Deborah Schembri
Published:
June 3, 2011 at 11:55pm
Deborah Schembri has confirmed that she will be standing for election on the Labour ticket. This is the subject of my newspaper column in The Malta Independent on Sunday, so I won’t be repeating everything here for now.
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Daphne, is Deborah Helena Dalli’s sister?
She has a charming yet strong personality and communicates her arguments so well she’s obviously going to be a feather in Joey’s cap.
[Daphne – I have no idea whether they are related but they are VERY similar. And yes, I agree.]
Don’t totally agree! Whilst certainly she has a charming yet strong personality and communicates her arguments well, that doesn’t make her a politician, at best a great salesperson.
[Daphne – Better a charming salesperson with a strong personality and good communication skills than the racanc I see on television masquerading as politicians.]
Agreed
I think this news raises new questions about Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s future role in the PN.
On the assumption that he too has not already accepted Joseph’s offer to be on his ticket in the next general elections (I am joking, or am I?), the PN now needs him more than ever to retain or rebuild the liberal department.
[Daphne – To quote the foreign minister: I wouldn’t say so.]
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando won’t switch to Labour.
And I have to add. The PN’s response is also going to include the fielding of Lou Bondi and Daphne Caruana Galizia as the two Liberal strikers.
[Daphne – I can’t speak for Lou (though I think not, from what I know of him). And as for me: certainly not.]
Daphne, please don’t brush of such suggestions. Won’t you at least think about it?
[Daphne – No. I like to be free to say what I think, I’d like to keep the little privacy I have left, it would kill me to deal with people and their petty and not-so-petty problems on a daily basis, and while I enjoy politics it is mainly as an observer.]
Returning from Brussels today the prime minister said she had proposed Malta as a permanent US-EU military base “to wage war on bad people anywhere in the world.”
“We know who the bad people are,” she went on to say, adding that the US and UK governments and their media “thankfully keep us well-informed.”
Prime minister Caruana Galizia said she had also offerred Malta as an EU centre for illegal immigrants, where Gozo can be capped at 200,000, while “the sky is the limit when it comes to Malta.”
Speaking on the financial collapse that is never going to happen even if it already happened, the prime minister said we can raise more taxes to lift our borrowing prospects in line with IMF and ECB bailout policies, where money is debt and more debt means more money – “a sure strategy towards universal perpetual enslavement,” prime minister Carauana Galizia said.
[Daphne – That’s it, Kevin. I’ll appoint you to my cabinet: Minister of Conspiracy Theories. Say hi to Sharon.]
Sigmund Freud would have a field day with Kev!
Why not? We need someone with a backbone in Parliament!
Lou Bondi may be useful in building a liberal Gozo, and someone has to challenge the Queen of Gozo.
This is exactly what Labour needs.
Less Jason, Anglu and Toni and more Franco Mercieca, Deborah Schembri etc. This is exactly what they are doing.
And PLEASE Daphne, before you rightly criticise the Anglu’s and Toni’s of the PL think about the Clyde’s and the Angelito’s on the other side! Looking at the Cabinet today I miss Louis, John, a certain Eddie etc.
At least they got things done. Good times for Malta! Pity today we are jammed up with a blocked government whose sole aim is to hold onto power.
Not that the PL is anything special mind you but with the new entries they might prove to be a healthy change.
Labour needs more like Charles Mangion
Qed tara wisq Super One, Sur Farrugia, kieku minnhek indahhal il-Cable u noqghod nara id-Discovery.
@Ciccio2011
wrong comparision mate!
Daphne yes, perhaps minister of foreign affairs ;) she has the charisma and the intelligence and vision.
Lou on the other hand is not a coherent voice. He lacks the credibility and personality. Actually better than all the Clyde’s and Tonio’s but still – lascia molto a desiderare!
[Daphne – I don’t agree with you at all and in any case, we have been friends for 20 years so I think I’m in a better position to judge.]
Like Daphne’s reply :)
Opportunist, and she hails from a Nationalist family!
Thanks, JPO, for being the ass. You have always been, it seems that you have been born to be used.
[Daphne – I fail to agree. The fact that Deborah Schembri ‘comes from a Nationalist family’ does not mean she has to behave as they do. She is a grown woman. Evarist Bartolo comes from a Nationalist family, too, if it comes to that. If she wants to go into politics, and clearly she is very good at it, then what did you expect her to do? The Nationalist Party has made it clear in the most public way possible that they don’t stand for what she stands for. I am happy to see good people join the Labour Party. My only fear is that any good person will become shocked and frustrated at the level of amateurism and the backbiting.]
Backbiting?, Darling,you are the Queen of backbiting.
[Daphne – Bit difficult that. I don’t work or operate in an organisation.]
Deborah has brought something new to Maltese social and political discourse. She has relieved us of the traditional emotional ‘teatrin’ Maltese polticians excel in and calmly put forward well constructed arguments…a very ‘European’ trait indeed.
As for joining the PL. Well, I wonder who is comfortable anymore in the PN?
That is so mistaken an analysis.
Indeed one of the blatant own goals suffered by the No movement was the way they handed Dr. Schembri the emotional club to beat them with. She obviously obliged!
Now that the PL has done so well in acquiring Deborah Schembri Tabone, the PN must do their utmost to persuade Simon Busuttil to stand for the general elections.
