If that’s all they can muster, let them to it. I expect to see them try to restrict the internet, comments boards, all blogs and what’s essentially the sharpest instruments of free speech.

It’s painfully clear why Labour refused the EU, they just won’t subscribe to scrutiny, power as a calibrated tool to implement proposed policy or being simply part of this world.

This week was rather telling in where they stand when it comes to the European project and global legitimacy. What’s utterly incredible is how removed from a European left they are.

Actually, it’s how distant they are from any centred politics, they’re either at the xenophobic far right, into pan-continental nationalisation, which they’ll call privatisation, or unbridled savage capitalism which, according to them, is some progressive idea of economy.

This scheme may well be something North Korea would do. When they speak of an immediate donation, their allergy and scepticism towards an open economy is betrayed, capital will remain centralised and controlled, a trickle of ‘economic measures’ theirs to decide.

Mallia, of Lidl vouchers fame, must be thrilled.

You hope that this Labour government learns a lesson? Forget it. Labour never learns.

Its diehard supporters never learn. Those who lived under Labour never learn – some of them, at least, which is why they voted for them this time round with such idiotic enthusiasm.

The most that one can hope for is that this last group might use their brains next time round, something they failed to do this time.

Imagine the President’s charity fun run.

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-11-17/news/could-mallia-or-cristina-be-our-new-president-3212115970/

A full catalogue of San Anton, the Palace and Verdala is required, fast.

I think the man’s unfit to sit in parliament. If this is what we’ve been reduced to, it’s looking bleak.

[Daphne – Yes, I shall upload the reference later. I should have done it two weeks ago, when he said it.]

Why call it ‘investment’ if all you want is the cash to do as you please with the ‘immediate donation’?

An investment carries specific targets, mulitiple spinoffs and, by definition, is expected to grow over time.

If anything, this scheme will never reach its full potential as much as one which carries clear conditions to invest in concrete tangible ways.

http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-11-17/news/secrecy-on-citizenship-programme-would-have-brought-more-funds-3216113664/

Even if the PN was the most organized party in the world right now, in the global context we’re still talking of a small political organization. If Labour thinks that any political party anywhere, still less a tiny one from Malta, has such an influence on the global media, they are only insulting themselves and the Maltese government, which has at its disposal the state infrastructure, the department of information and the inside information, the details, the power of incumbency to come up with its own positive marketing strategy in the first place and rebuttal of criticism and damage limitation where necessary.

I cannot believe that Labour is back to the old tune that ‘In-Nazzjonalisti qed jaghmlulna l-hsara barra l-pajjiz’. This is a real reminder of the Mintoff era. It’s actually worse.

In Mintoff’s era communications weren’t as fast and as efficient as in today’s era of the internet. It’s far easier today for the international press to go to the source documents and delve in the necessary depth and detail of any issue, to obtain information from independent sources and experts.

In any case the ‘hsara barra l-pajjiz’ argument is an infantile, schoolyard argument, typical of the MLP in the eighties and the hunters’ lobby to this very day. It is the desperate attempt to shut up opposition when someone is fighting a lost cause and can’t or won’t admit that they are wrong.

Have the government and the Labour Party even stopped to think that they are insulting journalists and editors the world over? That this kind of comment makes them look like backward fools? They must be naïve, stupid or both.

The Labour Party has also complained that in the past it has supported government initiatives relating to financial services and that it expected the same. While it is true that it is beneficial for the government and Opposition to collaborate on financial matters, that doesn’t mean that the Opposition should go along with an issue which is controversial and which brings the country into disrepute. Collaboration cannot be expected when one party is simply bulldozing its way without any real consultation or negotiation. Collaboration requires a degree of respect of the other parties even when such parties do not have the upper hand.

Working with the Opposition, the government – had it been prudent and acted in good faith – would have been able to negotiate a good and proper investment scheme in a spirit of collaboration, and reached decisions on the basis of profession analysis with respect for public opinion, particularly because it did not have an electoral mandate to do any of this.

The government has already had to remove the secrecy clause a few days after legislating. It shows there was a lot more room for consultation and listening to others’ proposals, and no scope for this gross arrogance and defiance. A proper scheme may not have brought in Eur 650K upfront for each application, but it would still bring in immediate revenue, future investment, new employment opportunities, acceptance without bringing the country into disrepute. It would have been a sustainable and long term income and investment generator. Unfortunately the government opted to, as we say in Maltese ‘ihalli l-poter jitla ghal rasu, u jara lil kulhadd dubbien.’

Being an optimist I only hope that the Labour government learns a lesson from this one. It may have a large majority in parliament but it shouldn’t bulldoze everything and tread on everyone.