Jeffrey, here’s some information you won’t find on Facebook
I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of hearing that vicious and vindictive little man (in every respect, I strongly suspect) Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando Smith say repeatedly, as he did again today to his friends at Malta Today, that David Cameron would never threaten an MP with expulsion and he can’t imagine any such thing happening ever in a parliamentary democracy.
Honestly, he should get out of Facebook, Sicily and Haz-Zebbug a bit more, because he really chose the wrong example. OUr parliamentary system is the Westminster model, which means that we get the system of the whip and of the withdrawal of the whip precisely from the mother of all parliamentary democracies, where his hero David Cameron sits in splendour.
Cameron uses the threat of withdrawal of the whip all the time against his MPs, and not necessarily for the way they vote or don’t vote in the House. He does so even if they are accused of wrong-doing or breach of ethics and don’t resign of their own accord.
He has the luxury of doing so, because he doesn’t have a one-seat majority in the House.
One example: he withdrew the whip from Conservative MP Derek Conway, when Conway was exposed in the press as having employed his son Freddie as a political researcher, paying him out of the public funds budget he was allocated for staff.
This effectively meant that Conway was expelled from the Conservative Party parliamentary group, losing the party ticket.
The trouble in Malta is that we have lost all concept of the whip and his or her significance. We are going down the Italian route in this as in most other things, thinking of parliament as a jungle in which MPs are free to swing from the trees, instead of the strictly disciplined institution it is in England, notwithstanding the shouting, thumping and sarcastic speeches there.
This is what has allowed JPOS to sell the notion to the press that he was not obliged to tell the whip how he would vote, while the press fails to come back at him with the point that in the Westminster model, it is the whip who tells MPs how to vote, and not MPs who tell the whip how they intend to vote, and disobeying the whip is the greatest transgression of all.
The debate right now is all about ‘expulsion from the party’ of these MPs, but what we are really talking about, if JPOS must insist on making comparisons to the House of Commons while behaving as though he sits in the Italian parliament with La Cicciolina, is the withdrawal of the whip they chose to ignore.
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Can it be any clearer than this?
http://www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/principal/whips/
This throws more light on this subject
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whip_%28politics%29
Actually, Italy has turned its back on the ‘suprematic parliament’ since it reformed the electoral process going for a clear cut majority system, barring parties with less than 4% of the vote from representation, even going as far as removing direct representation opting to limit the voter’s choice of party, which leader would then nominate the representatives for the senate and the house.
it resulted in the first time in 60 years of the republic for a government to serve its full term. (They had been blabbing about the sistema presidenziale alla tedesca and the sistema inglese to get there, since D’Alema broke Prodi’s back in 2004 and expected to continue the legislature with the help of those who had been sent into opposition).
So sick were voters of individuals who would cross, splinter, form a cross party group behind people’s choice. This perversely gave Berlusconi a clean sheet to govern, leaving the left, a mish mash of prima donnas, whose only common mission was to get rid of him, in opposition.
Mario Monti was appointed when Berlusconi stepped down, defeated in the house, on condition that he form part of the majority supporting him. Bersani couldn’t but accept, in the name of a relatively new concept, driven home by the weekly polls, stable government.
Fini, who split from Berlusconi, found his following reduced to 3%, he had co-founded the centre right with a 12% margin and over 45 MP’s. They’re now less than 10.
It’s what Franco’s after. He needs to catch up.
If there’s one thing Renzo Piano may have screwed up, it’s the hemispherical design of the house.
‘opting to limit the voter’s choice of party’ should read opting to limit the voter’s choice to the party, which leader would then nominate the MP’s according to a ‘premio di maggioranza’ to reduce the risk of Franco’s and JPO’s in the house.
It’s been called the porcellum, as in porcata, although no one seems willing to give up it’s efficacy. The last time a poll gauged public opinion to see who wished to return to direct representation, where the MP is liable to parliament, not his party, the result was a miserable 23% in favour.
In Italy, typically one-third of parliamentarians change their party during a five-year legislature.
Changing party loyalty starts immediately after the election during the negotiations to form a new coalition government.
Personalities try to juggle for positions and rewards, immediately after the election and during the legislature when various personalities try to topple the government in power.
What is the result of all this? An anarchy, public debt of 120%, and structural deficits with no long term solutions.
I don’t think that JPOS’s argument stems from ignorance of parliamentary procedures but rather he is acting like Italian politicians who when confronted with questions about their illogical and/or corrupt practises they try to wriggle out by offering deliberately misleading answers which may at first hand look right. Franco Debono is a master in this with the only difference that Franco’s answers are usually of a legal nature.
Good explanation of the UK Whip system.
http://www.parliament.uk/education/online-resources/videos/mps-in-their-own-words/mp-party-whip/
Joseph Muscat thinks that being modern progressive and liberal means
1, Throwing a Halal feast at the end of Ramadan and embrace a born-again Labourite-Muslin to pander for the Muslim vote
2.Ghettoizing gays in the PL and reel out the occasional speech in favour of same sex marriage
3 .Enticing well-known l,ibertines and Lotharios as PL star candidates
4.Encourage his media to be increasingly anti-clerical.
And the rights of irregular immigrants stuck here wether they like to or not?
