Parliamentary Secretary Michael Falzon says that 100,000 people have signed a hunters’ lobby petition to block a referendum on repealing the law that allows hunting in spring
Published:
June 1, 2014 at 1:59pm
That begs the question: if there are so very many of them, why don’t they simply vote in the referendum instead of trying to block it?
See also my column in The Malta Independent today.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140601/local/100-000-hunting-signatures-can-t-be-ignored-.521353
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-06-01/opinions/using-a-democratic-tool-for-undemocratic-ends-5273485315/
I knew it.
The FKNK present the ‘petition’ to one of theirs, and there he goes, treating the rest like morons.
Guess who’s stuck with a referendum.
Excellent of the PN to refuse to endorse the petition to block the referendum.
In the end, the referendum has been politicised, but that’s Labour’s deceit for you.
100,000? Ha ha ha.
I’m sure I believe it.
I think that is the number of dead birds from last week.
Simple. Because over 200,000 would vote against them.
They were harassing people to sign the petition in the queue of for the Gozo ferry, disguising the hunting aspect as protection of minority groups.
With luck, the referendum will take place before spring next year.
My thought precisely this morning when i read this. With 100,000 signatures they should have nothing to fear!
Are there any legal provisions for conflicting petitions? Does the one with the most signatures strike down the other or does it operate on a ‘first come, first served’ basis – for lack of a more elegant term.
Interesting and dangerous.
“The Labour leader set much in store in lauding Labour MEP candidate Clint Camilleri as an up-and-coming politician who “will leave his mark” in politics.
The 26-year-old Gozitan, who also addressed the political activity, received a standing ovation after a speech that even brought tears to the Gozo Minister’s eyes.
Camilleri, who worked closely with the hunting lobby, said the hunters had sent a clear message of support to the PL during the EP elections.”
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/europe_2014/39540/labour_aims_to_strengthen_hold_on_north_of_malta
“In a fiery speech, the PL candidate chided PN Leader Simon Busuttil for “consoling” in the fact that the PN has managed to win the third seat. “But the fact is that the government will from now on be competing with a weak opposition, one without a leadership and that can offer no alternative to the government. This is a movement that welcomes everyone, from every strata of society. It is a movement that makes no distinction between one person and the other, where everyone has the same opportunities,” said Mr Camilleri, to a loud round of applause.”
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-06-01/news/pm-announces-new-mcast-campus-in-gozo-5276434433/
My f”””” foot “Where everyone has the same opportunities”. In the past 15 months this has definitely not been the case and have no reasons to believe that this will change under this arrogant government.
We are spoilt for choice. It’s like living in China, North Korea, you choose.
” where everyone has the same opportunity” Dear Clint this was given to you by the nationalist party. Otherwise you would not have had the opportunity to study at the university for free and in the meantime get paid for studying.
Mr. Clint Camilleri must be living in Cuckoo Land.
The situation confirms even more that the referendum is a must.
Do these people believe that we hatched this morning? Maybe Michael Falzon can explain why Clint Camilleri, endorsed by FKNK, was not elected as an MEP? With 100,000 people all out for hunting Mr Camilleri should have had a minimum of 30,000 first-count votes.
The Labour Party is needing to bolster any doubts Clint Camilleri may be having as to the reasons he was positioned as MEP candidate in the first place.
Media spin produced, Clint Camilleri becomes the mouthpiece.
All done to ego-stroke the Gozitans.
I wonder how many personal calls Clint Camilleri made per week in the run up to the MEP elections and what was promised with each call?
This is a very small electoral base even if there’s a channel between us.
Clint Camilleri has become what Joseph Cuschieri was before he gave up his seat.
The new person to woo.
Qatlu wisq ghasafar u tajr.
Ghandhom jibdew minflokk jisparaw fuq il-plattini u min jirbah jinghata ghasfur haj.
Min jirbah jinghata kikkra – u kuccarina.
The only reason he was not elected is that before people didn’t know who Clint Camilleri was. I can assure you that next time it will be a different story!
