well, yes, if a full canopy of salt & pepper is considered more youthful than a balding ginger head.
One hopes the wrinkled EU apparatchik learns to think, speak and behave like a national leader, but we all know that’s like brushing the salt off his head. Sadly for him, in his attempts to act out this role he’s sounding like a brainwashed priest with a tired sermon.
On a happier note, having two tiny leaders is no tiny feat considering that this ensures the tiniest member state is treated kindly. No one likes to hurt kids and they’ll give us plenty of sweets if we behave ourselves.
This is one proud Nejxin of Cindrinz.
[Daphne – Our political leaders have invariably been spectacularly short, Kevin. You have a tall man’s contempt for short people, but then your wife and her brothers are minute, so quite frankly, I don’t know what you’re on about. But yes, I think it’s interesting that they’ve all been so very short, shorter than average, even. Mintoff and Borg Olivier were absolutely tiny, Fenech Adami, short, Boffa, short, Gonzi, short, Muscat, short. Only Alfred Sant was sort of normal height, and that didn’t help him much, did it.]
Do you admire anyone in your life Kev. What a sore loser you seem to be.
I know satire flies past you like a desert wind, Deafley, so if you’re into theorising over this phenomenon may I remind you that there are two types of tiny men and Simon is of the small-headed, proportionate variety. Joseph does not exactly fall under this category. He’s closer to a Gonzi type of tiny, head-size wise, that is.
[Daphne – Kevin. There’s short. And there’s tiny. A man can he short and square-built, or petit, just as a woman can be short and square-built, or petite. Borg Oliver and Mintoff were ‘petit’. So is Busuttil. Gonzi and Fenech Adami, short and square-built. Muscat used to be short and square-built. Now he is short and stout.]
Mintoff was ‘petit’? Mintoff’s head was the size of a demolition ball.
[Daphne – ‘Petit/e’ is a reference to the proportions of the body, not the head, Kevin. There is, in fact, a term – lollipops – used to describe ladies who diet so severely that their body shrinks to a size disproportionate to their head. Mintoff was extremely small, which is why I used to refer to him as the poison dwarf. His smallness was one of his hang-ups.]
Muscat is what is known as a ‘tea pot’ type.
My wife had a good laugh at your estimates, Deafley. At 5’5″ 5’10”, 5’9″ and 5’8″ they’re not exactly “minute”.
[Daphne – It always surprises me how some people over-estimate their own height. Your wife not minute? We have just agreed on the fact that the prime minister is short. These photographs clearly show that even in heels she barely reaches his ear. As for her brothers, don’t make me laugh. That Andy is shorter than I am, and I’m barely 5’7″. I had this fact confirmed only a couple of days ago, as it turns out, when I held open a court-hall door to walk out, and he walked through, earning a rebuke from me on the subject of the appalling manners of the lower orders.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Joseph-Muscat_gold-tie-and-sharon.bmp
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Muscat-Sharon.jpg
Which might also help explain why Mabel Strickland never managed to make it to the Premiership.
What worries me is not their height but rather the fake chumminess. Busuttil must listen more to Beppe.
Muscat is shrewd and merciless. See how he treated George Abela, Anglu Farrugia, Herrera, Jason and others.