Good – time to remember that the PN is supposed to be more civilised than Labour

Published: February 7, 2015 at 5:44pm

market PN

Over the last few years, it’s been increasingly easy to forget that, under the constant onslaught from Labour and the daft, empty chatter of Taghna Lkollers.

And the Nationalist Party didn’t do much to help itself in this respect, either, with major foot-shots like the position against divorce legislation and now the leader’s vote to allow people to carry on shooting and trapping birds in the mating season.

But allowing Valletta’s barrow-boys to carry on setting up their stalls right there in the Renzo Piano project – that was just too much for Simon Busuttil’s party.

And so say all of us – literally all of us, except for the prime minister, Janice Bartolo’s boyfriend, and the stallholders themselves.




19 Comments Comment

  1. Joe Attard says:

    What a waste of his and other people’s time. Hardly needs to hold a press conference in situ to announce this position to the world.

  2. catharsis says:

    Putting your foot down earns you respect.

  3. H.P. Baxxter says:

    Ahem. Ordnance.

  4. H.P. Lovecraft says:

    Oops! Lowest Common Denominator strikes again!

    http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/49351/busuttil_against_monti_relocation_to_any_part_of_ordnance_street

    [Daphne – You have your answer to that already. It’s in Times of Malta’s report on the press conference.]

  5. H.P. Lovecraft says:

    I imagine there are infinite ways one can interpret events. But you’ll agree that PN appear to have been willing to strike a similar/identical deal with the hawkers before the last election when Busuttil was deputy.

    • Jozef says:

      Busuttil just responded saying he couldn’t care less for that agreement, wasn’t his word anyway.

      Even Saviour can’t get himself to accuse busuttil of inconsistency, not when he fed him all the details to the derogation.

      Elve alert.

  6. Harry Worth says:

    Just out of curiosity, do these hawkers pay a daily rent for the space allocated to them ?

  7. bob-a-job says:

    When are the reporters going to learn that it’s Ordnance Street NOT Ordinance Street.

    I’m sick and tired of seeing it written incorrectly.

    The Maltese version of the name doesn’t help the issue either.

  8. Challie says:

    Sounds stupid if Jason Azzopardi promised a similar thing to the hawkers a few years back.

  9. David says:

    Supposed is the key word. The supposed civilised party had a different position before the last election.

  10. P Shaw says:

    I think the MLP’s moving the trash market beneath and next to Parliament has nothing to do with pre-electoral promise. After all, we are talking of around 200-300 licence holders together with their families, i.e. Around 800 votes. The MLP can easily afford to lose those 600-800 votes given the 36,000 majority.

    This has more to do with raising the middle figure towards Renzo Piano and his project and towards the PN who commissioned the project. It is an act of barbarism towards a symbol of Gonzi administration, similar to the Taliban destroying ancient archeological heritage in Afghanistan, and similar acts that occur regularly in uncivilized cultures.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      I think it has nothing to do with either. It’s not the electoral promise or the middle finger which made them do it, but a genuine belief in the value of small business. Iktar flus fil-but, indawru lira, nigbdu t-turizmu and all that.

      MLP is at its worst when it is ideologically closest to Nationalist money-is-all doctrine. I applaud Busuttil for stating that culture trumps mediocrity, but he could have stated it in clearer terms: business doesn’t justify everything.

      Malta’s road to hell is paved with good business intentions.

      It’s time for one of the parties to show that another road is possible.

  11. Alexander Ball says:

    I love the PN – all fur coat and no knickers.

  12. Tom Double Thumb says:

    Come on, Dr Busuttil. Make it clear to the hawkers especially that you will relocate the street market. This may lose you the hawkers’ vote as well as risk losing the next election.

    But it will prove to those with enough brain cells that you and the Nationalist Party are men of principle and will not seek cheap votes by pandering to the whims of certain groups and making ridiculous promises.

    If anything to the contrary was said in the past, then a public apology should be made and the Nationalist Party should declare they stand four-square with their leader on this.

Leave a Comment