A national of a contracting state in a double tax treaty is any individual possessing the nationality or citizenship of that state.

I couldn’t take the clutter in that kitchen.

There wasn’t one free centimetre of surface where to prepare anything.

The government is there by the mandate and tolerance of citizens. The model collapses as soon as citizenship becomes a commodity traded by government. It becomes like Ouroboros, eating itself.

Excuse my jurisprudential ignorance, but what is the difference between a passport and citizenship?

The Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal economic spectres that are silently creeping up on them as they slumber. And that is going to be one big rude awakening.

I am also very uneasy, angry almost, when I read the Henley & Partners website. There’s a patronising undertone to the whole thing that is really upsetting.

Muscat has always held Europe in contempt. This, in his mind, is even better than a NO vote. It’s a way to stick it to the EU.

The current law provides that passports can be issued to Maltese citizens or “other Commonwealth citizens” (that covers some 54 countries!) and also mentions Alien Travel Documents for people in the country without any travel documents. (Interestingly, it also provides that a Maltese passport “shall remain the property of the government and may at any time be invalidated, withdrawn or cancelled”.)

This piece of legislation definitely does not link the possession of a Maltese passport with the possession of Maltese citizenship. It would required new legislation to provide that linkage.

[Daphne – It is being taken as read, John, because all the marketing material and sales pitches pivot on the buyer’s ability to move freely throughout the European Union and the world as a Maltese citizen. This by definition means a passport. A Maltese citizen can move only throughout the European Union with just an identity card, and even then, outside Schengen – especially getting into Britain – you are going to have problems when using an ID instead of a passport. Also it is clear at the outset that what is being sold is not citizenship but a passport.]

[Daphne – That’s exactly what I ate, the difference being that Mrs Muscat’s food, as shown on television during a propaganda documentary, looked thoroughly disgusting.]

[Daphne – Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that. There are most certainly no same-sex couples, let alone same-sex married couples, in the target markets for the sale of Maltese passports.]