This is exactly what people are worried about – and that includes decent and sensible Labour voters
The prime minister said this morning that he sees the upcoming European Parliament elections as a choice between him and Simon Busuttil – that is, a vote to validate his performance over the last year or the Opposition leader’s.
That is exactly what people are worried about, including decent and sensible Labour voters. It is what Times of Malta columnist and Labour voter Martin Scicluna warned about in his column a few days ago: that Muscat will interpret a strong vote for Labour in this election as a validation of the way he and his government have been doing things, and will view it as approval and hence permission from the electorate to behave in an even more high-handed, crass and arrogant manner. In other words, he will view a strong vote for Labour as a general licence for he and his government to behave as badly as they please in pursuit of their objectives, even if those objectives are legitimate and especially if they are not.
It is obvious from his inability to contain his excitement and self-satisfied pleasure (it seems to be the one emotion he feels strongly other than spiteful anger, and these are the only two emotions he cannot conceal) that Muscat knows he is going to get a strong vote in the EP election and he thrills to it.
It is that thrill which is dangerous. With that licence to do as he pleases, from here on in embracing Cyrus Engerer, splashing out on jobs for friends of the Labour Party, and selling passports without having warned the electorate about it will be small potatoes.
It’s going to be open season, and I don’t mean in bird-shooting.
Martin Scicluna wrote in his column that those who, like he, voted for Muscat ‘for a change’ in 2013 should now send him a message with their vote. He stopped short of saying what that message should be, but there are only two possibilities: not voting at all or voting for Nationalist Party candidates.
He is right this time. He is saying the same thing as the man for whom he encouraged us to vote last year, but flipping it over. Muscat sees this vote as one of approval for his behaviour over the last year, so if we don’t approve, we shouldn’t vote Labour even if we still support Labour essentially. This is because the vote does not put anyone in power or remove anyone from power but is a check on the government’s behaviour one year into term and if that behaviour is not checked now then there will be no way of checking it before 2018.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140518/local/confident-muscat-says-saturdays-election-is-choice-between-him-and-simon-busuttil.519521
Which is precisely why Martin Scicluna, for all his sophistication, is a rather stupid man. If this is a plebiscite, and indeed it is, then the only ‘message’ you can send with your vote is to vote for Joseph Muscat’s opponent i.e. to vote for candidates on the Nationalist list.
I’d have thought a former officer wouldn’t be so mealy-mouthed in his orders.
Scicluna is a Telecell voter. He wants to be in when he’s out.
From experience, I agree with you that he is a rather stupid man, and conceited with it.
I wonder with what he fills up his think-tank – hot air, I suppose.
From experience? Then kindly tell him so to his face. Cheers.
Any self respecting people would be out on the streets demonstrating against government rather than waiting for elections to pass on its message. Yet that which is deemed confrontational and not in our style at all worked so well for the PL who knew how to make mountains out of molehills.
Unless we wake up and speak up for ourselves voiferously, we shall be trodden upon whilst the fat cats will be left unchecked to grow even fatter at our expense.
I am at least greatful that if we chose not to, or are otherwise unable, to speak up for ourselves, tehn economic factors such as unemployment figures, export statistics and the GDP will do the talking for us, even if this will comes at a significant cost.
“Any self respecting people would be out on the streets demonstrating against government”
It has got to get to this for any contra voice to be registered.
Perhaps this too will escape the Labour media reporters though.
But it will start to create a record of visible dissatisfaction.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-05-18/news/ep-elections-a-choice-between-me-and-simon-busuttil-pm-5054431234/
“Let us be frank and sincere here,” Muscat said. “These elections are a choice between the two parties. It is a choice between myself and Simon Busuttil.”
There could be no clearer message of arrogance than this.
Whenever someone inserts himself into a statement, that person should ALWAYS place him/herself as the last person.
For Example
Film: ‘The King and I’, The Queen: “My husband and I” and so on.
It appears however that hailing from Burmarrad exempts one from observing the exquisiteness of etiquette so it’s “myself and Simon Busuttil” not that the riffraff he is surrounded by (and that he subconsciously loathes) would notice the subtlety.
There was more sincerety when the Aardvark told the ant: “I need to have a talk with you. I need to talk to you about your future.”
If Joseph Muscat is going to transform arbitrarily this election of members for the European Parliament into an irrelevant one of a vote of confidence in his performance as prime minister of fourteen months duration would he be so kind as to declare categorically that he won’t be arrogating additionally to himself all abstensions, invalid votes etc. ?
No, he cannot claim the abstentions, invalid votes etc. He has made his position about that known already.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/europe_2014/39117/_not_voting_will_only_serve_to_benefit_the_pn__muscat
You see, this time Muscat is not campaigning for abstentions, invalidation of votes, or putting the vote in a frame as he did during the campaign for the EU referendum. How very consistent of him.
So this time, all abstentions, invalid votes and votes put in a frame will, in effect, be votes against Joseph Muscat. I’m only using his logic.
There are around 30,000 votes which have not been collected. They are all votes against Joseph Muscat.
Actually it will be grand should Muscat get a strong showing at the upcoming EP elections…it will go to his head, make him more arrogant and will ensure a bigger fall come 2018.
Granted there will be collateral damage for Malta in the meantime, but such is life.
Agreed
Joseph Muscat is turning out to be very dangerous to our country as every day passes by.
I have felt and said this well before Joseph Muscat became Prime Minister. The writing was clearly on the wall. At first my fears were that he was dangerous because he did not know what he was doing, but then I became convinced that he was even more dangerous because he did.
What do you suggest ?
As a start make sure you do not vote for PL candidates in the MEP election.
Osservatore, the opposition can’t even muster enough people when Busuttil is addressing a meeting, let alone get people to the streets to protest.
The truth is that generally people are NOT feeling any economic pinch. Indeed the promised 25% reduction in utility bills, free child care, and no increase in taxation is the net sum of things, excluding the 600 additional unemployed.
Moreover, the windfall from the sale of passports may well bridge any economic downturn. This may allow for income tax reduction, increased consumer spending – and a very comfortable majority in 2018.
Come to that, neither did Muscat at Birgu.
If it was between Muscat and a half-legged mongrel, I’d still vote for the honesty of the mongrel.
What a coward!
He should have said this when Martin Schulz was sitting next to him.
This is my pick of the day among the opinions in the main newspapers today.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-05-18/opinions/the-real-issue-on-saturday-5049483264/
I find Noel Grima’s conclusions appropriate.
And I liked this line too:
“In the end, Dr Muscat was forced back to his real bedrock constituency: the many who would go miles to avoid an extra expense. ” Grima mentions the car tax refunds, reduced water and electricity bills. Add ot that free childcare.
In fact I think that Labour’s campaign can be summed up as: “Charge the vote. And everything will be free of charge.”
We are heading to a worse stuation that we were in the late 70s/early 80s no doubt about it.
The switchers are to blame for all this and the strange thing is that a lot of them are the same people who suffered most in those days.
So, essentially, it’s taken Martin Scicluna just over a year to realise what a f**king ass-hole he was/is. One down, 18,000 to go.
Joseph Muscat cannot say that the European Parliament election of Saturday is a choice between him and Simon Busuttil. And that’s because there is no electoral programme on national issues involved here.
Muscat took the risk to say so because he read in The Sunday Times that it is likely that Labour will win with a majority. So much for the undertokk.