All those EU and Malta flags and that podium: to announce two cents off petrol
Published:
April 30, 2014 at 4:51pm
You really must watch the video uploaded on Times of Malta (link below). It’s beyond ridiculous: like a skit from some dry-humour comedy.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140430/local/update-3-pm-announces-cuts-in-petrol-gas-prices-fuel-prices-locked-till-december.517057
No one in the audience thought of asking the obvious question: Does this mean that the promised 10-year agreement was, after all, just a pack of lies?
Yes it was a pack of lies coming from a pack of wolves
I get the feeling sometihng went awfully wrong with this.
Could it, perhaps, be that government planned to announce something completely different but at the last moment was told that it would go against some EU directive?
I can’t possibly believe that all this theatre was done to announce a two-cent decrease in petrol.
Went against some EU directive? Since when would Labour bother about that?
I have the same feeling. This was all a smokescreen for something more sinister and unpalatable. Don’t forget that the PM is a master at this game.
I perfectly agree with you. But of course he may have forgotten that we are actually in the EU after he fought so hard to keep us out – and, in spite of this personal lost cause, he ended up earning a handsome MEP salary. Irony of ironies.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there. Now let’s wait a couple of days and the truth will come out.
That is the first thing that crossed my mind when I heard the news.
Good suspicion.
Exactly spot on. . .maybe he’ll come up with something else. .the serpent
My thoughts exactly. In the meantime he gets to feel superior.
It’s a favourite pastime of his: remember how journalists were forced to wait outside his office in the summer sun?
Or how he aggressively rolled down his window while being chauffeured to tick off a journalist?
Even how he expected journalists to never find out that he visited his cousin instead of some random family in Bormla.
He thinks that journalists are sh*t and he makes sure they know it. To be fair, he’s right about quite a number of them. I find Maltese journalists to be generally lazy.
actually, that was my initial reaction.
Yes. I still think that someone, somewhere, had revealed the PM’s plans in the public guesses made, so he must have decided to announce something entirely different. Otherwise, his big news would be no news.
That’s what I suspected, or that it’s some innovative amoral trick where today he will announce that the Chinese will be buying part of the Malta Freeport Corporation – you know, because they helped us build the breakwater, and all this thanks to the hard work of Ms Sai Mizzi Liang.
My gut feeling is that he was going to announce some part-sale of Air Malta but the workers were up in arms when he let something slip a day or two before when he was pumping up people with the upcoming good news.
My thoughts exactly: more than going against some EU directive, I suspect he was informed that it would actually lose votes and not win votes.
So they had to think of something fast, and his favourite pet (Konrad) came to his rescue with an idea fenomenali.
Madness is settling in quite nicely.
First he sends his wife to see the Pope, the he brings the press running to see the birth of a mouse.
I think you mean an ant hatching.
Jahasra, il-flus li nefaq fuq reklami tar-rohs tad-dawl messu uzhom biex ikompli jrahhas l-petrol. Flok 2 kien ikollna rohs ta’ 3 centezmi.
U la qeghdin fiz-zifna, li kieku kecca lil Sai Mizzi u uza l-flus frankati ghar-rohs tal-petrol, flok 3 kien ikollna 4 centezmi rohs.
U li kieku il-PM kecca x’ uhud mill-inkompenti li ghandu fil-Kabinett ……. flok 4 kien ikollna 8 centezmi rohs.
Dnub ma hasibiex qabel.
Next surprise after the fuel price freeze is, what, wage freeze?
U kieku Il PM kellu iwarrab kemm nifrankaw?
U li kieku kecca lilu nnifsu, jista’ ma jrahhas xejn aktar ghax iserrah lil kulhadd.
C’est un grand art de faire un grand discours sans rien dire.
What “grand discours”, prithee.
When was sh*t called otherwise in French?
Come on Guz. What a joke. Then you go to pay the registration for a commercial vehicle and you realize that now you have to pay €300 instead of €185. This is an insult.
We were so used to “good news” being an investment, new companies or positive economy.
I pity those who see this as positive. Only the restaurant owners and hoteliers will benefit and I’m sure they have no intention of re-printing their menus.
I remember the 80s budget speech praising the government for reducing the price of corned beef, tuna and anchovies by 5 mils, and this was the first thing that came to my mind after listening to Joseph Muscat today.
May the good Lord have mercy on us.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140430/local/pn-muscat-lowered-the-prices-he-had-himself-raised.517071
OK, I think I have found the explanation for this press conference.
Joseph Muscat does not want the Maltese to remember that 10 years ago Malta joined the EU, to which he was totally opposed.
