@ The Shadow,

I don’t suppose he had anything to do with this then.

http://maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Exclusive-David-Gatt-formed-breakaway-freemason-s-lodge-with-entrepreneurs

Carol Peralta was Worshipful Master of both Leinster and Abercorne Lodges.

A Christmas feel-good factor for the popolin?

Point taken. Notwithstanding any undercurrents, Fenech Adami remains politically responsible, in appearance at very least. However, I can now see Fenech Adami’s attempt to impeach Peralta from a new angle that goes beyond the link to freemasonry.

Your last comment about De Marco’s knowledge or lack thereof, is also VERY pertinent and I shared the very same thoughts, only refraining from mentioning it as there is literally no use in flogging a dead horse.

http://www.judiciarymalta.gov.mt says:

“Judges are appointed by the President of Malta acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister. To date there is no Judicial Appointments Board or Committee in Malta, and the Prime Minister is not obliged to consult anyone before advising the President. In practice, however, he confers with the Minister responsible for Justice and he may also confer with the Cabinet. By tradition, the Minister responsible for Justice also confers with the Chief Justice on proposed appointments to the Bench of Judges and the Bench of Magistrates.”

and:

“Like Judges, Magistrates are appointed by the President of Malta acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister.”

With the above mechanism in place, how does the appointment of Peralta become solely Minister Guido De Marco’s mistake?

[Daphne – It wasn’t a mistake, but a deliberate decision. Read my bit about the incorrect use of the word ‘mistake’ by many Maltese people, which I wrote this morning in irritation at its repeated use. A mistake, in English, is putting your shoes into the wrong box. Everything else is a decision, bad or good. You clearly do not know the dynamics of the Fenech Adami/De Marco situation, but you should be able to deduce them from the historical evidence.]

Even if in practice, it was entirely De Marco’s call to make, the PM and the President (and in theory I understand that there should be no such thing as a partisan president) also rubber stamped this decision, and in doing so, share the blame. Of course the PM is expected to have more of a say that the President, who almost literally rubber stamps the PM’s recommendation. What am I missing?

Perhaps Peralta was a Nationalist sympathiser at the time of his appointment and if you say so, then my perception of the man, whom may I add I do not know personally, was incorrect. Yet he had many other rather undesirable traits, least of all his link to Maltese freemasonry.

[Daphne – It should be obvious to you that if Fenech Adami had known that Peralta was a Freemason, he would not have let the appointment go through. In fact, when he discovered that he was a Freemason, he tried to have him impeached. Whether de Marco knew or not is another matter. Maybe he knew and that is why the appointment was made, or maybe he didn’t know. We can’t ask him now.]

To this day, it remains totally inconceivable to me how the judiciary can be allowed to be seen as having had links to secret societies, no matter how harmless these may be, and how in practice, nothing could be done to expunge this long and dark shadow that has followed Magistrate Peralta and the whole judiciary’s independence by simple association.

Why blame the PN for appointing a Labour-supporting freemason to the judiciary?

And never before did the simile ‘as sober as a judge’ be so devoid of meaning as in the case of this magistrate, who has turned his court into a parody of questionable judgements and conduct that is ill becoming of any member of the judiciary.

Please remember that it was the PN who have placed this man in a position where he his virtually beyond reproach, protected against impeachment and censorship by his political loyalties.

[Daphne – No, it wasn’t. It was Guido de Marco. This is an important distinction. I don’t wish to open up a discussion on the subject, but you should probably think about it yourself. And Peralta was not a Mintoffian. His hatred for the Nationalist Party and his support of Labour only date as far back as Fenech Adami’s wish to have him impeached, so they post-date his appointment to the bench.]

Scratch the real need for reform in our courts of law which became a monster of gargantuan proportion where justice is often delayed and denied even for the smallest of cases that may take up to ten years or more of court inefficiency for a simple judgement to be passed on what was basic prima facie evidence.

Yet the blame for the appointment of such a magistrate is nothing other than a big fat mistake that lies fair and square on the shoulders of a former Nationalist government.

[Daphne – I’m sorry, but I don’t agree for the reasons alluded to above, though I would certainly say that in the case of Noel Arrigo.]

I never thought it was at all possible for people to be so badly brainwashed to the extent that they can still blame the PN for this. It must take an awful lot of energy to come up with all this rubbish.

They are addicted to hysteria. They binge on it as much as possible. They just can’t do much else. What a crying shame.