Irregular immigrants like cats and dogs have no vote.So why should he care?
Rebel, Rebel……
http://www.parliament.uk/education/online-resources/videos/mps-in-their-own-words/mp-party-rebels/
So if the three PN rebels are expelled, they no longer represent PN in parliament – i.e. PN loses parliamentary majority.
[Daphne – It’s taken you this long, and a consultation with the British parliament website, to understand that, has it.]
…. to say nothing of the fact that abstaining does not exist within the Westminster system. It is either yay or nay.
As far as I know it does not exist in our parliament either.
When MPs say they abstained they really mean they were absent when the vote was taken. The same can happen in the UK – if an MP is not present he cannot vote.
The one thing we really have in common with Italy is that the left, albeit nothing similar to Labour, expects to govern by default.
Intellectual snobs aghast at Berlusconismo, they’re now at a loss what to propose as an alternative, given that the cavaliere stepped down. Rubbing their hands in glee until a month ago, with talk of an election before the end of the year, they’re now in utter panic as the heammhorage to Grillo’s movement is turning into a flood. Monti gets the full term then.
Our own Milan supporter should know better than to create a persona, the media axiom requires strict maintenance and the absence of contradiction.
Expressing shock this morning sounds so hollow and cheap. It wasn’t what he said last Sunday, and forgets that the incitement against the JRS and ‘some’ NGO’s is the opposite of moderate.
Did he ever condemn outright the incidents where cars and front doors were torched? I know a couple of Italian expats who think he’s absolutely ‘questo e’ un pazzo’ mad when they see who he’s wooed into the supposed left.
Luciano’s ‘xenophobic sentiments are someone’s business’ is an unsustainable statement.
The prime minister should not oblige. The ball is in the conspirators court. Let them collude with the opposition in their desperation. They are not capable and do not have the courage to bring the government down.
A parliamentary motion defeating approach will boomerang on the opposition and uncover their desert thirst for power. Its like a mirage which the opposition is chosing to volontarily displace in vain.
The opposition is not an alternative government. It hasn’t even got a programme yet.
It is a joy to watch the House of Commons in session. Sarcasm and wit reign supreme most of the time.
The situation in the Maltese parliament, on the other hand, is totally the opposite.
Dullness and boorishness are the order of the day.
Most of our MPs are a boring lot and this trait unfortunately has a ripple effect about all that which is political in Malta.
Sometimes I come to think that their unofficial remunerations for being MPs are so attractive that they are extra careful to present a sombre face to the electorate.
Are you sure he is a qualified dentist since he is so intellectually challenged that I fail to see how he could have graduated?
Anglu Farrugia is a lawyer.
Here’s something else little Jeffy won’t find on facebook.
There’s a big debate going on in the USA on whether dentists should be allowed to inject botox.
Quote: ‘Would you go to a plastic surgeon for a root canal or tooth extraction? Hopefully not. A dentist who injects botox or fillers could face discipinary proceedings including suspension or loss of licence.’ Robert L. Kraft MD, New York.
What qualifications are required in Malta in order to administer the procedure? Anyone know?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120704/local/Labour-MPs-snared-by-Facebook-group.427081
Isn’t English a pre-requisite when joining the law course?
”MR. Luciano Busuttil
Today, 10:44
@DEBBIE SCHEMBRI. Thanks for your comment. I will use it to prove my libel case against your party and IT’S media. ”
He has painted himself into a corner and is trying to hold on to any shred of dignity as a way out.
Alas, the dignity ship sailed a long time ago, which makes him a desperate and vicious individual.
How dare he compare the British parliament to the situation here?
He may support England when it comes to football, but he is Sicilian in his methods in pretty much the same way as he purports to be nNtionalist, but is really Labour.
I bet he’ll go out in a tantrum and will try to do as much damage as possible before the door gets slammed in his face once and for all.
Nine conservative MPs had the whip withdrawn in 1994 after refusing to support the John Major government on the EC finance bill.
It is true, however, that Cameron did not withdraw the whip from the 81 Tory MPs who defied the three line whip on the EU referendum bill. Withdrawal of the whip was an option and actively considered, but in the end Cameron had to back down because to do otherwise would have seriously crippled the Coalition government.
I found the following article about ‘Party discipline and legislative voting’ most interesting as several points concern the actions of the ‘Gang of three’, the function of party whips and the number of times MPs voted against their own government especially between 1972-1979 in Britain’s Houses of Parliament:
http://www.revparl.ca/english/issue.asp?param=117&art=665
The article is long but worth reading in full.
He’ll be history soon.
From Maltatoday,
“then there is only one possible way forward if I – or any other one of my colleagues – are expelled from the party, then we must go for an early election.”
Why does he speak for others as well? It’s not automatic that an mp expelled from the PN wouldn’t vote with government.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120705/local/pn-no-plans-to-dismiss-rebel-mps.427182
Meantime, Jeffrey barricades himself inside under a Labour watch. There’s the risk evil Lawrence orders his ogres to drag him screaming to Pieta’.
Nationalist bodyguards also appreciated.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120705/local/PL-gives-Pullicino-Orlando-s-family-private-security.427193
Rapunzellicino