The Opposition is not going to back the nomination of Il-Guy as EU Commissioner
This is exactly why Karmenu Vella is unfit for the role of EU Commissioner, and the Nationalist Party needs to be specific about it.
Times of Malta has reported Simon Busuttil as saying that this is because the Opposition was not consulted on the matter. This should have more properly been because Il-Guy is not fit for purpose and will bring Malta into disrepute just as John Dalli did, even if not necessarily in the same way, if he somehow manages to get through the European Parliament grilling despite his clearly failing faculties and the fact that he is spectacularly uninformed and his skills do not go beyond the level of a southern Mediterranean small-time fixer.
Karmenu Vella is a rapidly decaying, shrinking fossil from Dom Mintoff’s 1970s cabinet and he is simply not fit for the role of Commissioner, not only because he lacks the required abilities, skills and competence but also because of his shameful/shameless track record under Mintoff and KMB.
The man will be an embarrassment and the grilling session alone will be sufficient to make us crawl under the sofa and wait until it is all over.
This is one instance in which Muscat can’t use what would be the obvious tu quoque retort to the accusation that he has nominated somebody disgraceful and not fit for purpose: mhux intom ghamiltu lil John Dalli?
He obviously thinks Dalli is fantastic and very fit for purpose because he has made him his special consultant and thinks that he was unfairly removed from the Commissioner role.
24 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Can Karmenu Vella speak English fluently? I fear his inability to express his ideas in a coherent manner will spoil his chances of getting past the grilling.
[Daphne – No, he can’t, but then neither could Dalli. Vella is actually much worse, though.]
He’ll just ask for a Maltese translation, “ghax ghandu dritt”.
And if they do not give him a translation, he can stamp his feet, like Jo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhnhkGRVtOE
Why not give him a teleprompter and be done with it.
I completely disagree. This would backfire on the PN. We all know that Labour supported Tonio Borg’s candidature.
[Daphne – Your reasoning is half-assed. You support people worth supporting. It’s not a tit for tat, you scratch my back situation. Labour supported Tonio Borg because he was worth supporting. They would have been wrong NOT to support him. In this case, the opposite is truth. The PN mustn’t support Karmenu Vella because he is unfit for purpose and it would be wrong TO support him.]
I would to the same with il-Guy and the outcome will tell whether he is fit for purpose. We all know he is not! PN should start playing Muscat’s game and leave him fall victim of his own decisions and failures.
[Daphne – How irresponsible. We’ve been there already with Dalli. These are not games, so grow up. These are positions of huge responsibility with Malta’s name and that of the European Commission at risk of damage, to say nothing of the damage a bad Commissioner can do.]
This is not a game. It is a question of integrity or at least, it should be.
Do what is right and you will never go wrong. Ultimately, all the manipulation and scheming of the likes of Joseph Muscat will pay a price at the end.
All it would have taken was the little phrase “minhabba r-rabta tieghu mal-gvern ta’ Mintoff.”
Simon Busuttil fails to impress. Yet again.
And what’s this taboo about mentioning Mintoff? Will his name (like Daphne’s) rent the sky asunder and bring about the end of the world? Joseph Muscat is a Mintoffian. So is Karmenu Vella. Mintoff was evil. QED
Ma naghmlux mod il-PN Mintoffjani ukoll, hux?
He will get UKIP’s backing though. Kull qalb trid ohra. Mhux hekk, Kev?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1RpOT5zX6I
I think it’s time for the Nationalist Party to call a spade a spade and not be cautious about saying it as it is.
Too much innuendo. I think everyone is ready for some plain speak. Come what may.
Yeah, right. The Maltese cannot bring themselves to call anyone stupid. And you expect a party leader to do it?
The PN should erase two words from their vocabulary, if only for a short time. They are ‘prudent’ and ‘cautious’.
Amen to that.
My faltering faith in Simon Busuttil’s leadership is partly restored by the Nationalist Party’s opposition to Karmenu Vella’s nomination but the failure to point out that Karmenu Vella is incompetent is depressing.
