How to miss the wood for the trees
I totally disagree with this focus (see meme below). So what is the Opposition saying – that if Caroline Farrugia’s appointment to the bench were in line with the Constitution, it would be OK? OF COURSE IT WOULDN’T.
The main problems with this appointment are that it is shocking nepotism, because she is the Speaker’s daughter, and that it compromises the Speaker – who is heavily compromised already – further because the government has given his incompetent daughter a sinecure for life, as a favour to HIM not to her.
Everything else – her age, her crass incompetence, her lack of litigation experience, the fact that the seven years are not yet up, her position in a public commission which bars her from another role in public office for three years – is just an exacerbating factor. You can work this out by asking yourself the question: if all these exacerbating factors were removed, would the appointment still be really wrong?
The answer is yes. So there you go. This appointment is wrong because it is corrupt nepotism, full stop. All the other things just make it worse, but they are not what creates the problem in the first place.
It’s so tedious having to spell out the obvious to people who should know better. And there’s something else: by not banging the war drums about the fact that she is the Speaker’s daughter and this is corrupt nepotism, the Nationalist Party is simply conveying the message that it’s not bothered about this aspect and might quite fancy doing something similar itself – or would like to leave its options open just in case, because you never know.
You’re not going to win an election without some clear thinking, chaps – relying on immense government corruption is not enough. People don’t give a damn that the appointment is unconstitutional. All they’re talking about is the fact that the government has found a job for life for Anglu Farrugia’s daughter. That they’re trying to bend the rules to get her in is almost incidental, though they’re quite bothered about the fact that she’s 33 and has a reputation for incompetence.
A far more effective meme would have used the exact same picture but the legend: NOW IT’S A JOB FOR LIFE FOR ANGLU’S DAUGHTER – THIS MAN IS TRULY CORRUPT.
Besides which, #Amateurs is wholly incorrect, and gives the impression of bumbling but benign incompetents – when what we are dealing with here is a band of amoral pragmatists with no ethical (and probably legal too) boundaries. A far more effective, and more accurate, hashtag would be #badpeople.
