The Underdog Party governed for five and a half years despite losing the general election
Joe Grima: part of a Labour cabinet that governed for five and a half years despite losing the 1981 election
Joseph Muscat said on Xarabank on Friday night that the Labour Party is the underdog because it lost six of the last seven general elections.
Let’s count them, shall we?
1981
1987
1992
1996
1998
2003
2008
Those are the last seven general elections. But Labour was in government between 1981 and 1987 and between 1996 and 1998.
Perhaps Joseph Muscat will now explain – after consulting with his aides Karmenu Vella, Alex Sceberras Trigona and Joe Grima (the Fat Controller), all of who were in the 1981 to 1987 cabinet – why Labour governed for the maximum period of FIVE AND A HALF YEARS if it knew it had lost the 1981 election.
Hindsight is a marvellous thing, isn’t it, Joseph.
And after today’s front page story on The Sunday Times – with a MISCO survey which shows how, if an election were to be called today, Labour would get 52% of the vote and the PN 47% – he should do us all a favour, not least himself, and stop going on about this underdog business.
Labour is top dog in electoral terms, and make no mistake about it.
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You really ARE terrified that you will lose your place at the trough, aren’t you?
[Daphne – I don’t have a place at the trough, Martin. I work entirely in the private sector. You might wish to know that the Labour Party, through one of its MPs (Joe Mizzi, I believe) put in a parliamentary question about how much money had been paid to a list of people, including me, over the last several years. When they got the answer, they thought it best not to publish it. Guess why. The fact that I despise the Labour Party and say why has nothing to do with money, I assure you.]
Martin – if you want to know about troughs, ask the guy in the pic. He’s been face down and up to the ears in swill more than once I assure you.
Face down? There’s isn’t a trough big enough.
Some people of my acquaintance say you’re paid by Tom, Dick and Harry to write what you write.
[Daphne – That’s because many Maltese reason like prostitutes (because of the history of our society). They are unable to conceive of anything that is not done for money or for the thought of getting something in return. This is in fact why friendship and pastimes – except primitive involving men, gunpowder, guns and traps – are alien to Maltese culture, and why so many Maltese either have no friends at all or have people they call friends but who are really acquaintances they use for a variety of purposes, like having somebody to go out with. The only people who pay me to write are Standard Publications, publishers of The Malta Independent. The rest is done for fun, or more properly, pro bono as a sort of civic duty. These people of your acquaintance must be quite dull-witted if they imagine that anyone could fake this level of conviction.]
But I know it isn’t true for the simple reason that I myself, had I had the time and the talent, would write as you do because I too despise the Labour party – for no other reason than for what it had the gall and cheek to do between 1971 and 1987 and the legacy of hatred and ignorance which we are having to face every single day of our lives.
No, money cannot come into it. If people had any sense, they would realise that you do not run a blog for money – and I really know what you mean by the word “despise”.
Your couldn’t have chosen a better word to describe MY feelings towards Labour and no matter how much it will be chocolate-coated or dipped in syrup, I will never ever be able to stomach – certainly not as long as there are people like Jose’, Anglu Farrugia,AST and the other dinosaurs.
But even the word Laburista puts me off. It must really be genetic, at this point (inherited from two parents whose lives Labour very surely screwed irrevocably).
Did they include contracts/jobs awarded to publicity agencies – nd how?
[Daphne – I’m sorry, I don’t get your drift.]
May I remind you these are the same polls which in 2008, showed a win for labour….I guess we know what happened
[Daphne – In fact, they did not. They showed a bigger majority for the Nationalist Party, which was all but extinguished literally on the eve, by You Know Who. That would be Jeffrey, not Sant.]
I noticed how, as shown on Super One TV, today at the Labour Conference, Joseph Muscat repeated the same “underdog” argument and although he mentioned 1981, he conveniently did not mention that Labour was in government between 1996 and 1998. Who does he think he’s fooling?
PS. Is that Joe Grima sitting on the backbench?
When Joe Grima sat on the backbench, did they have to remove the bit in between the seats, like they do on a plane?
What a bloody cheek! Now he admits they had lost that election?
Indeed they did lose it but they did not relinquish their seats.
For five and a half years they imposed themselves on the electorate. I remember that time well, I was seventeen in 1981 and that should have been a wonderful time in my life.
Instead, we had to go through a”martierju”, real, not imagined like Franco’s. Joseph, whether you win or lose this next election, you will never have my respect, all the more for this admission of yours.
I know it’s not something to laugh about, due to the fact that I do consider the fact that it is possible that the LP wins the next general election, but I am now getting to a point now where my mood is changing from being nervous and a little under the weather to a strange mood where I laugh at the chance of the LP winning the election.
Don’t get me wrong, but I have always believed that a country elects the government it deserves. So if this country actually wants Labour to govern for the next five years, so be it.
It’s better to trust the political party that gave you:
Democratic rights
Freedom of speech
Pluralism in broadcasting
A New Power Station
A new road network
A new telephone system
The right to be in the 21st century with top notch computers
A new airport
A new hospital
New Gozo and Cirkewwa Terminals
A University with over 10,000 students
MCAST with 8,000 students
The right to Education at tertiary level
A new Oncology Hospital
A new secondary school built every year
Introduction of Local Councils
The Euro
Entry into the EU
Dismantling of the Dry Docks which was running the country Dry
A new project making Valletta the true City Built by Gentlemen for Gentlemen
A new Bus System
Trustworthy relationships with other countries
The country’s Independence
Freedom of choice
Real job opportunities for those that WANT to work
The list goes on……
Go on take the plunge………vote PL
i love your blog but, please hate us a little bit less :(
[Daphne – Hate? I despise Labour.]
Now that was the right reply if ever there was one….
This man wants to portray himself as the guru of democracy. He thinks that we are so dumb stupid that we forgot that he was in cabinet when his party lost the election and yet clung to power for five years.
He also thinks that we forget he is the same person who punched a member of the Broadcasting Authority and called Dr Fenech Adami “Pufta” during a mass meeting.
Pufta? But this is the progressive party.