It is also ironic that 10 years after this momentous event, Joseph Muscat chooses the eve of the anniversary to give birth to a mouse.
The “big news” took place on 1 May 2004, when despite Muscat’s “il-Partnership l-Ahjar Ghazla,” he had to bow his head to the European flag.
And Times of Malta reports it as a routine announcement. At least the guys at The Malta Independent put it in its proper context and mocked it.
Who were the players in the negotiations?
Here’s someone who’s also disappointed:
http://www.sundaycircle.com/2014/04/10-things-i-was-hoping-the-pm-would-give-us/
I have calculated my monthly savings on petrol – €1.38 in all
Isn’t it cool to be Labour?
More bullshit from our prime minster – http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140430/opinion/Living-by-European-values.517006
The worst of the Mintoffian legacy at work again bir-rohs tal-kavalli fil-gazzetta tal Gvern. X’misthija.
Min-naha l-ohra Muscat wara li seraq il-politika tan-nazzjonalisti qieghed juri li mhux kapaci jwettaqa.
Do you recall when he announced the oil deal with Libya?
Do you recall when he announced the Brian May concert which we had to pay for while there were 1,000 complimentary tickets?
Would you believe that he’s still at it?
Teatrini in Kastilja and pre-wedding videos at the presidential palace – enough already.
Instead of three months “stability” of petrol prices we now have all of eight months. And according to the PM this ‘stable’ reduction of 2c will help families budget better and businesses will set their minds at rest about the way they can budget better their financial situation.
Apart from the fact that you don’t budget a financial situation (he’s just mouthing the usual verbose string of buzzwords and phrases), Muscat must really be desperate to make such a big deal of a temporary micro-reduction of the price of petrol.
I am sure that there was something else. There has to be. It might be that the government put out some feelers and thought better of it till the MEP elections are over. What the prime minister announced with so much pomposity today is ridiculous.
Do the Maltese stll use the expression “mohhu bonswa”?
The price of fuel in the UK goes up and down like a yo-yo from day to day.
Do we get a nationwide announcement from the Prime Minister? Of course not, especially when he’s been told to shut up by the speaker of the house. Malta could learn some lessons here.
This afternoon a bowser full of water was washing the road from the upper Barrakka Gardens right up to Merchants Street.
They also sprinkled disenfectant all over the place to kill off the stink left by the karrozzini horses.
People had to wade through puddles of water and attempt to avoid getting a shower for free.
This all for tonight’s big do at the upper Barrakka gardens to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Malta joining the EU. I understand the catering has been left in the hands of Fortina.
Hope the guests will not be the ones who voted No to EU (fat chance I know).
Pathetic!
Malta´s yearly fuel consumption for road transport:
153.520 metric tons (NSO,2011)
Assuming evenly distributed consumption during the year, means a total consumption May-Dec 2014 of:
89.553,1 metric tons
[1 metric ton petrol=1.351 litre]
0,02 eurocents/litre = 27,02 EUR/metric ton
So, total saving for Malta is:
2.419.724,76
That is 5,78 EUR/citizen (or, on a monthly basis, 0,83 EUR/citizen)
With such unprecedented raise in disposable income I expect Malta´s internal consumption to skyrocket.
But also not.
PS.: probably the price went down because of the indexation formula at which is linked the price of fuel supply, therefore it´s hard to claim the merit of it…
PPS.: if the decrease has been decided (rather being cost reflective), it means that (at least) 2,4 milion will disappear from the Government Budget (i.e.: from people´s pocket – free meals do not exist).
Your statement 1 metric ton petrol=1.351 litre
I think 1,351 litres is more likely to be the right value.
With your figures it boils down to €25 million? But you mixed points with commas and fuel with petrol.
Before you check your work, notice that you did not consider that your calculations were futile, what he took he gave you back a month later and you went to calculate the cost of going back to April Fool’s day.
A family burns some 40 litres per week: 2 cents is a whopping 80 cents a week, which is an income increase of 0.1% in a year for a couple earning €30,000.
Why does he insist on speaking with that tone of voice and at that rhythm?
Dan x’ħasibna, xi mejtin bil-ġuħ jew.
B’min qed tgħaddi ż-żmien, Dr. Muscat.
Żgur mhux bina li qatt ma emminna lilek jew ivvutajna lill-partit tiegħek.
Qed titmellaħ bin-nies tiegħek stess, dawk li ilhom jappoġġaw lil-Lejber u b’dawk l-imbeċilli li qabel l-elezzjoni emmnuk. Bil-ħmerijiet li qed tagħmel politikament qed tħaffer qabrek.
There is more to this story. It seems it was to be passport related, as 190 have already been granted citizenship.