Now the Nationalist Party has fudged the issue.
If a brilliant person had been nominated and the opposition not consulted, wouldn’t they have supported him?
Simon Busuttil has walked into this trap in the name of prudence and caution and a journalist is bound to ask him the question.
Simon Busuttil needs more fire in his belly. He needs to learn how to say things more clearly and directly, and he needs to learn fast. This is not the European Parliament where the keyword is consensus. This is all out war, and wars need to be bloody and suffer casualties.
If enemies are made, so be it. They weren’t going to vote Nationalist anyway. They probably never have.
Daphne, I did business with Vella, way back when, and found him quite coherent in English. Also quite affable, however that won’t help when he’s grilled.
[Daphne – Oh, he’s definitely affable when he’s got his eye on the main chance. And coherence in English is not sufficient when you need to think and express yourself literally on your feet. There’s a clear thought-to-expression delay problem there. Actually, I don’t think the problem is his language skills but his thoughts. Language skills can help mask lack of knowledge/poor reasoning, but lack of language skill combined with the latter is not going to work.]
Ok, I do remember lapses between my comments and his replies.
Harry, how many times do I have to tell you this? You are a Foreigner. That’s Foreigner with a capital F. A “Barrani”.
And a businessman. So that’s twice the usual deference. Money-grubbing people like Karmenu Vella will obviously go out of their way to be nice to you. It’s a Maltese thing.
You would have been treated with far more respect than any of Karmenu Vella’s fellow citizens.
You’re not the only one who’s been duped, so don’t worry to much about it.
I’ve heard the same thing about the nastiest of Labour specimens (creepy Alfred Sant, for one, or the ghastly Alex Sceberras Trigona) from some pretty powerful foreigners. I just thought you should know.
Baxxter, let’s discuss at lunch later this week.
Bring a notebook. I’ll teach you Dealing With The Maltese For Foreigners.
I attended a session for hotel people (owners, administrators, finance people) when Il-Guy was Minister in the Sant government. His brief was to explain/field questions about the wondrous Labour replacement of VAT with the God awful CET.
So, what? Early ’97? A whole 17 years ago? The man was clueless and barely coherent even then. He was pathetic, totally out of his depth, and now he’s set for the post of European Commissioner.
Muscat and Labour have been presenting themselves as Malta’s saviours, as true patriots for decades. But in reality it is Labour, always Labour, who do nothing but humiliate and embarrass Malta in Europe and around the world. And so it goes on.
The Times of Malta report on the PN objection to this low-life being nominated as Malta’s EU Commissioner is due to their (the PN) not being consulted: If this is accurate then the PN hierarchy would be truly insipid.
In my opinion, this is a tactic by the Twat of Twitter to get at loggerheads with the EU. He is doing it on purpose knowing exactly that il-Guy will be outright rejected by the EU and then the PM will have an “excuse” to go on the warpath.
With these hamalli leading our country, you have to interpret every move.
More like a ploy by Jo to get il-Guy out of the cabinet and off his back.
Still time for Jo to change his mind and nominate someone else as EU Commissioner, leaving Karmenu Vella to vegetate on the backbenches.
Il-Guy’s seat will be up for grabs and in another flashback from hell, Il-Farrell would be the favourite for a comeback. The skip that keeps on giving, that’s Labour.
Jo is probably paving the way for another wave of insults towards Maltese MEPs with language like “tradituri” and “xewwiexa.”
Could it be that the PN has declared its position slightly early? Maybe it should have waited until after the EP elections. There is no need to rush here. They can always say “When we come to the process before the EP, we will discuss this.”
I know this is shockingly irresponsible and almost immoral, but could ‘Jo’ be planning the following:
1. Nominate Vella and wait for the omnishambles that is the grilling
2. Commiserate with Vella by agreeing that the EP is a shocking bunch of ‘barranin’ who hate Malta
3. Point out that he’s now granted Vella some favour owed but it’s not his fault the EP rejected him
4. Nominate the person he really wants to be Commissioner