Our members of parliament want to give themselves the right to call themselves ‘Honourable’ for life
It’s bad enough that they call themselves ‘the Honourable’ while they’re actually members of parliament. ‘The Honourable’, in reference to a member of parliament, was never meant to be used like a title.
Back in the home of the Westminster model, you are The Honourable only if your father is a viscount or a baron, or you are the younger son of an earl.
If you are sitting in the House of Commons, you are not ‘The Honourable’, but the Right Honourable, and it is an honorific generally used only to address envelopes and formal documents: e.g. The Rt. Hon. David Cameron.
In all other circumstances, he’s Mr Cameron and not The Right Honourable Mr David Cameron or worse, Hon. Mr David Cameron which appears to be the preferred style in Malta.
When parliament is in session, MPs in the House of Commons refer to each other not by their names and surnames, but as ‘the honourable member for Lowestoft’ or ‘the honourable member for Bridlington’. This is because each constituency has just the one representative.
Our system sends several representatives to parliament for a single district, and those districts are not single-locality-delineated. This means we don’t have an ‘honourable member for Birgu’ or an ‘honourable member for Sliema’, and so our MPs refer to each other and are referred to by the Speaker as L-Onorevoli James Zammit in substitute of ‘the honourable member for’. This means it has evolved into a style which they wear outside parliament, treating it in exactly the same way as the title given to the sons of earls.
Now they want to be styled this way for the rest of their lives: five years in parliament and 40 years calling themselves The Honourable.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140610/local/former-mps-want-to-retain-honourable-title.522767
Wankers to a man.
If any former PN MP approves this piece of nonsense I’m withdrawing my support.
Hear hear
Me too.
I’ve had enough crap thrown at me from the political party I support; this will definitely be the limit.
If they want to isolate themselves into some special group then they can do so and enjoy their solitude.
Isn’t it already bad enough that they receive a FULL pension for life not like us mere mortals.
Isn’t it already bad enough that a PN MP once said that the higher MP’s pensions will be phased out gradually and all pensions will become the same then nothing was done about it.
If the PN wants to stay in Opposition longer than necessary it can vote in favour of this and watch the numbers dwindle further.
Honourable, really, and this after spending one or several terms in Parliament calling each other corrupt.
Iddahquniex!
My dears, I suggest we all brace ourselves. Because the PN are, after all, mostly lawyers.
Members of that vile profession delight in nonsense and Italianate title-spraying.
I fully expect Simon Busuttil to endorse this giant monument to Maltese stupidity, our very own Shard of Nonsense.
Alas, and so the darkness spreads. I think I shall need medical marijuana more than ever.
Yes, and everybody has to bow down to them, because they are so full of themselves.
When considering that many a time anything they touch they manage to ruin!
The more time passes the more I am becoming repelled to politics, what a bunch of egoistic, egomaniacs. What a farce.
There again Malta is nothing short than its next door neighbour Italy who even the street sweeper has probably got a title.
If they want to be credible, they should remove their privileges and introduce an anti corruption law that really works independently, irrespective if they are a current or a former member of parliament.
Franco, honourable? Never.
When Bokassa appointed himself The Emperor of Central Africa many thought he was insane and compared him to another eccentric and mad dictator of nearby Uganda Idi Amin.
Are our politicians thinking they are more equal than others as well?
They are already benefiting from a priveleged pension and could well be argueing for tax exemption next.
My arse is more honourable than most of them.
This is where “The Right Honourable” comes from.
I love the fact that they ‘administer’ the oath.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privy_Council_of_the_United_Kingdom
We have a tendency to call medical professionals as Profs (sic) so I am not surprised by MPs in Malta to want the title of Honourable for life.
At one time any Maltese, who was a visiting professor in a foreign country, expected to be called Profs even though the person involved never had a university chair. This bad habit was immediately resolved by the Medical Council by prohibiting such “behaviour”.
You are right, of course, to insert (sic). One former Maltese university professor of mine used to be quite enraged each time he was called “Profs” by a student.
In this case the Maltese language has an advantage over the English language, because in Maltese there are 2 translations for the word ‘honourable’ namely ‘onorevoli’ and ‘onorabbli’.
