Bring a notebook. I’ll teach you Dealing With The Maltese For Foreigners.

Baxxter, let’s discuss at lunch later this week.

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

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?

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.

Why not give him a teleprompter and be done with it.

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.

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.

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.”

And if they do not give him a translation, he can stamp his feet, like Jo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhnhkGRVtOE