So, is Konrad Mizzi going to keep his word about resigning, then?
Published:
October 10, 2014 at 12:32pm
Not so much a ship of fools as a ship of pimps, thieves and scoundrels.
What, no big press event with plenty of EU and national flags and a whacking great podium, and both PM and Energy Minister present?
No, that’s just for important issues like announcing a temporary 2c slash in the price of petrol.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141010/local/pm-confirms-gas-power-station-will-not-be-running-in-march.539178
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130112/news/If-energy-plan-fails-I-go-says-Muscat.452868
I honestly believe that this is going to be Muscat’s next step: force Konrad Mizzi to resign for not keeping to the time-frame promised before the election for the new power plant. Let Mizzi take the bullet.
I have a hunch that Muscat made a promise to another backbencher and he needs Mizzi out of the way.
Muscat will resign as he said he would do. But his resignation will be rejected by the PL parliamentary group and than business as usual.
Alfred Sant resigned in 2003 but they begged him to stay on.
I doubt it. It is not in Muscat’s nature to admit that he was wrong on anything, a trait he shares with many switchers.
Before the elections Muscat said he would take personal responsibility for the project so he can hardly shift the blame on Konrad Mizzi now. Incidentally, he would be tacitly admitting that Tonio Fenech and the PN were right about the time-frames and he’ll never do that.
What I think Muscat will do is to brazenly lie his way out of the mess. He might say something to the effect that the two-year period was only a rough estimate and not a firm commitment. Or that it is only a trivial detail of his grand plan.
Whatever justification he puts forward, most of his voters will accept it because they cannot bear to think that they were so absurdly wrong in their choice of Prime Minister.
I agree with your line of thought. However, from the way Muscat acted in the past (his health minister, the kicking up stairs of Ms. Coleiro Preca…), I think he is trying to get rid of Konrad Mizzi in a ‘polite’ manner.
Muscat will never admit his own mistakes, but is always ready to admit other people’s. The next one in line, after Konrad Mizzi, is that good-for-nothing Joe Mizzi. Muscat will blame him for some delay or another somewhere.
Remember he’s got a lot of backbenchers who are at his throat for not being made ministers and although this is hidden from the public view, it is happening all the same. Why on earth would he take the Ministru tas-Sawt Fallut along with him to the UN meeting in New York?
Muscat is a master of deceit. People tend to forget this; he is deceitful.
Rizenja ohra?!
or maybe tis way:
>>
Due to the importance that the positively-charged and energetic PL government endows on the Maltese people’s health and health-care assets, Minister Mizzi shall be taking full charge of the health care system as Minister of Health while the energy sector shall be ably taken care of by Prime Minister Dr. Muscat himself, considering the importance that energy issues have for the Maltese economy.
<<
Problem solved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63ZUCc58FmA&feature=player_detailpage#t=290
That the gas power station will not be ready by March is not news for us. The Prime Minister should have told us the implication for not finishing the project as promised. Is he going to stand by his declaration that if the power station will not be ready within two years he will resign?
Muscat is not in the habit of telling you what you should or need to know.
Actually it was Muscat himself that took full responsibility for the project and declared he would resign. Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCxCYL3GtB4
Exactly. Muscat said himself before the general election that he would resign. But someone needs to find the whole video and check the exact words as the attached video is just snippets.
Why not you?
Uffa. Kulhadd ifarfar.
Hawn, ha.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq1JLtHflOM
In the video link provided by Ciccio, at 1.20.30 Muscat assumes responsility for the whole project and, a few minutes later, says he will resign if it is not carried out. He was not referring to the reduction in tariffs but the building of a gas power plant.
Guess why Muscat has a problem with elections in March, Antoine.
We should know the drill by now, ‘positive and pumped up’ issues get the full song and dance, failures and ‘negative’ news gets swept under the carpet. Sometimes however they are really clever and when things go wrong they manage to blame the previous admin or in the true childish fashion insist that the previous admin did worse. Don’t you just love democracy?
Both the PM and Minister Mizzi promised to resign if the power plant is not up and running by March 2015. So, now we wait for them to show us that they can at least be trusted to keep their word.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wq1JLtHflOM#t=2088
I think the journalists should have asked the Prime Minister to explain clearly and SINCERELY the real reasons we need this new power station if he is able to implement his price reductions without it.
Joseph Muscat linked the reduction of electricity tariffs with the construction of the new power station and its lower electricity production costs.