In Maltese, regarding the members of Parliament, thankfully they use ‘onorevoli’ which makes it a bit easier to take.
To say they are ‘onorabbli’ would be going a bit far in a lot of cases.
Maybe they should be addressed as “Previously Honourable”;
As soon as one former speaker finished his term, I know it for a fact that he suggested he should be addressed as “Speaker Emeritus”. His attempt has been, so far, unsuccessful.
What was that, “deviously honourable” ?
Shameless
Two points to make.
1. Wanting a title like this serves to uncover deep-seated low self-esteem because one needs to be constantly reminded he or she is OK and thus is easily done by having a special title that is constantly reminding you how special you are.
2. The PL and PN seem to be judged by different rules. One expects the PL to make constant poor judgements and life goes on perhaps after a bit of grumbling. If the PN on the other hand make one poor move or decision or statement, a proportion of their supporters say they will ditch them and go where?
To the party that is consistently making poor judgement calls – or to Alternattiva!
I cannot fully work out why this discrepancy in tolerance to poor or incompetent judgement or how it can be turned around.
It is nice that someone had the patience to explain it all to them. I would have added: kindly, grow up!
This must surely be the brainchild of The Right Dishonourable FB.
A Sicilian melodrama…
I hope that the PN won’t approve this absurdity with the excuse of wanting to be ‘positive’.
Jahasra, …. the tal-wara l-muntanji lot….
Such things to distract.. such things they have time for.
I want that Henley Contract published. Could we give it some more focus?
It should be taken right up to the European Court of Human Rights.
Why do we always ignore the strong points?
Where is the request by the NP to the European Commissioner of Fair Competition?
Please do not let up the heat on this one.
I am afraid that this attitude towards “honours” shows what is basically wrong with many persons who seek posts of public responsibility in Malta. Instead of doing this to add honour and respect to the office they occupy, they use the office to add honorific titles and respect to themselves.
Evarist, I fully concur.
They should be deemed ‘honourable’ well before entering Parliament. It should be the benchmark by which our representatives are chosen for the highest post.
They should be carrying that honour over to Parliament elevating its esteem, respect and prestige.
Instead many Members are elected for all the wrong reasons and because of this our Parliament is being reduced to a hellhole where lies are rife, where little governance is being carried out, where favours are distributed among friends, where Members have no respect for each other and spend their five year term calling each other corrupt.
I didn’t vote for change because I never did believe it would take place but those who genuinely did vote for change because they wanted a better Malta should be clamouring against this farce and they should be doing it quite vociferously.
Hmerijiet fi zmien partit fi gvern li kien gab ir-Repubblika. B’hekk se jinholoq forma ta’ klassi tan-nobbli gdida. Mhux bizzejjed li ghadna qas fimna s-sinifikat u r-rwol ezatt tal-President…
Onorevoli as in onorevoli colleghi, that no-one bring the house into disrepute.
There is no such thing as onorevoli for life. It smacks of a caste system.
Truly the opposite of what honourable is.
Isn’t an uncapped pension enough for these former honourable gentlemen? Parliament should be downsized by half. We have more than enough MPs, councillors and mayors, all purportedly working for the people of this speck of a country.
Since it’s obviously becoming fashionable to use as many titles as possible, I think I should consider styling myself “Commendatore” from now on, given that I have a right to it.
And, pray, would the right to call oneself ‘The Honourable’ until death be bestowed only on current and future MPs or will it be retroactive to include previous Members who are still alive?
Is this a Socialist party running the country? What a way to alienate the people from the really serious issues that the country is facing.
O notice that FCN have a substantial budget to spend. Their ads are popping up everywhere.
And then the politicians want us to believe them when they say, “We are not in politics for our own good, but only to serve the people”.
Every time I hear these words I couldn’t stop laughing because I don’t believe in everything I hear. Sometimes they say that they are missionaries and I laugh even more since the missionaries I know don’t get paid, they go to some third world country far away from their families, risking their lives and a lot more.
Politicians=bunch of parasites.
I am sure that the bestowing of the title Honourable to our ex MPs will bring with it many perks and privileges. These people never have enough.
