Muscat treats his LSE audience to some of his ‘British humour’ and Maltese bad manners

Published: July 23, 2014 at 12:46am
The prime minister: massive loss of communication skills the moment he enters the civilised world.

The prime minister: massive loss of communication skills the moment he enters the civilised world.

A highlighted excerpt from his speech about the Commonwealth, delivered to a largely English audience, at an English university, in the British capital, seat of the British sovereign, at the invitation of his British hosts, in a country that has a monarchy and no written constitution:

To me, the independent and Republican ethos of my nation was never an issue to be questioned. I always considered this a natural state of affairs. We consider not being an independent nation or not having a Republican constitution as unthinkable as England winning the World Cup!

Love the exclamation mark built into the script, honey.

If Leslie Skipper wrote this one, sack him. And that’s aside from the fact that a gay Englishman can’t write the speeches for a Maltese rahli because the voice is all wrong – hence the absurd peppering of our prime minister’s speeches with words like ‘astonishingly’.

Leslie Skipper needs to remember that he is not writing any of these speeches for himself. As an Englishman, he can make jokes about England not winning the World Cup because that’s self-deprecation. But a Maltese prime minister does not go to England and make a joke about England not winning the World Cup to an English audience. That’s bad manners.

It would be bad manners even if he were the prime minister of Italy, France or Germany, but because he is the prime minister of Malta it is also terribly stupid.

Exactly where has Malta ever been in the World Cup, let alone winning it? The people in the audience obviously have better manners than he does, and did not shoot back with that retort.

Bloody idiots both, the PM and his speech-writer.




24 Comments Comment

  1. Alexander Ball says:

    But England has won the World Cup. Or is this another history re-write?

  2. H.P. Baxxter says:

    Maybe, but you should have seen the torrent of congratulatory tweets he got. He’s certainly charmed the barrani.

  3. Matthew S says:

    Did he really say that without any sense of irony, without considering the context, without thinking about Malta’s footballing history and without considering the fact that Malta’s best ever football performances took place back when the British ruled Malta?

    What an idiot.

    These are the facts:

    England won the FIFA World Cup in 1966.

    Malta recently dropped from the 132nd place to the 150th in the FIFA rankings.

  4. ciccio says:

    It is very strange that Dr. Joseph Muscat tells the British that Malta not being independent or a Republic is unthinkable to him.

    The British may not know that Dr. Muscat not only confesses to be a follower of Dom Mintoff, but has actually picked up where the Mintoff governments left off in 1987 in terms of government style and policies.

    The British would know, though, that at about the time when England last won the World Cup, Mintoff was fighting for the integration of Malta with Britain and opposing independence.

    • Min Jaf says:

      Ciccio, the ‘integration with Britain’ campaign was in 1956-58. England won the World Cup eight years later in 1966, by then Malta had attained independence in 1964 and the integration issue had long been dead.

      • H.P. Baxxter says:

        Please can we stop repeating the lie that Mintoff wanted integration with the UK? Even a total geopolitical pygmy like Mintoff knew that integration was impossible, and he did everything on purpose. He knew it would be refused, then he’d have an excuse to turn against the evil Imperialists, as per his Nasserite ideology.

  5. bob-a-job says:

    Reworded speech.

    We consider not being an independent nation or not having a Republican constitution as unthinkable as Malta having a decent Labour government.

  6. Jozef says:

    Ghamillu Lager Guz. Niccajtaw ahna.

  7. Francis Saliba MD says:

    “To me, the independent and Republican ethos of my nation was never an issue to be questioned. I always considered this a natural state of affairs.” (Joseph Muscat)

    Muscat (and Skipper) must have forgotten about Mintoff’s attempt to integrate Malta with the U.K.

  8. La Redoute says:

    If Leslie Skipper wants a Republican constitution back home, he should badger his own prime minister himself, and not get Malta’s to do that for him.

    And that’s aside from the fact that Muscat believes no such thing about independence and a written constitution.

    Like his god Mintoff, he’d rather he were an Ingliz while having the power to do as he please as prime minister of Malta.

  9. bob-a-job says:

    The comedy will be a whole deal poorer but stick a vest on him and you have the reincarnation of Onslow.

  10. Kif inhi din? says:

    Bad manners, bad teeth, bad breath, bad taste!

  11. Willie Inatinovic says:

    How the fuck can any student/scholar/lecturer at LSE take a news reader turned prime “beef” minister seriously.

    Joseph Muscat doesn’t exactly have any major educational credentials and his anglish sownds veri veri bed!

    Pakistanis and Indians speak better English.

  12. Rumplestiltskin says:

    He probably thinks that was “a British sense of humour” instead of crass rudeness.

  13. Conservative says:

    Let’s deliver a few home truths about our Prime Minister and his speech to the LSE in London.

    (a) The LSE is generally considered to be left-leaning. He was in a pretty safe environment whatever idiocy he said.

    (b) The man is ‘Mintoffian’. He follows, adulates, venerates and adores the late Prime Minister.

    (c) Mintoff stuffed a republic down our throats, with the tacit collusion of the ‘irredentisti’ in the Nationalist ranks in parliament, when the only acceptable form for change would have been a constitutional referendum (vide former Chief Justice, The Hon Prof J J Cremona’s “The Maltese Constitution p.p.). It therefore follows that it is unthinkable for a ‘Mintoffian’ to think otherwise.

    (d) It is unthinkable for a ‘Mintoffian’ red-neck who rose from political party TV news anchor to Prime Minister to have a monarch (and the British monarch at that) as head of state. It would only serve to constantly remind him of his ineptness and rank incompetence at all levels, mostly at the level of protocol, etiquette and general manner of dress and bearing.

    (e) Much better to have the high-heel wearing, midriff-baring, rotund and scruffy, as President, than Her Majesty as comparisons can only then be favourable.

    (f) The Queen would have acted as a brake on their authoritarian designs.

    (g) It is probably the worst of possible manners to insult (jokingly or otherwise) your hosts. Even worse your guests.

  14. Alexander Ball says:

    The Times said Skipper is Irish.

    http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140302/local/payment.508956

    If so, that would explain all the chip-on-the-shoulder independent Republic bollocks.

  15. J says:

    I suspect he added that joke himself because it doesn’t occur to him that the Italy-England rivalry in Malta is bizarre anywhere else.

    He went to England and insulted his hosts and the queen within fife minits of tokkink about de Comminwilt. Should I be amazed that five years in the European Parliament taught him nothing at all?

    • Cikku says:

      X’tgħallem mill-Parlament Ewropew? Mela dak mar hemm biex jitgħallem! Mar hemm biex iħaxxen bwietu u jsaħħan is-siġġu. Darba tkellem u waqaf għax skont hu ma kienx hemm interpreti tal-Malti u ma riedx ikompli. Qatt xi darba smajtuh jew rajtuh xi mkien ieħor sakemm kien MEP? Allura x’ridtuh jitgħallem. Ħmar mar u ħmar ġie lura. Il-ħażin hu li twikkejna aħna bil-ħmar ta’ wiżu.

  16. anthony says:

    “We consider not having a republican constitution as unthinkable” says Leslie Skipper.

    He should have added : “However, we do not hesitate to suspend the Republic’s Constitutional Court for years on end to suit the Malta Labour Party’s crooked and undemocratic political ends”.

  17. pluribus says:

    Dear Daphne can you please refrain from portraying the disgusting state of the prime minister’s mouth? PLEASE.

  18. Gareth says:

    This seems an unnecessarily harsh reflection on a talk that was well received, both the humour and the critical reflection, by those attending – I can only assume the author wasn’t there.

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