The last minute snag seems to have been: how have these people already been granted citizenship before the 12 month residency?
The fuel ‘big news’ seems to have been rolled out instead.
And the big question is: where is the money from the sale of 190 passports? At Eur 650,000 each, that’s almost Eur 125 million.
Where is the fund which had to be created to invest those monies?
In whose custody are those monies?
The mountain in Labour gives birth to a mouse.
And the people cried Aesop
I think it is now official. This government is not fit for purpose.
The whole of Malta has blue balls.
I think we’re all missing the point here.
All the signs and the set-up point towards a much bigger announcement.This “big good news” which was given so much prominence fell through on the eve of the announcement but because Muscat had already called his press conference and raised expectations, they had to announce something and the decrease of 2c in petrol was their plan B, if not plan C.
Please censor my language as you deem fit but these are my feelings and probably those of many others.
Ghax ma marrux jiehduh fejn qatt ma dahhluhulom hu u dak il-fenominalment antipatiku jsawwat in-nies kif tara halqu jiccaqqlaq.
This is downright insolence, making a federal case of what might work out as €18 per year, and I say might, because said savings could be irrelevant tomorrow if the market price of oil shifts downwards.
Hudu 2 cents, ja boloh, but my wife pulls in €13,000 a month, fenominali, for doing not much which is why we can’t tell you what it is she’s doing.
€18 a year in Malta is peanuts, but €156000 a year in China – well, that’s billionaire living standards. The Ahbar Kbira is yet to break.
I was adamant not to go and vote during the upcoming MEP elections. After this, no, I will go and vote – for the PN candidates, of course, not sure who would be the best bet as I haven’t been following but surely not Labour.
Dik l-umbrella – x’ ghala z*bbi mil-petrol:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?sns=fb&v=hHDlYL6MmKo
Once a Super 1 cretin always a Super 1 cretin
What about the out of stock medicines? Do I still have to buy them. They cost me much more than the 2 cents reduction.
The forehead furrow of lies and deceit is in full display.
Next budget will be about combijf and tonn taz-zejt.
Ma ninsewx l-incova.
The article written by Joseph Muscat in today’s Times of Malta gives the impression that he has been in favour of the EU all these years and he was the architect of joining the Union.
In another article Martin Scicluna harshly criticises the lack of leadership qualities of Simon Busuttil especially in the recent gay marriage debacle.
Apparently he has forgotten that last year’s election was won by the PL not through Muscat’s leadership qualities but by his deceit and false promises which thousands of gullible switchers swallowed right down their gullet.
This is an insult to the “enlightened” flock who voted for a change.
Vote Joe Muscat and you get a Mintoff repackaged.
Labour still think that if they give out a cejca people will be grateful. Had Lawrence Gonzi done a similar gimmick the press would have massacred him. But with Labour at the helm everything seems to be acceptable.
Apart from the fact that many people have not benefitted at all from this reduction because we drive diesel cars, 2c per litre is like 1 euro or less a week. So we are talking about 52 euros a year max. Just to put things into context.
How professional and ethical is it for John Cassar White, Chairman of BOV, to address a Malta Labour Party political event?
Perhaps Mr. Cassar White should be told that we want our deposits and loans to be free of political interference.
Was he there to explain the reduced profitability of the local banking sector under Labour?
Did he explain why the largest banking institution in Malta has increased its loans to the economy by less than Eur 20 million in the last 6 months?
How many jobs could have been created with that amount of credit?
How is it possible for the economy to grow if it borrowed only Eur 20 million from the largest bank in six months?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140430/local/pn-critical-of-bov-chairmans-participation-in-pl-event.517108
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/europe_2014/38556/bov_chairman_address_at_labour_meeting_unacceptable__pn
It is really ridiculous.
But on the other hand, it might be an attempt to mislead.
There could be two options for this flop, either:
1. He had something really good, but it failed to materialise; or
2. He has something else up his sleeve and he needs to distract… again.
He is not very intelligent, but very sly.
A freak show by a freak prime minister. The morons who voted him in have really sent our country to the dogs.
I am quite shocked (but admittedly not surprised) that Labour have resorted to such a populist and yet deceitful approach to deal with the unavoidable volatility in oil prices.
While the decision to fix prices for the next eight months might seem appealing, Muscat & Mizzi are actually taking a huge gamble. There is no such thing as a free lunch in financial & commodity markets.
In order to achieve this price stability, Enemalta would have had to enter into a financial arrangement (a hedge) which will enable them to buy fuel at prices close to current levels for the next eight months.
However, fuel prices will obviously change over the next eight months which will result in one of the following three scenarios unfolding by the end of year.