With his persuasive skills and clean approach to politics, I believe he is the PN’s only hope, although slight, for a victory.
If Debbie will stand for the 11/12th district, I believe it will be Evarist Bartolo himself who will lose out on votes. So Joe Muscat has now cunningly sidelined Marielouise Coleiro and Evarist Bartolo – who had both challenged him for leadership.
[Daphne – Evarist should know it’s time to move on anyway. The Maltese political scene is cluttered up with people hanging on and hanging on.]
Can the government draw up a really attractive Early Retirement Scheme for Members of Parliament?
Can’t the people stick their heads on pikes? It’ll be much cheaper. And good fun, too.
A gain for Labour; a loss for Malta. Deborah Schembri showed how it is possible to push for change without being involved in party politics. I feel that was Dr Schembri’s greatest achievement. Now that is lost.
Deborah Schembri risks being a one-issue wonder and I don’t think she has much political depth but, then, that can be said of 80% of all candidates.
All in all, however, she will raise the average level of Labour candidates and, if nothing else, will balance the fossils that Muscat has attracted up to now.
Everyone on board ! says Joe Muscat ‘ That is as long as I will be Prime Minister of Malta’ after that we all will see.
I can’t vote for Gonzi.
I can’t vote for Muscat.
I was going to vote No in the referendum (not a no to divorce but to the bullshit question) but in the end I didn’t vote.
I can’t see me voting for any other politician for PM other than Simon.
They are all a waste and this divorce woman will get eaten alive.
She’s definitely not related to Helena Dalli and as far as I remember, since we are closely related comes from what used to be a staunch Nationalist background. What’s happened to change this, I don’t know.
[Daphne – You don’t know? Might the Nationalist Party’s hostility to her and her campaign not have had something to do with it?]
Jason Micallef fb :
Li Deborah Schembri ghazlet li tikkontesta mal-PL hija ahbar sabiha. Li wahda mill-pilastri tal-PL fl-ahhar 30 sena li dejjem serviet ta’ hajt tal-kenn ghall-familji Maltin habbret li mhux ser terga tikkontesta mal-PL hija ahbar ta’ dieqa kbira. Kull partitarju Laburist/a ghandu jaghmel l-almu tieghu biex fiz-zmien li gej sehbitna Marie Louise tikkunsidra d-decizjoni taghha.
Day after day we are talking more and more of the “liberals”, taken to be “liberals within the PN”.
In my view, these “liberals” were even more vociferous in favour of the Yes vote, in social circles, than were Labour voters, who simply were following an (undeclared) party line.
[Daphne – You’re right, Albert. It’s not just your view. The numbers bear this out. Now perhaps you will understand what I meant when I said repeatedly that true liberals vote PN and that liberal politics don’t just cover sexual relationships and marriage. This is why I repeat and repeat and repeat that the Nationalist Party’s position against divorce is a strange and terrible aberration/anomaly when you factor it into the PN’s policies since 1981 – on Europe, the economy, education and why, even immigration. The PN must have failed to notice that the sorts of people attracted to those policies would also think divorce legislation to be perfectly normal, which it is.]
These “Liberals”, for historical but also for social reasons, feel disgust and disdain for the Labour Party. But they are also feeling the same for the Gonzi PN (yes, what was an election slogan has now in fact come into existence…the PN “Gonzi” faction).
Why not, then, now that this group has come into being, having even its own speakers and public faces, simply detach from the PN and establish its own party? In that way, at elections, the PN would have to earn its support in order to govern (and so would the LP). Everywhere in Europe that is a sizeable Liberal Party, why not here.
[Daphne – As if. Why bother. You need a machine that can win elections, otherwise what’s the point. As you know by now, I’m not a big one for reinventing wheels. Instead of setting up another party it makes more sense to make the PN appealing and dynamic again.]
Then the battle is already lost. You should see some of the rabid Italophile reactionaries in MZPN.
fl-opinjoni tieghi ma nara xejn hazin li persuna bhal deborha wara li tat servizz lil pajjiez , issa tkompli tahdem f`kamp politiku differenti minn dak li nemmen jien . nawguralek deborha.
Dominic, anqas jien ma nara xejn hazin li ‘dhebora’ marret mal-Partit ta’ Joseph Muscat. Wara kollox Joseph kien supporter tal-pozizzjoni li hadet ‘debhora’ fir-referendum. Nawguralek ‘debohra’.
Debohra twiegbux, Ciccio?
I’ve had it up to the gills with this fawning praise for “servizz lil pajjiez”. It’s not as if these people aren’t getting paid. It’s their job, for heaven’s sake. Schembri is a lawyer. Simon Busuttil is an MEP. Mario de Marco is an MP. Servizz iva, imma servizz bi hlas.
Now I know why we get idiots in every post in this blasted country. Because the serfs are too busy building shrines to their heroes.
Baxxter, but the “servizz lil pajjiz” is a pre-requisite for the “Gieh ir-Repubblika,” “L-Ordni Nazzjonali tal-Mertu” and the like.
Think of Gaddafi. He rendered a lot of “servizz lil pajjiez.” He paid for “Mintoff’s” children allowances.
I like Deborah Schembri – she came across very well I have to admit. Persuading her to stand for election on its ticket is probably the best thing the Labour Party has done in a very very long time.