Can you imagine Samantha Cameron doing this? I can’t.
This is Mrs Michelle Muscat, leader of The High Society, taking pictures of her husband the prime minister as he addresses journalists perched on their specially-built platform on the steps up to the main entrance of his office.
You know, as though he’s at Disneyland, posing with Mickey Mouse, or posing with Brad Pitt after running into him at Da Pippo.
The woman with her is her personal assistant, Pamela Seychell. Ms Seychell ‘worked’ at the Inland Revenue office in Merchants Street (the ‘Monte di Pieta’ building), as a clerk in the department where notaries pay stamp duty and tax collected on contracts.
During the general election campaign, she was always picked up by the television cameras, sitting on the chairs reserved for Labour Party delegates, officials and tal-qalba, at igloo events and similar.
After 10 March, she was promoted to Mrs Michelle Muscat’s personal assistant, based at the Auberge de Castille.
Just out of curiosity, do they get their matching shoes for free? If so, perhaps they should take care not to wear them on the same day in the same office, because it looks a little twee. Though of course, they might have done it intentionally.
This photograph is another reason why massive photoshop work on posed photographs for magazine interviews is a really bad idea: because people see you in a real life.
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Matching legs and colour coordinated outfits too.
Goodness…photoshop truly does wonders!
Photochop, not photoshop.
It’s not exactly to do with what’s written above but I felt I wanted to share a thought I’ve had for some time.
In my opinion Michelle Muscat’s idol is Eva Peron (Evita) Not only does she try to imitate her in the way she dresses, which would in itself be absolutely harmless) but in a much more sinister way.
When Eva Peron gained power she paid back everybody that had ever crossed her.
It was payback time for Evita. Does any of this ring a bell?
I would not show too much of those legs, Mrs. Muscat – they are neither long nor slim.
Short skirts are a no-no once you reach 40, unless the person is extremely slim and almost hipless.
Those legs need to be shown to the summer sun for say an hour a day for a whole week.
Have the PN had a reply as to what Mrs. Muscat’s job at Castille entails and the salary she is earning ?
How did the Fashionable Soiree for the High Society in Girgenti go – did not hear anything about it or maybe I missed something ?
Someone please tell Michelle to stop wearing dresses, or skirts, above the knee. She looks terrible. That’s not an outfit for a day at the office – or a prime minister’s wife.
Why she’s young and pretty.
[Daphne – No, B. Abdilla. She’s middle-aged and pleasant-looking. At this rate you’ll be telling us that her husband is tall, elegant and handsome. And even young and pretty girls shouldn’t wear short skirts if they are short and bulky round the hips and legs. Short skirts are strictly for the tall and thin or the small and perfectly proportioned. I should know what I am talking about as they were my trademark attire for years, but then I had the (quite famous) pins for them. In any case, an old-fashioned gymn slip is not appropriate attire for a woman of 40 who is also the prime minister’s wife.]
Mutton dressed as lamb, with fat knees to boot.
Ezatt kif dehret fil-magazine
No photoshop this time. And what’s with that drab olive dress?
Out on safari. Hunting for trophies to hang above the fireplace. They bagged Bondì, didn’t they?
Surely you mean “They gagged Bondi, didn’t they?”
Also Joe Zammit Tabona. So what will Mario Vella be doing, sitting on his arse whilst Zammit Tabona brings in the business?
Matthew 19:12 “For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.”
Blimey. That’s me to a T.
Saw a photo of Michelle a week before this in a magazine, and I recommend that she should be very careful with her food intake, as in just a week she has put on lots of inches round her waist and hips.
Don’t flauntit if you ain’t gottit.
Is this picture from last Tuesday, cioè when the Prim addressed the gays & the lesbians? Because she was wearing the same oitfit then too…. at Kastilja.
Mintoffchic is very in this year…I saw it on Style watch.
Someone should also have told the two of them that they do not have miniskirt legs.
Quoting her husband, what the ‘hack’ does Mrs Michelle Muscat need a personal assistant for?
Why not?
What a waste of time for a Sunday morning, pour yourself a g&t and relax daphne.
[Daphne – You overestimate the time it takes me to do this, sir: roughly five minutes. And it’s certainly not a waste of time. I have a large readership who react very badly when I let them down with no new uploads. How did you spend five minutes this morning? Reading this. Another assumption you make is that I find this taxing. I don’t. ]
As long as you’re enjoying your Sunday, to hell with everyone else. Have a good afternoon, Daphne.
[Daphne – Thank you. Meanwhile, do make sure to spend some time with your copy of Taste.]
Mario Vella is a philosopher. He does Important Work, like writing Important Documents that quote him. Ask Joseph. He should know.
Taf min m’ghandux x’jaghmel, Sur Borg: xi wahda bhal Michelle Muscat iddur il-Belt u tiehu r-ritratti tar-ragel taghha, meta nisa ohra bhala ghandhom karriera u jkunu ix-xoghol u wara jmorru d-dar u jkomplu bil-hidma taghhom hemm.
You can photoshop some of the people all of the time, or all of the people some of the time, but you cannot photoshop all of the people all of the time.