The best outcome will be for fuel prices to be at similar levels at the end of the year as this would imply that consumers will not experience any significant change when Enemalta fixes prices again.
An alternative outcome is that fuel prices fall over the next eight months, say by 10%. In this scenario, consumers will not benefit from lower prices for the next eight months and have to endure fuel prices which are higher than market prices, however there will be a significant drop (10%) in prices at the end of the year.
The third scenario is a rise in fuel prices (say 10%) over the next eight months. While this will make Muscat & Mizzi look very “smart” as prices will not rise initially. Fuel prices will have to adjust at the end of the year and consumers will face a 10% shock rise in fuel prices at that point.
Effectively, this just a big con-trick as Muscat & Mizzi do not have the power to control prices.
Sure they can fix prices in the short term (through financial hedges) but ultimately it is zero-sum game and you either have pay a stable but above market price in the event of falling prices or pay a stable and lower price in the short term in exchange for a price shock at a later stage. Place your bets…..
Prosit Joseph u viva l-Labour. Haqqek qatta cicri ta’ din u bnina minn ta’ Burmarrad. Rohs tal-millezmi!
When Mintoff was in power, he used to get people in the streets with big trucks tooting their horns and then they go in to Valletta to listen to the budget speech.
Guze Abela the finance minister would announce that the price of canned mackerel was down by one cent, luncheon meat by one mil. You should see the Labour members of parliament banging on the tables for putting the kavalli down by one cent.
Issa niehdu gost naqalghu la hekk ghazilna.
redikolu
Peter Mallia is definitely right. Look at the body language, the absolute lack of euphoria, yet more importantly look at his worrisome trademark – that furrow in the middle of his brow.
The man was feeling evidently uncomfortable. Hardly the manner a person would be if one is announcing some great piece of news.
There was more to this and something went wrong in the last minute.
C’est un art de faire un grand discours sans rien dire.
C’est l’art du vide!
I must admit that our beloved leader has come up with sensational news well beyond our best imagination.
And there was I thinking for a moment that Sai Mizzi had secured a grand project worth her salary and with this a dozen new jobs, or that Willie Mangion has found our bands a nice garage to practise their gigs in.
For a while I thought that perhaps Muscat would spring a surprise on us all announcing that the first deliveries of medicines closer to home would be made not from the local Labour club any longer but right up to people’s doorsteps. Imagine that.
Muscat surely had big news for us this week.
As was the case with Mintoff, pity that our Gulliver was born on a Lilliput island. Humanity could have been so better served otherwise.
Muscat is intelligent and cunning: he knows, now, after the massive electoral victory that the majority of the Maltese are, as we cay in Maltese, IMZAZEN.- He knows it and makes use of it on every occasion.
I always thought that at press conferences, one needs to take care of journalists so one makes sure they will come back.
Here in Malta, this does not seem to be the case. Had I been a journalist at yesterday’s press conference, I would have stood up and asked him “jiġifieri int qadt taghqlana u ġġibna hawn biex tħabbar li raħħast il-petrol b’2 cents?”
I find it very offensive and I wonder what the media thought about this.
“jiġifieri int qadt taghqlana u ġġibna hawn B’URĠENZA biex tħabbar li raħħast il-petrol b’2 cents?”
They probably used up more petrol to get there and look for parking than they will save by the end of the year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWWy5tpnbA4
I would not under estimate this PM. He is fishing for public reaction.
Someone said that something went wrong at the last minute and I think that is most probably to the near truth.
The GWU already gave its green light to the sale of part of Air Malta. The one-month contract for some workers made me think that who ever was going to buy into Air Malta is having reservations on the work force.
Our Joey will be smirking for some time with all our guesses. I can’t stand that sarcastic smile.
So if our currency were still Maltese Lira the Prime Minister of Malta would have called an URGENT press conference to inform us that the price of petrol would have gone down by… EIGHT MILS.
Aesop’s fable of the mountain in labour (not the party) is relevant here.
A mountain emitting terrible noises was said to be in labour. But, as people watched to see what would happen, all they saw come out of it was a mouse.
Moral of the fable: Don’t make a big fuss over nothing.
http://fablesofaesop.com/a-mountain-in-labor.html
This was a stunt by the Lord of Castille to ridicule Malta’s tenth anniversary membership in the EU.
We know how much he hates the EU and we know were he stood when it came to the EU referendum. The timing for this 2cents worth of glory was planned.
I’d go with this.
He said “Il-prezz se jibqa’ iffissat” for unchanged. He needs a translator in his public speeches.
Annuncio vobis gaudum magnum. Habemus centezimus rohsus.