The deal WAS in the bag before the election – thing went wrong afterwards
Published:
November 15, 2014 at 10:18pm
42 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Featured Posts
-
Paltry €50,000 fine for illegal Siggiewi zoo lifted in exchange for state school visits...more
-
Owner of illegal Siggiewi zoo parties with Environment Minister one day before Planning Authority sanctions it...more
-
World Economic Forum index/Malta: public trust in politicians plummets 17 places in one year...more
-
When freeloading Clyde Puli spent 16 days at the Olympic Games in China and made us pay for it...more
-
The leader of the Nationalist Party and Miss Rebecca Dimech...more
-
Well, the Kap tal-Kattolici u l-Latini certainly has a roving eye...more
Daphne, the Chinese cannot and will not manage to purchase the BWSC plant on their condition that Enemalta must purchase all the power produced by the BWSC machines.
The reason for this is technology and technology trumps stupid politicians be they Maltese or Chinese.
The BWSC plant was specifically chosen to take the variable part of the demand while the interconnector takes what is known as the base load. The BWSC machines come in and out of production according to demand, so these can never operate at their maximum load ALL THE TIME.
Then there’s the Electrogas one, whose owners are also demanding that Enemalta purchases ALL THE POWER PRODUCED. Muscat is in a fix. Enemalta cannot purchase all the power produced by these two while purchasing the whole 200 MW from mainland Europe.
This would make our tariff go through the roof. Maybe that young maltataghnalkoller rooky engineer that he employed at Delimara in place of those highly mature, capable and experienced engineering managers who were immediately booted out after March’03, will find him a solution to this self-imposed painted-into-a-corner type of problem. A Gordian knot of Muscatian proportions.
If Muscat had made his promise to the Chinese prior to the election, then one would conclude that the Chinese would now feel that they have been conned. Their only consolation would be that they are not the only ones to be conned by Muscat.
Must have a billion negative down to earth repercussions on the sale of Maltese passports to the gigantic Chinese market.
Another tell-tale characteristic of Maltese Labour is the recurrent antagonism between its leadership and its ‘numbers guys’.
We all know what happened between Alfred (EU Friza) and the late Lino Spiteri when the former committed the party to removing VAT.
Now we have Edward Scicluna in the hot seat, having to buy time by giving ambiguous and hopeful explanations for what Labour is doing with regards to the reductions in energy tariffs. Next issue to hit the fan will be the exploding public debt.
It will be interesting to analyse his delivery of the budget speech tomorrow. For those who want to compare and contrast, the link to last year’s budget speech is here:
https://mfin.gov.mt/en/The-Budget/Pages/The-Budget-2014.aspx)
Scicluna will only go along with the big lie to a certain extent. Sooner or later his conscience and self-respect will prevent him from selling himself off.
Self-preservation is indeed a virtue.
The tide is turning.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-11-15/local-news/Pulse-president-considering-resigning-after-defeat-at-the-polls-and-massive-SDM-victory-6736125765
Project firmly on track!
Watch from 7:20 up to 8:55
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTTrOq4crgI
Watch from 4:15 up to 4:42
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyd4sHxKyq0
The cherry on the cake last week was having TVAM pull a North Korean stunt and say that the traffic situation is “fine” and that “there isn’t any problem for the drivers” when drivers were swearing their heads off and arriving late to work.
Are we getting to a point where the handshake of the friendly super power is turning into twisting the arm behind the short sighted small nation’s back ? Why all the delay ?
I doubt there was ever a deal.
There might have been a plan of some sort, but thanks to their piss ups in a brewery pedigree, they will screw up even the simplest of plans.
Sometimes it takes a really, really, really stupid person not to get something simple done.
How do you know a person is a really, really, really… well, first of all they insist on calling themselves “doctor” when all they’ve got is a PhD in how to wipe your ass if the wind is blowing in the opposite direction.
Secondly, they are kind of loud and annoying, like Frankie Debono. I heard him talk bullshit in front of a judge once in court. Twisted logic. I felt sorry for the judge listening to him. He actually thought he was making sense, but all he was doing was impressing his clients with his dramatic nonsense.
Thirdly, and Maltese has the perfect saying, jaraw lil kulhadd dubbien. This in a way is fuelled by their positioning themselves amongst people who share the same IQ or lower.
And fourthly, though not necessarily the least of these, they are criminals. Yes, criminals. If you or I do something like what they do, lie under oath, impart false information, break the law, drain the nation’s coffers; abuse a position of power, then we are criminals, felons – as the Americans call it. But if they do it? Well, that is politics.
I pray that there will be a day, call it judgement day, when all these liars, cheats, thieves, criminals, bullies, cowboys, idiots, amateurs, losers, psychopaths will face the truth, justice, and to a lesser extent revenge.
One final point: I hate to think that my taxes are paying for the false promises that Muscat made prior to the elections. I cannot help feeling that the reduction in domestic utilities bills is not the result of a more efficient power station but thanks to the taxes that we are paying.
If this is not the case, then it means that there is no need for a new power station to fund the reduction in electricity tariffs. Right? I mean, here we are, nothing has changed with regards to the production of electricity since the previous administration, yet Grande Joe has managed to reduce the bills by “25%”. LMFAO Guz – b’min trid tittnejjek?
How? As if by magic, St. Joseph of Beau Mourad has funded this reduction in cost through his own pocket. He threw everything at it: his allowance for his car, his salary, his honoraria and all the other money he is getting from everywhere. Sorry, Borat.
Only a stupid government, led by super-stupid people, would be so irresponsible as to use taxpayers’ money to find a popular reduction of utility bills to households. And soon, businesses too.
That money should be used to help the unemployed back to work, to ensure a smooth running of health services, to support an underfunded police force, to improve governance, to make Malta more competitive.
This place could be heaven on earth. but it is a lawless, free-for-all jungle with a morally bankrupt government that has achieved little or nothing of what they promised so far.
Surely, those who voted Labour out of genuine concern for Malta now understand that this is a major problem.
Not that the alternative is a great one, so maybe it’s time for a revolution.
Ah, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Eżempju ċar fejn Muscat xtara l-hut fil-baħar.
‘It will be the most transparent government of all time’ Joseph Muscat said in his many speeches before the 2013 election.
Yeah right. His government is so transparent that it has even built an invisible power station.
The insurmountable problem is apparently that the Chinese are insisting that the Maltese government ties up Malta into a commitment to buy a supply of electricity in amounts that Malta may not need at a price dictated by the Chinese even when cheaper electricity would be available on the world market.
Hopefully Joe learned his lesson from the petrol hedging fiasco.
Yes. And Mr. Gatt had the foresight of sending the Italians back home when they tried dictating the price of a direct fuel line to Malta. It seems people just started reading the news because Labour is in government. There are a lot of things which Gonzi saved Malta from but nobody bothered reading and evaluating them at the time: Arriva was far more interesting.
If worse comes to worst, we should all set up our own generator and leave Joseph to decide what to do with all the electricity the Chinese can supply.
In business there are no such things as friends.
The Chinese want to screw Malta for every penny they can get out of it.
They seem to be doing rather well already. They will have a stranglehold on the government for a long time to come.
And they already have a nice gift worth several million practically given to them: land to build a huge embassy/spy centre.
If the Labour Party had done its homework it would have known that this is China’s modus operandi everywhere. In Africa they have created a lot of resentment for this reason.
Our government is selling Malta for short term political gain but the Maltese are being shafted and some are applauding it. A tragedy in the making.
The Chinese want to build a major secluded industrial complex on Maltese soil.
A classic example of gross mismanagement. The right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.
