The Office of the Prime Minister, going on its pre-electoral experience, must really take us all for dullards
Times of Malta reports on the excuse given by the Office of the Prime Minister in the tale of Labour backbencher Justyne Caruana and her little friend Budgie the Helicopter.
According to the OPM, Dr Caruana’s Marseille flight ticket was purchased late on Tuesday morning and sent to the Labour MP at around 12.15pm.
Oh really? Who issues flight tickets anymore? You pay for your flight and you get a receipt confirming your reservation. There’s no ticket and you certainly don’t need to show one at the check-in desk.
Exactly who do they think they’re fooling?
No, don’t answer that, because I have a list as long as my arm.
Justyne Caruana herself is refusing to answer her phone to journalists or reply to their emails. She is not taking questions. That’s transparency and respect for the press, for you.
The arrogance is just unbelievable.
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What a waste of energy. When all political parties should be discussing Malta’s future, the Opposition has to relegate itself to controlling the crowd.
The OPM release, and all the other Government releases, are aimed at the gullible Super One crowd who do not read any other source of news.
Unfortunately it’s not just the Super One crowd who do not read any (other) source of news.
There are those who argue that both political parties are the same, without bothering to analyse in some depth their respective performance.
In this sense I agree with you that government releases are aimed at the gullible.
I’m sure (almost) you’ll hear it on TVM news and many people (other than the Super One crowd) will give it credit.
Because you know, TVM is ‘neutral’ and Natalino Fenech was politically appointed by the PN government, while Reno Bugeja is not.
A very good and apt comment. I fully agree.
Now i realize why she called the Nazzjonalisti dawk is-sriep. She cannot answer their questions.
If the ticket was bought late morning, why did they wait till 12.15pm to send Caruana her confirmation email?
They can’t even make up a weak excuse properly.
It’s not a weak excuse at all. You see, they’re not trying to fool you, because they know they can’t and have no interest in trying.
The gullible are their targets, especially those who have never travelled or who have only travelled with a tour group, and so have no idea how flights are booked.
Why didn’t Times of Malta in its report ask the pertinent question itself?
Historically the PL is a compulsive and professional lying machine.
Lying is the only human activity it excels in.
The lies come to light in 10% of instances, at best. Also thanks to our incompetent and neutered journalists.
The tip of the proverbial iceberg.
All lies that Kurt Farrugia tells seem to be short-lived.
More lies. They seem to go out of their way to lie.
L-arroganza ta’ din id-deputata xewwiexa hija inkredibbli.
Fittex irrispondi lill-gurnalisti ghax inti li inti mhallsa minn butna ghandek obbligu tirrispondi ghad-domandi kollha li jaghmlulek.
She could have booked her own flight on the way to the airport, using a mobile phone with 3G connection.
She could have turned up at the airport with no ticket at all, proceed to the Air Malta desk, and buy one on the spot.
Perhaps they buy their tickets via Untours to help out their offspring.
Ah, curious point now. How do they go about purchasing flight tickets, accommodation etc? Via booking.com like the rest of us? Jew jirrangalhom xi hadd? Untours per ezempju?
Jew Hamilton Travel?
Indeed.
“Discussions are still underway, we have no problem with the Commission asking questions, but it has no legal basis on which to react,”
‘…Dr Muscat expressed his hope that an understanding will be reached, particularly in light of the fact that the Commission did not interfere in similar schemes such as those in Cyprus and Austria…..’
This when the commission announced it was examining precedents on which to base the case, reinforcing the treaty’s meaning, and both Cyprus and Austria have contradicted the spiel.
It must be his cunning plan, carry on with the lies until everyone’s exhausted. Let this be carried outside this place, that every government, commission and presidency understand what this sad electorate managed.
If this is what they’re doing now that they’re in power, can you imagine what they did to get in? Some don’t need to imagine. They have been on the receiving end for years.
It is so sad to have to endure a reaction where other countries feel forced and pressured, by the lies of “my Government”, to the point where they need to publicly clarify their position.
Because we were used to MLPs lies, and subconsciously it’s still what we expect from the Labour Party, I’m not sure the full impact of what this means has hit us yet.
This Government has not only lied to the face of all Maltese, but overtly and bare-facedly before and about other countries.
They, in turn, all 89% or 560 of the Union’s MPs against 22, have seen fit to reply and expose this lie.
72% of Maltese, and a significant voice of the Maltese-Australians, have also seen fit to stand against. It is clear to all lucid analysis that this major defining move was not in the electoral mandate.
The result is that the Labour Party in Government is there by pure misrepresentation.
I am proud that the NP and the EPs stand together in their moral conviction.
That moment had to come that those outside have understood what you underline, Jozef.
What defines outside has changed:
Unlike the Super One machine, the more conservative, moral make-up of the EU machine is not brash and bare-faced and dictatorial.