Now that the new power station is delayed how will the tariff reductions be financed?
Will the tariff reduction for shops, hotels, offices and other businesses be financed by us the taxpayers? Is this fair? Why should I finance reduced electricity cost for a business with millions in profit?
”Hunt calls for Chinese medicine on the NHS: Health Secretary tells MPs there should be no limit on remedies even though benefits have not been proven
Tory MP said there should be no ideological bar to alternative treatments
Critics have said it encourages poaching of animals including rhinos
Mr Hunt, whose wife Lucia is Chinese, looked into how remedies could be integrated with Western medicine”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2594759/Hunt-calls-Chinese-medicine-NHS-Health-Secretary-tells-MPs-no-limit-remedies-benefits-not-proven.html#ixzz3Fk3LngWv
[Daphne – I love how “a Chinese wife” is a qualification in Chinese medicine.]
”Mr Hunt said his frequent travels to China — his wife’s home country — had taught him that it is important to “follow the scientific evidence” concerning Chinese medicine.
He said that taxpayers’ money should never be spent on the traditional techniques if there was not “good evidence” that they would be beneficial.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/nhs/10738330/Chinese-medicine-could-become-available-on-the-NHS.html
But Maltese tax payers’ money, erm…
His real name is Isaac.
Eh miskin Joseph Muscat. Don’t be too harsh on him Daphne. It’s not their fault you know.. It can’t be. It never is.
It must be someone else’s fault. It always is…
Probably it is the PN’s fault.
Dawk in-nies ta’ Marsaxlokk tassew nithassarhom. Joseph Muscat ser ihallihom ikomplu imutu bil-cancer minhabba l-power station kollu nugrufun ta’ GonziPN.
Muscat knows only too well that the Maltese are unprincipled so he won’t be losing too much sleep over broken promises deemed to have no negative direct affect on the population.
His slide from grace will hasten as his unprincipled promises made to unprincipled individuals and special-interest groups continue to be broken.
That look on his face – the ‘what are you talking about, I don’t know what you are saying’ look. We’ve seen it on a few occasions when Muscat is uneasy.
The “pulcinell” look?
The charlatan snigger?
————–
Also, someone’s worked on their hand movements for camera:
Anglu Farrugia and Joseph Muscat both.
Trained for deception.
It’s autumn, but still warm. I’m still wearing my straw boater, but soon I expect to change to a trilby.
Muscat is now sowing uncertainty in the economy and the country.
Will the project take place? Will it be ready on time? When will it be ready? How sustainable are those electricity tariffs which he says he has reduced and which he plans to reduce further for business? What effect will this have on the government?
Can business plan on the basis of reduced tariffs which cannot be guaranteed because the structural and infrastructural changes at Enemalta are not on track?
Will business invest in projects where the real cost of electricity cannot be planned with some certainty, because the government has failed to put the infrastructure in place?
Did Labour have an energy plan, or did it just make up one?
Will the Prime Minister resign if the project is not completed by March 2015 as he had promised publicly during the electoral campaign?
And what will his Energy Minister do? Is he going to shoulder political responsibility for misleading the public?
If the PM believes that the project cannot be ready by March 2015, he must see that the Minister of Energy is immediately dismissed for repeatedly lying to the country by saying that the project was “on track.” Perhaps Muscat & Co should avoid using English phrases whose meaning they seem not to understand fully.
There has been uncertainty since Muscat opened up a can of worms by hawking passports to people from Third World and totalitarian states who made their money by, in the standards of the West, corrupt and illegitimate means, and who would import their ways of working to Malta, bribing our political class.
Serious investors fought shy of this situation, resulting in a loss of Eur300 million in FDI last year alone. We still have to see what the figure would be for 2014 compared to 2012 and not to 2013.
If foreign direct investment for 2014 remains at the same level as 2013, that would still be a loss of another 300 million euros.
If this continues for Muscat’s full 5-year term, that would be 1.5 billion euros loss in FDI which would be 50% more than the touted net income from the pimping of our passport and citizenship: a net loss of half billion euros.
Joseph Muscat cannot see further than his nose. He doesn’t even appear to understand the first-line consequences, let alone three steps down the line.
Our future is at stake and it does not look good. Not at all.
The Muscat Labour energy plan was and is BWSC Plant and the EU Interconnector. The “new” plant was just a devious invention to make us think that it was different from the PN’s energy plan.
Of course he will reduce bills for industry in March but this is due to the actual savings the BWSC Plant and the future savings from the Interconnector and a massive increase in the national debt. Living beyond our means at the cost of our children’s future.
Remember always that Muscat is a car salesman and nothing else. Its all about flash imagery, backdrops and lies.
I thought Muscat said he was going to resign if it wasn’t up and running by March, didn’t he?
It would appear that the Labour Party has lost all sense of shame and is dragging the whole nation behind it through the mud.
Where else in this whole wide world would a nation be afflicted with a prime minister who humiliates himself and those who voted for him by stooping to the role of a door to door travelling salesman peddling passports on behalf of a commercial entity in whose hands he had relinquished that sale and in the process risking the suspicion that he is receiving a commission in recompense for his humiliation.
I cannot even think of the owner of a any large commercial enterprise doing that menial work himself instead of hiring employees to do it for him.
They are copying the PN and refining their arrogance.
Even if what you say is true, then Joseph Muscat must be the worst prime minister we ever had.
But Muscat is neither copying the PN nor refining their arrogance. What he is doing is actually redefining the meaning of democracy, political accountability, economic policy and the meaning of the words:
>truth
>promise
>Taghna Lkoll
>environment
>cronyism
>criminality
>white powder
Muscat is neither copying the PN nor refining their arrogance. He is continuing where Mintoff left off. They don’t know any better. They only changed their suits and covered everything with a modern PR umbrella.
Joey is aping his idol Mintoff who perfected the art of knocking on Communist and dictators’ doors begging for alms.
Pimps, thieves and scoundrels.
So what? he will say. Projects are prone to fall behind schedule, as evidenced by the Piano Project for example, launched by the previous Administration.
Not only that, but as minister Mizzi said, that project went 10 million euro over and were it not for this government’s intervention it would have gone to 25m.
This is what we get from Labour and its apologists – the ‘tu quoque’ attitude. I have a hunch JM will find some excuse to evade keeping his word to the electorate.
He’ll just do what Alfred Sant in 1996 and say that he found a situation that was far worse than he ever imagined and so other matters needed to be prioritised…always pass the buck, that’s our PM’s signature reaction..
Let’s all stop this wishful thinking – nobody is going to resign – we should all point a finger at ourselves for voting this idiot in office and cry our eyes out thinking of what we had and lost.
It’s too late now. This man has the formula to remain in power AGAINST THE EXPRESS WISH OF THE MAJORITY (again) by devious means. You wait and see.
If you had voted for this crook and his cronies than you are too blsme for it.
Same expression when you ask a kid if he broke the window in the yard.
Pathetic Prime Minister
Shame on you Minister Konrad Mizzi. Your own words have come to haunt you.
Just read this and come to your own conclusions:
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/elections2013/23921/a-man-with-a-plan-konrad-mizzi-20130114
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-10-10/world-news/Angelina-Jolie-leaves-Gozo-for-quick-visit-to-London-to-be-honoured-by-Queen-Elizabeth-6736123448
Per la serie ‘la classe non e’ acqua’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-8Kf3gNxwQ
It can be only one of two; either tariffs reduced below cost, ergo state subsidy to industry, which he can’t, or he intends to make full use of the interconnector, as envisaged by the previous administration, which confirms the snide nature of the con.
He just has to look away to remain calm, otherwise cornered.
What was it Martin Scicluna was on about? Duh.
The bigger issue is how is government going to fund the promised reductions. Commercial and Industrial users consume almost twice as much as domestic users. Has anyone calculated the cost to Malta’s coffers?
Yes, and not much by a streak of good luck, and if at all. The price of oil has crashed by 30% since Joseph made that incredible promise.
So, since the cost of producing electricity is proportional to the cost of fuel (all other expenses are minimal to the final cost), this government can ACTUALLY reduce the electricity tariff by 25%.
But this also renders Muscat’s LNG-powered power station irrelevant, due to the current energy economics which have made oil-generated electrical power much cheaper than LNG powered.
So Joseph’s good luck is also Joseph’s bad luck.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141010/local/update-2-hoods-for-ebola-unit-start-arriving-at-mater-dei.539165
Are Chris Fearne and Conrad Mizzi still relying on il- Madonna ta’ Pinu and Santa Barbara to save us from an outbreak of Ebola inported from abroad?
Now we know why the poor guy with malaria was not allowed in to Malta.
The clowns who run this country did not have and still do not have the basic setup to deal with potential Ebola patients.
Chris Fearne should go back to looking after sick children and fast.
This is the message that the MUMN conveyed to him today.
If he is blinded and unable to see it the way it is, we are all in serious trouble.
Someone should write about what that fuel price fixing charade is costing us.
The nerve of the TVM news headline tonight. Joseph Muscat will keep his pre-electoral promise of reducing water and electricity costs for businesses. Then they proceeded to gloss over the rest.
This June JM had said that the reduction for busnisses and industry would have to wait beyond March 2015. Now he has reversed that, proving beyond any doubt that his power station will never materialise because LNG has become uneconomical due to the crash in oil prices.
Keeping Delimara running on cheaper HFO, cheaper by 25% down to $90 from $120 is Joseph’s face saver. The oil price crash makes the 15% reduction to commercial and industrial entities economically feasible.
In fact, Joseph Muscat would be robbing the industrialists 10% over the actual price of energy since the price of oil crashed by 25% and they will only get a 15% reduction.
And as a lucky by-product, our medical students get a steady supply of patients from the ‘cancer factory’ to practice on. Win-win.
There has been a dramatic crash in the price of oil. The Brent crude crashed from $120 to $90 a barrel, which is a net reduction of 25% which is exactly, by luck, Joseph Muscat’s luck that is, the same %age he promised that he would make.
Only he went wrong in all his calculations since now the price of oil is cheaper than the price of LNG (in calorific value terms) and with more advanced US oil extraction technology the price of oil will steadily reach a stable lower price making LNG uneconomical to operate.
Add to this the fact that the Chinese owners of the oil-powered BWSC plant would want to sell all their production to Enemalta (that is, us) while the interconnector would be utilised as the base load due to its consistency.
The interconnector’s 220 MWatts and the BWSC plant’s 200 MWatts would suffice for Malta’s current maximum load so actually the Joseph Muscat power station is irrelevant.
The EU would want their funded interconnector utilised to its fullest capacity, the Chinese their own BWSC plant and the LNG contractor trying to get whatever juice is left to squeeze out of our pockets by pressing Joseph to keep his promise and sell all their power to the Maltese morons who believed in him and all the rest who didn’t.
Joseph Muscat had rushed in where knowledgeable people fear to tread, and now he is suffering the consequences. Or to be more exact, we are suffering the consequences.
http://zadandunia.blogspot.com/2013/07/is-it-newest-oil-drilling-technology.html
It could be that Joseph Muscat was himself scammed into believing that a power station could be built in 24 months and that the price of oil would keep going up.
He was not watching the oil industry developments.
I was, and I do still follow the global energy business and that the price of oil would go down has been on the counter for many a year ever since the USA developed cheap methods of extracting ‘tight oil’ and gas. But gas is difficult to transport while oil is readily transportable, besides being cheaper.
So the real problem that Joseph Muscat has is due to energy economics, and his errant energy advisors. He should hang them high, and then himself.
If Joseph Muscat already knows that there won’t be an operational LNG power station by end of March 2015, he should be man enough,keep his word and resign immediately.
Is Glen Bedingfield back to being Muscat’s bridesmaid or is he on loan by the foreign affairs ministry as a body double?
Is Joseph Muscat and his Government going to penalize the contractors of the gas power station for missing the completion date , like they did to the contractors of the Piano project?
Before 2008 elections, Dr Gonzi promised to reduce income tax rates during the first year of legislation. He didn’t keep his promise, not even during the 2nd or 3rd or 4th year. Did someone ask for his resignation??
From MaltaToday some weeks pre election:
Will Mizzi take personal responsibility by resigning, if Labour gets elected but fails to deliver its promise to reduce the bills?
Mizzi does not even consider this eventuality. “There will be no need to resign from parliament,” he replies candidly. “Because we will make it happen… It is based on proven models and there is significant interest to make it happen.”
So, according to an article in MaltaToday the sale of BWSC and an uncertain portion of Enemala to China will be finalised over the coming weeks (no prizes for guessing where the reductions are coming from).
Rather naively I’m going to say that I hope Muscat realises that without the interconnector or the new power station that puts our power needs 100% into Chinese arms. If the supply from BWSC goes (or is threatened to be pulled) the remaining generators cannot feasibly cope.
Incidentally isn’t it curious how a government that said it would not meddle with the Airmalt restructuring managed to drift off course to the tune of €16m. I sense a bailout there too.