A classic example of financial recklessness. If Enemalta is financially bankrupt, which it is. Then how can the corporation afford to reduce the cost of utiluties without first reducing the production costs of the same utilities?
No rocket science involved here – government must finance the estimated additional €77 million yearly until the Delimara project is complete and up and running. How? Increase national debt and/or increase indirect taxation. Again one does not need to have a doctorate in financial planning.
A question comes to mind. How is the local consortium going to finance the building of the power station, when:
1. It cannot even raise the €30 million meant to be paid on contract – installments needed!
2. Finance the construction of the state of the art of a new power station – circa €150 million plus!
3. One of the major partners of the consortium is bankrupt!
The mind boggles, when all this process has been planned since 2010 over a coffee in a London café.
One last question comes to mind. The price of oil is on a downward trend, estimated to stabilise at around the $70 a barrel. Would it be more feasible to build another efficient oil fired plant tipo the infamous BWSC plant and using electricity supplied by the interconnector cable, to phase out both the Marsa and Delimara power station too?
I wonder?
Could the answer to question 2 be ” borrow the money from a (friendly) Maltese bank”, whose name I need not mention?
Muscat tnejjek bil-Maltin, pero mhux daqshekk facli ghalih fin-negozju w ppjanar.
Tal-Labour ma ghandhomx kultura f’dan il-kamp.
Muscat anqas esperjenza ma ghandu u wisq aktar dawk it-tfal ta madwaru bhal Mizzi.
Fil-kamp ta l’energija Malta qed tissogra thallas prezz gholi ghal dan in-nuqqas serju.
Il-politika ta Minhexamexa tista tahdem f’Malta ghal xi zmien. Ma tahdimx mkien iehor.
Lanqas Malta m’ghadha tahdem, mhux f’dinja fejn kulhadd mohhu f’haddiehor.
In the main article about Xi Jinping “Emperor of China” in last week’s issue of Time magazine, the following para. stands out:
“Last year an internal government memo circulated listing seven Western values and institutions that China must battle at all cost, including constitutional democracy, media independence, civil society and market liberalism..”
Even the “universal values” of human rights were seen as unfit for Chinese consumption.
Our PM had better watch before he is swallowed by the Chinese powerhouse.
John Higgins, our PM is a lost cause. He has sold his soul to the devil. This is the saddest part of it all.
The trouble is that it’s not just Joseph and his ilk that will suffer the consequences but the whole of Malta – now and forever. Amen.
Nice. And there we go, chasing after his manufacturing prowess, that mobile phones and ‘brands’ cost nothing.
Unemployment and disillusion on a hemispherical level requires economies of scale.
Will whoever had gleefully circulated a cartoon of headless chickens (ie the PN reaction) running around the day after Labour announced its big energy plan now be man enough to say that he was duped and swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker?
Yeah, right.
On another subject.
Gidba fenominali.
“Rise in public sector workers is due to increase in government services” – Mario Cutajar, Head of Civil Service.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-11-08/local-news/Rise-in-public-sector-workers-is-due-to-increase-in-government-services-Civil-Service-chief-6736125272
Not only is it a lie but it is an insult to people’s intelligence. One has to be a total moron to believe it.
I wonder…..if we decide that this blessed power station were not to be built, can Joe Muscat and Conrad swallow their pride and nationalists stop calling for resignations if we see that this is going to be of national benefit? Or are we going to continue slaughtering each other and shooting ourselves in the foot till the bitter end like we always did in the past?
Can we all please return to base, a power station conversion, a new plant and related infrastructure cannot ever be built in two years, let alone by next September.
I say September, given that this was set by Muscat a couple of weeks ago, contradicting Mizzi who won’t even commit to a start date.
And since when is it possible to execute in ten months what was impossible in two years? Yet here we are, hypnotised by their three card trick.
A trick where the problem has been portrayed whether the Chinese want to play ball at all, and not, as happens to be the real problem, whether the project as it is, will ever be viable.