It was Louis Daguerre who said that, wasn’t it?
Yes, photoshop giveth and one hour photo taketh away.
Daguerre couldn’t possibly fit that frame into a pinhole camera.
The bigger the photoshop, the more they believe it.
Now, who exactly said that?
Ara x’sejra taghmel Ruma mall- Papa xi hlew. Min jaf x’liebsa ikkupjt ghall-okkazjoni.
Same hair colour too.
http://zekzik.com/2013/06/23/michelle-u-l-photo-session/
Pamela is so productive, God bless. She used to spend her days at CIR always on the phone whispering nonsense to God knows who.
What do you expect! The wife of a baker.
He’s a good man, from a good family – but she’s driven him nuts.
Actually, his father Salvu Seychell was a baker. Horace Seychell is a mechanic.
[Daphne – Ex wife, not wife, by the looks of it. His Facebook page is a festival of fetishes for porn films, ladies’ bottoms, and sexy Indian chicks.]
Maybe to that member of the mobile squad who occasionally visits her at home in his squad car, leaving it parked outside her flat for about 40 minutes.
[Daphne – Ah, so not a quickie then. He must be having a cup of tea and a sengwitch.]
God bless. And God bless meritocracy.
From timesonline of today: “One of the first decisions of the incoming Malta Environment and Planning Authority board was to introduce an enforcement provision which allows developers a defined time of 36 months to try and obtain any necessary sanctioning.”
This is crazy. This is an incentive for developers to build illegally. Illegal developments will mushroom because many will be willing to take the risk of developing not in accordance to permit. They will then hope to pull a few strings and get their illegal development sanctioned.
The scale of illegalities will be such that, even if it wanted to, MEPA would not be able to handle. In other words it will lose control over illegal developments.
Then come next elections, the PL and PN will be reassuring developers that somehow they will find a solution for their illegalities.
I urge serious environmental organisations to look into the matter and take a firm stand on this.
Could it be that Mrs Muscat won the DOI contract for a 24/7 on call photographer?
https://gov.mt/en/Government/DOI/Documents/Photographic%20services%20quotation.pdf
Michelle taking photos of the man she works for: she can’t kick the habit of her days as a personal assistant to Alfred Sant and Charlie Buhagiar.
Those shoes with high heels are surely intended to keep up with the High Society.
Are PM’s wives entitled to a full-time assistant at the taxpayer’s expense?
Slightly on a tangent, excellent analysis here.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-06-23/opinions/china-is-going-to-be-big-in-our-lives-1891467264/
If we needed any evidence of what had been going on back in 2010, it is worth reading also this item from The Times.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100413/local/muscat-meets-son-of-late-china-dock-worker.302484
We were told that CCCC, the Chinese company which is offering a Euro 4 million (how exactly did they come up with that value?) feasibility study “for free” to the Malta Labour Party govenment, was in charge of the construction of the Red China Dock in the Golden Years.
Who else could have offered to Joseph Muscat the opportunity to pay a visit to the family of a Chinese worker who died on the workplace at the Red China Dock if not some officers connected to CCCC where the deceased worker would have worked?
And on the subject of Alex Sceberras Trigona – who had said on radio that foreign policy must feed directly into the budget – it is getting clearer by the day why he was up there, on the balcony at the Mile End, on 10 March 2013, among a selected few who made an inaugural appearance with Joseph Muscat to celebrate the Labour victory. His presence there was very telling, because it had seemed that he had no visible role in the electoral campaign and with the core team.
It is also worth remembering that soon after Labour’s victory, Chinese naval ships visited the islands.
Considering the mysteries in which the relations with China seem to be shrouded in, it’s time that we ask whether the Labour party or its negotiators may have signed another one of those secret agreements – one of them was signed by AST with North Korea – this time with China, even if not necessarily involving arms.
Have to add that since Joseph Muscat signed a Memorandum of Understanding involving bilateral matters during his visit to China in 2010, shouldn’t this be made public?
Shouldn’t the independent media be chasing Muscat to publish that memorandum of understanding between the two “countries”?
He did. And he boasted about it, so now he can’t deny it.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/128130324/Joseph-Muscat-says-he-signed-an-agreement-with-China-on-Malta-s-behalf-it-Torca-18APR2010
My hips don’t lie.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DUT5rEU6pqM
Her assistant is quite yummy and meaty.
This leading article about the difference between majoritarianism and democracy published in this week’s The Economist was written with Turkey in mind but it is very timely for Malta.
Labour assume that winning an election is akin to being given licence to run amok and do as they please, ignoring democratic norms, the rule of law, ethics, precedents and so much more.
The latest iced bun to illegal developers is a three-year delay of punishment or enforcement in order to give said developers enough time to find ways of sanctioning their developments.
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21579850-note-turkeys-prime-minister-among-others-winning-elections-not-enough-zombie-democracy
Dawk il-kolonni tal-Partit Laburista?
Those legs give new meaning to the term ‘pillars of society’.
Mixx is wearing Ray Bans and the PA is holding a Ray Ban case. That’s why she needs a personal assistant.
