You’re missing the point, Ganni Borg. By his declaration Simon Busuttil is sending out the message that he’d rather go for the hunters’ vote (most of whom will vote Labour anyway) than the environmentalists’ vote (many of whom would not vote Labour anyway).

By saying that he will vote in favour of spring hunting, Busuttil showed that the environment is at the bottom of his priority list.

The alternative would be that on environmental issues he is an ignoramus.

It’s just that everyone expected it from Joseph Muscat. But not from Simon Busuttil. It’s shock and disappointment rather than criticism.

Eddy, is that what you can come up with? If that was not a mistake, would that be applicable to the PM who is also stating to be voting in favour of the hunters?

Whenever there is a monarchy, there is hunting, this is a fact whether we like to hear it or not. The tradition of hunting animals has been passed on through generations in most families and was considered to be a rich man’s sport ( rich meant educated in the past, certainly not today!). this was also applicable in Malta where only nobles carried out this practise essentially because they were the land owners.
Hunting was rendered what it is today through a general lack of education and the availability of more land to uneducated persons who turned to hunting and the lowering of the hunting age to 18 from 23.

Why all this fuss about how Simon Busutill will be voting?

There is still a long time to go before the referendum.

Maybe Dr Simon will change his mind. The P.N are used to U-turns.

And why keep calling hunters savages?

Of course there are some shady ones, but why blame them all?

What we have to do is be strict and the ones that do not learn should be severely punished.

“Could someone explain that please?”

I doubt it

Yes, Eddy, Simon Busuttil is siding with the savages, and has lost all my respect. That said, the alternative is a totalitarian redneck, so the PL won’t win my vote anytime soon.

Could we add “spring” before hunting as the qualifier?

Another precision to make in the campaign is that this is not a vote about ALL hunting but only about spring hunting: during the season that the birds that the hunters want to shoot are procreating.

I’m afraid that people will miss the point about the very reason the referendum is on.

I can understand Simon Busuttil’s Yes. He was there to get this derogation; he negotiated it and therefore to keep with what he started, it would have been a suicide to say NO.

[Daphne – STOP RIGHT THERE. Those who negotiated the derogation didn’t do it because they agreed with it or because it was a particular passion of theirs. They didn’t choose to do it. They didn’t volunteer in the way those people volunteered to organise the referendum petition. They were paid to negotiate. It was their job. The Opposition leader’s argument would apply if he were, say, a Birdlife member 10 years ago and now feeling obliged to vote No to be consistent. But even then this does not hold on grounds merely of consistency but only of conscience and belief. You vote for something because you believe in it, and not for the sake of consistency.

I think the Nationalist Party has already forgotten the fact that the one thing Alfred Sant was mocked most for (other than his wig) was his constant boasts of consistency regarding his views about the European Union. The world and Europe changed, the Berlin wall fell, the Cold War ended, the bloc evolved from the European Community to the European Union, and still our Fred was against it. He was consistent. And what do you know, he’s still consistent about it now, even as he sits in the European Parliament. We need a lesson in Darwinism here: ADAPT TO SURVIVE.]

I am the first person who will be in the polling booth to vote NO as I am against all forms of killing, birds or other animals, but I can understand his stance and find it very disturbing for people to call him all the names in this world.

He said it very clearly, that since he was part of the negotiating team in 2003, he is sticking to what he negotiated and saying yes to keep the ‘deroga’ as it was agreed with the EU. He also stated that IF Joseph Muscat had not promised the hunters that they will do whatever they pleased if Labour was in government, we would not have had to have the referendum. For this although I do not agree with him, I give him credit. My vote is No and no political party will ever tell me how to vote in a referendum.