Blame the Chinese then, and avoid being remembered for the greatest waste of time, effort and resources ever in the history of this republic.
What Muscat underestimates however, is how irrelevant his plans are to the old guard, in open revolt, a real and proper threat to the Labour Party itself.
They can’t suffer a sneak and his reluctance to ever come clean, makes him just that. Theirs is a reputation for facing the odds which must be upheld, the idea of failure an integral part of the struggle.
Muscat won’t even acknowledge he’s one of them, obsessed he is with the 90’s watered down yuppie model.
This week he’ll unleash all his circus, crowds herded onto St.George’s Square, just to scare Busuttil.
It’s not that thing went wrong afterwards Daphne, it’s just that grandiose plans set against ideal conditions, will go wrong.
The man’s inexperienced, taken as he is with power.
Daphne …..any luck getting back the optional view for your blog the old way?
[Daphne – No, because the changes were made for a reason: updating. I know people like to stick to their old habits, but it only takes three weeks to break one.]
No amount of budget hype and propaganda will counter this disaster. Kollox costed.
“At the current spot prices, it is highly unlikely that the government will be able to find a buyer, as the energy generated by Electrogas costs more than double the European average.”
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-11-16/local-news/Government-to-buy-energy-from-new-power-station-at-inflated-tariff-6736125754
Totally predictable outcome. That is what you get when you have a country run by crooks.
Viva Malta Taghna LKoll – which really meant: I WANT THE CHANCE TO BE ON THE TAKE TOO.
So when in Opposition the Labour Party ‘negotiated’ the energy deal with China without concluding anything.
After they came to power they came out with the news that they had negotiated the best deal ever before actually signing the final contract.
So now the Chinese know the Malta government has to conclude some kind of energy deal to save face with the electorate, and that gives China all the leverage it wants because China knows that the Malta government has painted itself into a really tight corner.
Exactly. Now the Chinese have got Muscat by the balls. They now call the shots.
He dances to their tune while we, our sons and daughters and their children suffer the consequences long term. Muscat is a traitor.
Assuming that the project was on track and the power station is at least half built by now, can anyone say the same is true for the tanker which is supposed to store 140,000m3 of LNG? Is it built/converted or is it not? And if, it is and the whole project falls through, who’s on the hook for the purchase and conversion of the 40 year old rust bucket?
Is it just a ‘perception’ of mine, or is this project turning into one huge mess?
It is not ‘turning into one huge mess.’ It was one huge mess to begin with.
http://www.tickld.com/x/capitalism-explained-this-is-so-accurate-it-hurts
Someone explain Taghna Lkoll capitalism.
Ottimismo vola …
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OGjoxgLhTVM
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-11-17/blogs-opinions/Great-expectations-6736125810
2nd para. : “When things go awry we make excuses, defend our intelligent choices, do everything in our power to convince ourselves that we have become too demanding, then start questioning our own sanity in that order. Finally, we acknowledge our gullibility, our stupidity, get on with our life regardless, and hope that it’s just a passing phase and that there has to be light at the end of the tunnel.”
That, in my opinion, gives an indication of private conversations between government MPs.
Furthermore, when the PM stresses in public that this budget is nothing but an “expression of optimisim”, it is logical to conclude that a number of MPs have reached the last stage of hope : “a passing phase and that there has to be light at the end of the tunnel”.
It’s the their 22nd month in government. And 22 is not a lucky number for Labour governments. If Mintoff was around, he would reiterate to them : “Tliftu ir-ruh socjali”
“The PM has gone on record saying that the project will not be delayed for more than a couple of months”
I’m hearing this here for the first time. Is it true? If so, when did he say it? Is there a recording of this somewhere?
Yes, it was replayed this morning during David Thake’s Programme on 101.
In very fewer words, Labour was, Labour is and Labour shall ever be hopeless, helpless, hulabaloo of an administration. For they do not deserve to be addressed as government.