That villa is yet another testament to the rule of law under Labour

People on the comments board beneath this story on timesofmalta.com are wondering how a hawker ta’ fuq il-Monti can have built a villa like that as far back as the 1980s.

Some are trying to justify it by saying that land was cheap in those days. Yes, it was, but it was all relative.

Land was cheap because people didn’t have money to buy land or houses. Lack of demand kept prices low. And land in Madliena was never cheap anyway.

Incidentally, that is the villa which was used for the television series Ipokriti, which is so fitting. In the general election campaign, it was used for campaign parties thrown by Labour candidates like Jose Herrera.

The owner is complaining because he has been waiting for a change-of-use permit to turn it into a wedding hall since the early 1990s. He has a nerve.

For those who are wondering how he got to have that whack-off house off the profits from a stall on the Valletta market, wonder no more because I can tell you.

Difesa ran a massive trade in pirate videos in the Golden Years of Labour, using his market stall as cover. I know this for a fact because I am well acquainted with those who sold him the huge volumes of raw Agfa film he used for his black market operation. He had a semi-professional set-up going and was possibly Malta’s largest consumer of raw film.

He sold his pirate videos on the Maltese market, off his market stall and elsewhere, and I believe – though I stand to be corrected on this – that for a time he even shipped pirate videos to Libya.