You can just imagine the conversation.
“Pem, hi, pliz, zommli ftit il-pokit tar-Reyben waqt li niehu ritratt ta’ Joseph, owkej, orrajt?”
Why she just didn’t stick it in that bloody big hendbeg beats me. Insomma, xi haga trid taghmel il-persinil assistent.
Re Joseph Zammit Tabona – why the crass American title of ‘Special Envoy’?
Samantha Cameron wouldn’t be seen dead in those clothes and shoes, or have a personal assistant like that, let alone be near her husband taking photos while he gives an ‘important speech’. Instead she would be in her own office working hard at her own job, or just keeping out of the public eye.
Nothing to do with the article above. From The Malta Independent on Sunday, an interview with Simon Busuttil:
‘Mr Mercieca made up to €3,600 in one morning, Dr Busuttil said, urging the government to reveal how much money Mr Mercieca made from his private practice since he was appointed parliamentary secretary.’
DoesSimon Busuttil not know that whinging about how much a person earns is a very Labour (for which read envious, tiny-minded, short-sighted, cheap) thing to do?
The point is that Franco Mercieca cannot keep his mind on both jobs. He needs to choose one path and focus on it – and common sense suggests that he should ditch the government position and continue with full time surgery.
How much he earns is simply a result of long years of study and practice and skill. He could earn ten times that amount in one morning as far as I am concerned. If his patients are happy to pay for his services, so be it.
We all know that ministers and parliamentary secretaries are not paid nearly enough and that Muscat was against the additional honorarium of 500 euro a week (because he’s tiny-minded, short-sighted cheap. . .) and that now he has to scramble to let them earn that money somehow.
But the focus of the PN’s protest has to be based on the issue of divided attention, and in some instances, divided loyalties – certainly not earning power.
We are watching the PN to see how it uses its sabbatical in opposition. They’ve done an excellent job all these years but let’s not have them pandering to the great unwashed now.
Well said. PN should look to the PL to see why they won. It doesn’t follow that they should adopt their mindset and tactics.
OK Kevin, PN should continue appealing to our baser instincts, and they should learn how to interrupt endlessly during discussion programmes.
Pat, actually Simon’s argument was that Joseph Muscat is trying to find some way of increasing his MPs’ earnings without directly giving them “iz-zieda tal-€500 ta’ Gonzi”.
After the law is changed, Labour MPs will be given a chairmanship so that they can earn more.
When Azzopardi asked Simon Busuttil whether the PN would agree to an immediate increase in honoraria, Busuttil calmly replied that Muscat opposed this increase tooth and nail prior to the last elections.
The PN paid the political price and now Muscat has to bear the consequences of his crusade against this “zieda ta’ Gonzi”.
In Maltese there’s a very fitting expression “min xarrbu kielu l-bakkaljaw”.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-06-23/news/government-changing-law-to-give-labour-mps-second-income-1892188160/
This article reports what Simon said.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130623/local/Obsessive-stalker-sent-600-calls-a-day.474941
By any chance ,is this the same person who stalked the prime minister for five whole years?
That crossed my mind, but – as far as we know – the “man” you have in mind is not/was never married.
Then again, perhaps MEP Joseph Cuschieri’s elder brother was involved in a slightly similar case http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2006-11-17/news/the-malta-independent-online-165191/ .
… and he was MLP president at the time.
Have you noticed the appalling number of grammatical errors in this short article? It reads like something written by a 6 year old.http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20130621-malta-health-warning-on-high-temperatures
OMG. It’s true!
They still think summer is a proper noun.
What we’re seeing here is totally out of order. As the Maltese say: “qatt ma raw xejn”.
Michelle seems to get an orgasm every time her husband appears in public. On a political level it is very worrying as it shows that the couple haven’t got a clue what politics is all about. Despicable.
Daphne you corrected what I said:
The correct version is, “the couple HASN’T” not “HAVEN’T”. Collective nouns take singular.
[Daphne – No, not when they are people. This is because the ‘of people’ is unspoken but still present. A couple (of people); a group (of people) etc. Therefore, a couple (of people) are going, and a group (of people) are running away.]
I’ve just checked this with a PhD in linguistics in the UK. It’s ‘a tricky one’ – the Americans consider couple (people) as ‘singular’ while, traditionally, in the UK it is ‘plural’. After a bit of research I made on British news-related sites, it transpired that only the BBC website makes a systematic use of the traditional rule – the American-English influence is robust and unavoidable.
[Daphne – British English and American English are different languages, Joe. Decide which you want to use and stick with it. You didn’t have to double-check my information with a ‘PhD in linguistics’ (where did you find one at this time of night?). It’s not a rule but common sense. A couple is getting married? Of course not. A couple ARE getting married. If it sounds wrong, then it generally is.]
Fortunately, PhDs are not that uncommon in the UK. Neither the use of American-English which creates, I must say, a lot of confusion in a country that has strong links with its trans-Atlantic cousin.
Common-sense could also say ‘couple’ is a collective noun, regardless what it’s used for.
Research is done, not made.
Do those sandals have a transparent plastic wedge?