As Daphne’s own version of Churchill’s famous quote goes:

“Democracy is a wonderful thing. But not when there are so many stupid people around.”

And until someone comes up with a better system of government, I’m afraid we’ll have to lump it.

The only action, as far as I can tell, that may improve democracy for everyone everywhere is to promote critical thinking at every opportunity.

I’ll bet that there’s enough hidden in those agreements to cripple any government.

“A 46% increase in the cost of the project requires a 46% increase in income to keep the project viable”

That’s what I was seeing but could not put so succinctly like you did.

However, that all this is not doable is evident from the loan amount itself.

The “costed” (remember the buzzword of the time?) capital cost for the new power station that was to render the power unit cost to Enemalta of 9c6 was €M308 (see The Times report on Labour’s unveiling of its power plan).

The loan that our hero government is betting our money on is 46% more than the estimated cost.

Even an Eddy Privitera would understand that a 46% increase in the cost of the project requires a 46% increase in income to keep the project viable, just as a 46% increase in a pensioner’s cost of living would require the same increase in their pension to keep them going.

Would Kurt Sansone of The Times be kind enough to refer Minister Konrat “Shame-on-you” Mizzi to his article of 9th January 2013 and ask the Minister to compare and contrast the figures reported then with what the agreement with Electrogas Malta Ltd says now about power unit prices, and then inform his readers with the same zeal?

That’s only half the point, isn’t it? This is a virtually risk-free venture.

The supposed private sector investors (one’s a dictatorship-owned state company) enjoy guaranteed reimbursement of their capital expenditure whether the power-station is built or not, guaranteed sales of their output if the power station comes on stream, and guaranteed bank loans to finance the project.

All three guarantees are provided at public expense, yet any profit will go to the private sector owners and to the dictatorship in Azerbaijan.

Either way… The citizen pays the full price for a toy it doesn’t need

And no, most of them do NOT know what a bank guarantee is, which is why they do NOT know that a government guarantee for a bank loan is not a ‘bank guarantee’ but a completely different animal.

It’s the difference between a plane and a train.

Ezatt. Dak it-tip ta’ punchy slogans hemm bzonn. Hafna informazzjoni fi tmien kelmiet.