The whole point about the European Union make-up is not about aggression and instant gratification. It has forever been about diplomacy, negotiation, cooperation and alliances. It has been about democracy.
Even the European culture has its roots based in grace and tempo. The villain in lore and valour, ejected.
Where culture is ingrained in the spirit of a nation, and indeed of a Union, what Joseph Muscat dealt by his blow, was aimed at the heart of the Union. The blow struck, shallow. It notified the Union of a traitor in its midst.
Uniquely, and thankfully, the nature of the traitor is such that it no longer equates to the whole of the population or to a whole country, as much as it tried the perception-deception dump on this important score.
Whereas we, in Malta, cannot isolate the Labour Party from Government, the European Union is now in the singular position – possibly for the first time in its history – where the divide makes it possible to isolate that amoral source and where the amoral source is dealt with in consequence of that isolation.
If there is no responsible national moral conscience, there is a broader European one.
The NP has not been relegated to within that isolation now reserved for the Labour Party instigators and traitors of this spirit. The European Union make-up renders this possible. It is truly representative of all Europeans within its Union.
I’m not sure Joseph Muscat has appreciated exactly what that signifies, even though his blow was long premeditated and aimed at the heart.
The full impact of the deceptively subtle shift this has caused throughout the ranks of the European Union is enormous.
It is specifically Joseph Muscat’s party in Government that is isolated, that description further refined to this plot.
Because of this, and due to the central part played by this plot in their governance, it is also the Labour Party’s legitimacy in that seat that is clearly called into question.
Legitimacy, that’s it, Tabatha. I think it’s time for the PN to turn reconciliation with the electorate into a pact between equals. The time is ripe to turn contrition into clear worded proposals for a future looking more distant every other day.
It’s not about told you so’s, not when Muscat keeps agenda’s hidden then comes along saying he has the majority no matter what.
He doesn’t have carte blanche, otherwise why bother with that gargantuan campaign, a congress in Ta’ Qali, Partito Democratico style and a program more like a Phaidon on a coffee table than being tattered, scribbled and revisited?
Perhaps some of our opinion leaders need to understand that when they insist on the Opposition’s denigration, read Saviour Balzan’s adamant refusal to ‘listen to a party who was drubbed in that manner’, the risk of being forced to give up sacrosant rights by Labour is automatic.
There’s another side to all this, insidious and as always overlooked by those who’ll fill their pages with plain polemic; the opportunities being lost, the tendency to scrap potential, lessons learnt and a perverse tendency to match current decisions with past bloopers.
I refer to the next great debacle, Marsaxlokk, does anyone need reminding that Muscat promised us that thing by March 2015? That means 14 months and all the pretty renderings turned real, when he doesn’t he’ll have to eat into this country’s finances to subsidise energy bills perpetually until it’s ready. I’m not holding my breath.
Which he obviously can’t not with Reding’s EU watching closely over fair competition.
With engineering it’s rather similar to what you say re. the EU, make that the continent; there’s no place for simulated realities or fanciful distortions of numbers.
I can’t tell you when they went on about tanks, storage, chimneys and foundations how horrific it felt seeing politics used to gobble any technical and scientific truth.
Ironic how the liberal party had to obscure the PN’s industrial orthodoxy, a bit like those greens who think we’ll all be able to waft around on clouds in our lifetime.
But then, the problem in this place is pure ignorance, that the PN understand this and take it on immediately, before we end up perpetually without power.
Stop it, you two. You make my brain hurt.
The PN just needs to turn right and liberal.
A belated Christmas present for Justyne Caruana:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BUDGIE-Little-Helicopter-CHUCK-CHINOOK-15-Talking-Singing-STUFFED-PLUSH-RARE-/300812369057
This is how it goes. There is vicious competition between Anton Refalo and Justyne Caruana.
So if Minister Refalo was able to call the Gozo ferry back which was half way to Gozo to pick him up she wanted to do something more dramatic.
So she summons a military helicopter to pick her up at home. Driving to the helicopter pad to Xewkija would have been too much hassle for her.
Again, a pack of lies. Get used to it, people, this is the way its going to be the whole way through. I guess this is what those self-righteous switchers wanted.
I am still feeling something is not totally right. I mean, OK, she was called back to Malta to be present for a vote when the result is a foregone conclusion.
Wait – now it hits me. We are assuming that the government knew that the vote would be a foregone conclusion.
What if it were not the case?
What if the government feared that a vote against the scheme would be carried by a defection in their own ranks?
We are assuming that just because the legislation passed, even a motion (against the scheme) at this stage, after all the chaos it has kicked up, would be defeated. What if the PM has reason to believe this is not the case?
Why call her back otherwise? The motion was not debated out of the blue. Why let her go? What caused the sudden change of heart, so to say?
I repeat, there seems to be much more than meets the eye in this story.
Paper tickets – how quaint. So 90s.
Well, they are throwbacks to the “golden age”.
