A young, fresh and exciting cabinet of men in their 60s and 70s
Edward Scicluna will be 72 when his term as Joseph's finance minister is over: he is old enough to be my father
Isn’t the Labour Party overlooking something in its acceptance of Edward Scicluna as a candidate?
Lots of other people seem to have overlooked it, too.
At 65 (he was born in 1946), he is old enough to be MY father – and this when the assorted chickens at FZL and the like accuse me of being a past-it old hag fit for the scrap-heap.
When the election rolls round, he will be 67. Imagine contesting a general election for the first time ever at that great age. When he becomes Joseph’s minister of finance, he will be that old – 67. When his term as minister of finance is over, he will be SEVENTY-TWO.
Yes, 72.
I repeat: seventy-two.
The age MY PARENTS are now.
This whole thing is so ridiculous and I don’t think people have woken up to it yet.
A first-time cabinet minister aged 72. He was born in 1946 and he will be a cabinet minister still in 2018. To use SMS language, FFS.
This is the political party that bangs on about being fresh, new, young, thrilling and shaken by revolutionary earthquakes. And the best it can do is a fossil from the Mintoff and KMB cabinets, Karmenu Vella (b. 1950) and Edward Scicluna (b. 1946), plus all those decorative items like Joe Grima and Alex Sceberras Trigona.
Where are the brilliant thirty-somethings? And please don’t tell me that one of them is leading the party.
Where, even, are the competent forty-somethings?
Please don’t show me Silvio Parnis, who can be any age as long as it’s stupid and well greased.
Ah yes, Gavin and Simon, the two swallows who don’t make the Labour summer.
I despair.
I have the distinct feeling that in 2013, we’re going to want to do a Jonestown. Who’s going to prepare the cauldron of Coolaid with cyanide?
16 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Maybe the Professor will stop inflicting himself upon economics students. Yes, he’s kept his lecturing spots at the University of Malta even though he is working full-time in Brussels, with all of the cancellations and playing musical-chairs with times and dates because of his busy, jetsetting lifestyle.
At least with him involved in politics we’ll get our news earlier.
Whatever his predictions are, the opposite will usually happen. Just like his 2008 claim that a single party had a majority…
Juanito Camilleri, please take note. Again.
halli lira sur MEP…
Who is going to insure his health as a Minister of Finance under Dr. Joseph Muscat’s government which has promised everything to everyone, everywhere for ever?
The same persons who ensured Eddie Fenech Adami’s health when he did a bypass operation in the late 90’s aged almost 70 I guess…
What a ridiculous comment….
Gavin?
You mean Gavin Gulia?
He’s of the same calibre of your friend Consuelo Scerri Herrera.
Most members of the spanking new Italian cabinet are quite elderly. Mr Monti is 68 years old. The previous prime minister was over 70 years old.
[Daphne – Oh God, David the Pittma Who Never Gets It is back again. Yes. David. That. Is. My. Point. That the less democratic a country is, the more likely it is to have a gerontocracy. Italy has an extremely weak democracy. The stronger the democracy, the younger the leaders, and I don’t mean young and stupid, either. I mean Barack Obama/Nick Clegg/David Cameron young, not Joseph Muscat young. Joseph Muscat, ironically, is a tool of the gerontocracy.]
“Joseph Muscat, ironically, is a tool of the gerontocracy.”
Daphne, this sentence is pure insight.
If you allow me a suggestion, it requires further development and analysis.
You are absolutely right.
Joseph Muscat’s young age plays into the hands of the old dinosaurs (dinozawri for the chap who asked how it’s written in Maltese, or Wisghat Kbar u Wahxin ta’ Zmien Zemzem).
Please do delve into this most interesting topic: Muscat as Tool of the Old Guard.
So Britain must also be a weak democracy as well as there are old people in government such as Vince Cable and Kenneth Clarke. In recent history many countries had old prime ministers or presidents as in Canada and the US.
[Daphne – Vince Cable and Kenneth Clarke did not start out in politics yesterday. The last old man to lead the United States was George H. Bush, 20 years ago in the Cold War (natch). The democratic west is no longer the same. These things move with the zeitgeist, so pick it up. ]
Age is only of relative importance. Censu Tabone was an excellent foreign minister at 80. Ronald Reagan was elected president of the USA at 71, was confirmed at 75, and would probably have obtained a third term at 79 if the US constitution allowed it.