What an honorable farce, what about removing the title even for serving MP’s considering that this is an Anglo Saxon practice.
[Daphne – The point is that it is NOT an Anglo-Saxon practice at all, but a misinterpretation of one. Read my post again. In Britain, The Hon. Mary/John Wood is the style used for the sons and daughters of viscounts and barons and the younger sons of earls, not members of parliament.]
A few years ago, Lino Spiteri led the charge on this issue. He wrote in The Sunday Times about it and admitted that he was one of the original group of former members of parliament who suggested this idea. You see, Lino Spiteri is a bit obsessed with the word honourable. He even wrote a book titled Honourable People: Stories of Maltese Politics.
Now, after failing to get the title Mr President, a title he clearly craved (after the March election, he spent months bending over backwards in order to justify every dastardly act that Labour did only to publicly disagree with the choice of president when it happened), he is now clutching at straws and hoping he can get a lesser title.
And it’s so typical of a dinosaur like Spiteri (and others of his ilk) to belive in something so spectacularly undemocratic.
First things first, members of parliament should always be honourable. That’s a given. They’re gentlemen and gentlewomen who represent their people and their country. Honour should be second nature to each one of them. They don’t need a title for that.
Secondly, honour, like gentleness, kindness, gentlemanliness and thoughtfulness, work best in silence. When your better half tells you that what you did was wonderful, you don’t go around calling yourself Mr Wonderful. You act as if what you did required minimum effort, regardless of the hours or days you spent doing it. Because you’re cool, like that. Glowing inside is more than enough. You should never be a moron about it or consider a good deed you did as the first step towards sainthood.
Thirdly, and most importantly, it is not, say, Claudette Buttigieg or Leo Brincat personally who are being called honourable (that they should always be honourable is understood) but the people who put them there. It is we, the sovereign people of Malta who chose our representatives freely who are honourable.
As so often happens in Malta, people fail to make the distinction between Leo Brincat as an individual (a man over 60 who likes tweeting about the music he’s listening to) and Leo Brincat as a representative of the ninth district which elected him. It is impossible for all the people of the ninth district to sit in parliament and debate matters day in, day out so they elect a representative.
In order for Leo Brincat not to forget the people he represents, and in order for others not to forget that when they address Leo Brincat, they are effectively addressing the people of the ninth district, the people are referred to as honourable. It is NOT a title for an individual. It is an adjective which conveys the soverignty and importance of the electors. When Franco Debono and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando got up to all that dishonourable malarkey two years ago, the electors still remained honourable. It is Debono and Pullicino Orlando on a personal level who lost their dignity and honour.
I hope that all the right thinking and democratically minded people in parliament will shoot down this proposal. It’s bad enough when the average Joe fails to make the distinction between the individual and the representative of the people. When members of parliament, most of whom are lawyers, do likewise, it’s downright depressing.
This link is for a 2010 post Daphne had written about this topic, and the link below shows you the cover of Lino Spiteri’s book.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2010/07/aw-hi-onorevoli/
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41uDFDA%2BuwL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
Lino Spiteri is a lousy writer. A LOUSY writer. And yet he endures.
[Daphne – That’s because people don’t know he’s a lousy writer, H. P. How can you tell whether somebody’s a lousy writer or not, if you never read anything other than the Maltese newspapers, bank statements, cereal packets and Facebook?]
I’ve never been one for PC, so I ask: might it be that no one has the courage to criticise him because of his handicap? It’s been known to happen.
Oh and we even had passages from Lino Spiteri for O Level.
I mean it’s no wonder everyone hates Maltese. I mean what in the arse is he? A politician? An economist? A columnist? Or is he a writer?
These are the people whose drivel fills the bookshelves of so-called Maltese ‘literature’.
When you have shite peddled as gold, it breeds free radical drivel, like that ‘Zminijietna’ publication. There’s no standards anywere. Why, only last month I visited an exhibition of ‘ceramic art’. Was there ever such a misnomer. Art? It’s bloody pottery. But it was funded by the government, if you please. And all the critics loved it. Wirt kulturali, my dears! Talent Malti! Imsajjar mix-xemx hanina, mahdum minn idejn hawtiela!