It’s possible her ticket was issued manually – ghax il-computers johdulna xogholna.
Remember when on her Facebook page she said that you need friends to call the Gozo Channel ferry back? Well, I am now realizing that by now she must have made more influential friends than Twanny Bronka’s.
Who the HACK do they think they’re fooling? Haven’t they ever heard of e-tickets.
I haven’t used a conventional ticket for about ten years. Justyne Caruana is stupid enough to think she’s actually credible. She is an insult to her position.
Why did they not just send her straight to Marseille in that helicopter?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-01-24/news/hunters-criticise-jack-of-all-trades-saviour-balzan-birdlife-appointment-3770875908/
Saviour savours his bedmates’ bile …
They want us to get lost in the details. The substance of the matter is that the Labour Member of Parliament Justyne Caruana used an expensive public asset in circumstances she should not have and she and her government must be held politically accountable for that.
Couldn’t they have just made the plane wait an hour or two for her, or perhaps call it back to pick her up?
Where is ix-Xitan when you need him?
It is also shocking that – instead of using the Xewkija helipad – the helicopter picked Justyne Caruana up from the Gozo General Hospital helipad “because it was more convenient for her” (according to Net News, which I tend to believe).
Il-ġurnalisti mhux parti mill-familja tagħha lanqas?
The government’s justification is equally laughable. Nothing but a ‘tu quoque’ appeal to hypocrisy; the likes of which have characterised Muscat’s leadership from the onset.
“Gonzi did it, so what the hack?”.
James Alexander Tyrrell says:
24 January 2014 12:24
The schemes in Cyprus and Austria are nothing like what is being proposed in Malta. At the moment Malta is a respectable part of Europe with a trusted passport. Once it is offered for sale to anyone who can afford it the Maltese passport will no longer be trusted because the person holding it could be anyone. Has he even stopped to consider how the Maltese people will feel once their proud citizenship becomes a commodity to be traded?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-01-24/news/pm-convinced-that-maltese-population-backs-citizenship-scheme-3772219393/
Of course he hasn’t stopped to consider what Maltese people will feel. Neither thinking nor empathy are his forte. He’s just an expert at aggression – both passive and overt – and at shooting from the hip.
The government is not “trying” to fool anyone in Malta.
They know the majority (which voted them in) are not clear in thought, and they simply take advantage of that, use it and abuse it. Typically Mintoffian.
The hitch is that they try to use the same measures beyond this island. The last speech of the prime minister in parliament is proof, if any is needed. And when they realize that they can’t do any better, that’s where our country gets screwed.
Libsu l-qalziet u … fih.
Now we’re getting to the emotional blackmail bit:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140124/local/eu-states-not-forthcoming-in-solidarity-with-malta-minister.503971
Although this is what the PM said a month ago:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131221/local/Migration-PM-hails-a-step-forward-.499866#.UuK6ANI1hiw
I slap my girlfriend around in public. But that’s OK because her previous fella used to do the same.
If you extend the same argument further back, the shackles are off.
And, that is the regressive logic here, hell if you extend the logic being used, what that hack, they used to do the same stuff in Roman times. Why are you picking on us?
The government is in a right frenzy to make a fool of itself and of its members on a daily basis.
To the detriment of the country.
After only ten months we already need an archive to keep tabs on what Labour has done to send this country to the dogs.
I cannot even begin to think what is going to happen in the next four years.
“Orchestra executive chairman Sigmund Mifsud said the Mro Schembri would be an international advertisement for local music.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140124/local/new-conductor-for-national-orchestra.503958#.UuNcLM2Cq3U
Why was Prof Michael Laus removed?
There’s an elephant in the room – MLP candidate Sigmund Mifsud. What’s he doing there?
I read Brian Schembri’s CV , he was sent to communist Russia in the golden years, to further his studies.
“After he became the youngest ever to obtain the Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music (London) he continued his studies at the Kiev and Moscow “Tchaikowsky” State Conservatories.
There he actively participated in the student concert life, both as pianist and conductor, winning first prize in the “Beethoven Concerto Competition”. He obtained an M.A.(music) and did post-graduate course in piano with Alexander Snegiriov and Serguei Dorensky as well as conducting with Roman Kofman and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.”
http://www.brianschembri.com/Gallery.html#5
The maestro is more than qualified to conduct our national orchestra, pity that other wannabes and party billboard people will ride with him on the same wagon.
His brother, Guzeppi Schembri Bonaci, was then Malta’s ambassador to the Soviet Union.
He is today lecturer in Modern Art at the University of Malta.
http://m.maltatoday.com.mt/magazinedetails/magazine/art/Edging-the-secular-from-the-religious-Giuseppe-Schembri-Bonaci-20131127
Justyne Caruana’s helicopter trip was “in the national interest”.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Caruana-s-visit-to-Marseille-done-in-national-interest-20140125
Unbelievable.