[Daphne – Not in today’s world, Tonio. Look around you. And if that’s not enough, try and imagine a man in his 70s successfully contesting the US presidential elections today. Try to imagine Britain with a prime minister in his 60s. Impossible, right? The world’s changed. The democratic world, at least. That’s the zeitgeist. Censu Tabone is the best you can do, and you omit the fact that his situation was anomalous because of the circumstances. When the Nationalist Party finally got into government after that terrible 16-year struggle, in 1987, he was already 74. He was honoured, as thanks because of the particular circumstances of the day, with the post of foreign minister, which he held for a token two years until 1989 (when he was 76, not 80) and he was then made president of the republic and the role of foreign minister cleared for the push into Europe. Once again I have to remind you that this is my milieu. Try to tear strips off me all you like. I love the challenge and it keeps me sharp (you know, because at 47 I must obviously be suffering from dementia), but I do have the advantage of having worked in this field for quite a long time.]
I can assure you I’ve no intention whatsoever of “tearing strips” off you.
My point was that you can be relatively old and still very capable.
[Daphne – I did not say that old people have diminished talents, but something else entirely. Read it back.]
You’re right about Censu Tabone – it was Roamer who threw me off track at the time when he had referred to the “octogenerian foreign minister”, and I remained with that impression to this day.
Enjoy your milieu – I have to say I find it very entertaining.
By the way, John McCain did give it a shot, and if he weren’t up against Obama he could even have repeated Reagan’s exploit, in 2008…
[Daphne – I doubt that very much. The democratic west tends to be carried by a common zeitgeist which we in Malta neither share nor understand. The Mediterranean – Italy included – still thinks in terms of village elders.]
Edward Scicluna is surely not a case of “Iz-zaghzagh wara Joseph.”
Ghandu 65 u isbah minnek daphne.
[Daphne – Halli mmur go rokna u nibki bikja ghax Edward Scicluna ragel fartas ta’ hamsa u sittin sena isbha minni, ta. Mela l-kandidati tivvutawlhom ghax sbieh? Il-vera qabda injoranti. Qiskom hrigtu mil-primeval soup il-bierah.]
U iva, ever heard in football people talking about the average age of the team ? We’ll have him balancing out Guzepp hux – youngest PM and oldest Finance minister ever.
Can one imagine Joseph leading a Cabinet of 70+ year olds?
I’d love to be a fly on the wall of the Cabinet’s room.
Ara kemm jibaghtuh jitne**ek. Jew forsi jibaghtul igibilhom xi kafe w pastizz.
And what does he do with the younger (and stupid) pretenders?
Maybe the solution would be a Cabinet of twenty ministers and fifteen Parliamentary Secretaries. That will do it.
At 67, as MEP Edward Scicluna can go to many places like John Attard Montalto is doing.
If he’s minister of finance he has to do a lot of traveling only to Brussels.
If I’m not mistaken at seventy Eddie Fenech Adami retired and left his post for the fifty-two year old Gonzi.
We can see how demanding it is for our ministers, sometimes they have to skip unproductive ‘ceremonial visits’. Gone are the days when Alex Sceberras Trigona went for a ‘honeymoon’ visit to Australia accompanied by President Agata Barbara(something similar to what Joseph Muscat did two years ago as MLP leader).
I can’t see Joseph as “energiku” for his age. He looks lazy. He had the opportunity to RUN with president Gorg Abela who ironically was the other contender for the MLP leadership race:
http://www.google.com.mt/imgres?q=president’s+fun+run+2011&hl=mt&cr=countryMT&sa=X&gbv=2&tbs=ctr:countryMT&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=5P7cWTD-qPGhqM:&imgrefurl=http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111017/local/third-president-s-charity-fun-run-launched.389612&docid=cn30ayGNPleYzM&imgurl=http://c257.r57.cf3.rackcdn.com/fa27fe08d4399503947424e798eac2b03304461792-1318855033-4e9c2179-620×348.jpg&w=540&h=300&ei=D57dTtuVA6P44QSo5sTbBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=168&vpy=330&dur=2772&hovh=167&hovw=301&tx=188&ty=52&sig=108942272748825904910&page=1&tbnh=109&tbnw=197&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0&biw=1438&bih=709
Apparently Ciccio Bello walked the last part with the sixty-year old First Lady: Mrs Margaret Abela, Catherine Gonzi, and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.
[Daphne – I logged that too. In fact, I should have posted something about it, and will do so later.]