Ticcajta, l-aktar meta s-Sindku Camilleri jdawwar wiccu meta jghaddi xi hadd li mhux fil-muvument.
In this he is doing a tit for tat.
Old wounds run deep.
How many of those who signed the petition are under 18 years of age?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-05-30/news/fknk-says-collects-record-number-of-signatures-to-block-abrogative-referendum-5253398528/
That is the $100,000 question.
One would assume that when the signatories who are between the age of 14 and 17 are eliminated, the numbers of this so called 100,000-strong petition would dwindle.
Has the Joseph Muscat new blurry line of voting in council elections at age 16 been settled yet?
If not, when is this planned to be settled?
Will it influence such petitions?
Is this part of the reason the LP wanted it introduced?
I know a few tourists signed it as well.
Isn’t this pointless? If they change the law on referenda, shouldn’t it only apply to future referenda? The process for the anti-spring hunting referendum has already started and would be governed by the old (current) law. What am I missing here?
What you are missing is that today we live in joseph-land with many voters already way down the rabbit hole, drooling over that nice ice on the bun and the night-watchman’s job in the ministry of truth. Shooting birds to one’s heart content is the cherry on the iced bun.
Meanwhile our exports tanked by 23% earlier this year. But who cares? Not even our conservative-media journalists seem to take notice. That’s because they have been mesmerised by the constant barrages of red herrings thrown every day by josephmuscat.con
But who cares, you say. Few are caring now but everyone will care once the economy grinds to a halt in spite of all of Joseph Muscat’s fancy talk and alienation.
Falzon is not only in favour of the hunting lobby but is a crass hunter himself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCcJw0jWoz4
Well the FKNk has nothing to worry about the referendum, now we have the referendum and people will vote, it doesn’t mean because they have 100.000 signatures the referendum want go. Michael falzon now people will vote for the referendum and we take it from there.
It is clear that the hunters federation took Joseph Cuschieri for a ride when they expressed their support to him.
100,000 + all those who are in favour of hunting but did not sign the petition.
Are they or are they not a minority group?
Another conundrum. If they are that many, then they are not a victimised minority, as they are claiming to be. If they are a minority, then democracy will tell them where they stand.
Let’s hope that Joseph Muscat will support them so that his true liberal and European credentials become evident even to those who do not want to see the obvious.
I cannot agree with you more, Daphne. For the life of me I cannot follow the logic in FKNK’s arguments, which is a sort of consolation by itself since if we ever do think on the same wavelength it will be very worrisome indeed.
What worries me is that Joseph Muscat will heed their request – I know it’s undemocratic but for some reason, that does not put my mind at ease.
The logic of the FKNK is to blackmail Muscat by threatening to withdraw their vote unless they get their way.
A referendum is an important tool in a democracy. There is a reason why a referendum can be called with just a few thousand petitioners.
Stopping a referendum, when the required number of petitioners have petitioned government for one, is very undemocratic.
Will somebody please ask lifelong Labour supporter and Labour Party TV hostess Moira Delia what she thinks about this most recent display of animal rights activism by the Labour government?
So are these 100,000 signatories trying to use the people’s right to seek an abrogative referendum in order to demand the abrogation of that very same right.
My head is spinning. It sounds like one of those logical conundrums, for example, asking if this sentence is true: “This sentence is false.”
Perhaps Baxxter can expound on this.
Certainly.
In graph theory, this is special case of a complete graph that is self-connected, disconnected, directed and undirected, that is to say those 100,000 are elements of an infinite set which is neither countable nor uncountable and which therefore violates the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem, thus making one’s head spin before exploding.
Or worse. We could end up like Felix Hausdorff.
Hey give us a chance to show you how many more are against spring hunting. What are you afraid of?
Of course nobody has an automatic right to kill OUR birds in ‘pregnant’ spring. They are restricting our ‘passatempi’ and not us. What a cheek!
What a country.
I’m struck by the astonishing illogicality of this claim. 100,000 signatories DO NOT make a minority. The petition is therefore null and void.