Sometimes it is enough to be the friend of someone else’s enemy.

indignation

There were two comments that are normally the preserve of the worst kind of dictatorships.

To Cassola: ‘Watch what you say’, the implication being that there could be ‘ramifications’ for speaking.

To Busuttil: when Muscat said that hopefully no elements sabotage the connector. The implication here is that the PN will sabotage the gas link and intentionally kill thousands of people.

Now take yourself out of the Maltese context as in this Banana Republic it is hard to see it for what it is as you become accustomed and desensitised to illiberal acts.

Imagine the likes of Renzi, Cameron, Rajoy, Hollande, Obama, Merkel accusing the opposition of possibly sabotaging and wilfully killing thousands of people. Would this make the news? There would be mass indignations, resignations and elections called.

In Malta, this makes the comments section of a blog run by one of the only people who seems to care.

Tattika Laburista li ntużat fil-konfront ta’ Eddie Fenech Adami li għal ħafna snin wara li sar mexxej tal-partit tal-Oppożizzjoni kien impinġi bħala “vavu bil-ħarqa”.

Is-superjorita’ infantili Laburista malajr isarrfuha f’arroganza, li titmermer biż-żmien u l-irġulija.

Bulgaria. Going One Better than the Best in Europe.

Can we, once and for all, get something straight? “Gentleman”, in English, does not mean “gentle man”.

Simon Busuttil can be a perfect gentleman – which he is – while raining down fire and brimstone on his adversary, which he should. But he is being too meek.

I know it’s not easy to dissociate form and content in Maltese – if only we’d do politics in English – but at least he can try.

This one included:

https://www.facebook.com/sonya.abela

She was sitting right behind Peppi Azzopardi.

As a PN supporter I agree with you Ms Caruana.

This is not a popular view-point among the nationalists but as I quickly learned in my business life; that being a gentleman and acting like a gentleman when dealing with non-gentlemen is a sure fire way to failure, every-time, all the time.

Simon Busuttil is a fine human being but he is out gunned by the riff-raff he has to face in parliament and with a no-holds barred spoiled brat prime minister.

If the PN is ever to win a future election in my lifetime then they need a wily and gutsy leader that can collar a bell on the PL pussycat with what ever it takes, underhanded or otherwise. It is not a nice world out there unfortunately.

Oh, I see that we are making subtle quotes from Genghis Khan without even giving him credit. How about these quotes from Khan’s repertoire, then, for the prime minister:

“Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard.”

“I am the punishment of God…If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.”

And then there is this one. It might actually be written somewhere on that copy of the Economist which the Fearless Leader keeps for those intimate occasions:

“If you’re afraid – don’t do it, – if you’re doing it – don’t be afraid!”