Mein lieber Schulz takes the bus
My other car is an Aston Martin
Suck-up Joseph’s attempts at using Mein Lieber Schulz to further his ambition, in this electoral campaign and in his own personal campaign for the party leadership last year, have not extended to following his example on the matter of cars.
Martin Schulz, who leads the Socialist Group in the European Parliament – of which our own Labour MEPs form part – is out on the campaign trail. And he’s making a point of using the bus, and other forms of public transport.
It would have been silly if he didn’t, when this is what the Socialist Group’s website is promoting on its home page.
Fighting climate change
Climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity today. If we don’t act now we put the future of our planet in peril. We want Europe to lead by example, and introduce a more ambitious energy policy for the EU. We are working towards achieving a new global agreement for the post-2012 period on the basis of a 30% emissions reduction. Sustainable development can create jobs and help save the planet.
Martin Schulz bil-bus u Joseph u Michelle bil-gas guzzlers – tajba ukoll.
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Another fabricated non-issue; and built on false premises to boot!
– Muscat DOES ues a bus for campaigning – insejta l-“Coach tar-Rebħa”?
[Daphne – That was Alfred Sant. You’re getting your party leaders confused.]
– You have not shown that Schults and other leaders do not use cars in private life.
[Daphne – It’s Schulz. And we are discussing EP campaigns, not private life. Schulz uses a bus. Muscat uses an Alfa Romeo.]
This is not scraping the bottom of the barrel – this is digging under the barrel.
[Daphne – You are free to leave. If you are unable to do so, you can request voluntary barring as addicted gamblers do with casinos, and I will delete your comments as they come in.]
You can like Herr Schulz or not (and I don’t like him) but he believes in the idea of socialism and he displays and lives that. That is the issue.
Insejta l-”Coach tar-Rebħa”?
You mean il-Coach tat-Telfa.
[Daphne – You both mean kowc.]
Il-kowc bit-tifla tal-pepe li tmur il-ballet …
Or else he could join Blogoholics Anonymous.
Leave? You must be joking. Some of the comments on this blog make my day. It’s the up-market equivalent of Manwel Cuschieri’s chat-show. Except that they don’t get so personal over there
I thought that we were discussing private lives. Maybe not in this thread, but elsewhere. Nevertheless, I find this thread very interesting. It makes me think (Geeze, just realised I have brain this morning).
Anyhow, the Socialist EP campaign fundamentally makes a lot of sense. And even the PPP campaing at that.
This being an EP election, the local political parties should have focused on the wider issues rather than petty arguments which are unrelated to the EP election. But I suppose, their intention is to target the Maltese audience which I’m afraid is largely disinterested in issues that extend beyond our shores. This is what I describe as the insular mentality.
The parties should have conveyed the message that the scope of their being part of the European Parliament (EP) is to contribute positively to this institution. The candidate’s attempts to demonstrate their ability to do so are very weak (with the exception of Simon Busuttil perhaps).
The EP is an institution that should be there as a world leader addressing global issues apart from legislating matters European.
I’m afraid that I am very disappointed by the lack of a serious campaign. The parties are missing ‘the wood for the trees’.
Nahseb il-motto ta’ Joseph Muscat hu “Do what I say, not what I do”.
Did you read the latest advert? It went along the lines of ‘Gonzi will make you pay for hospitals’.
Now how in the world did they manage to mix up Gonzi with Scicluna, I don’t know. This is exactly what I hate about the Labour Party. They don’t even know what they are up against.
They could have written “PN = deficit”, pretty straight forward, a strong criticism and the truth. But no, they had to take words from Scicluna’s mouth and put them in Gonzi’s. As long as they are believed by little brains who enjoy this kind of stuff; like thinking a team of Indians actors are illegal immigrants doing the war dance on the Azure Rock.
Tin foil hats, conspiracies of Africans with their invejxin plens, defending Muscat and his specially made socialist model of the Alfa Romeo and all that rubbish. As long as he eats hamburgers, who cares?
Jiena Progressiv u irrid karozza li tahli bizibilju petrol, u villetta go Sqalijja. Tghid jekk jitilghu tal-Lejber fil-PE, ituna wahda minn kull wahda?
You can now vaccinate yourself against coming down with a bad case of children, according to the clowns at maltastar
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/ms09dart.asp?a=2206
“Bedingfield battles to retain his seat” (I’d have thought he’d be struggling to retain his trousers, but anyway …)
http://www.timesofmalta.com/mepelections/blogs/glenn-bedingfield/20090529/video-interview-glen-bedingfield
Did you see this? Joseph Muscat’s new role model: Roberto Maroni of the ultra right wing Lega Nord.
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/ms09dart.asp?a=1745
“They could have written “PN = deficit”, pretty straight forward, a strong criticism and the truth.”
Yes it is true, but at the moment the deficit comes very down the priority list of government. Its first priority are jobs and in this it is succeeding and compared to other larger countries, it looks as if we are riding the storm and should be out of it by Winter.
The deficit can always be paid back when the economy is better but people’s lives cannot!
The thing is, Chris, that a very large percentage of our deficit has nothing whatsoever to do with the global economy and everything to do with gross mismanegemnt of the economy by the PN.
There was no global recession in 1996 when (according to Godfrey Grima) Fenech Adami said “I nearly had a heart attack when I found out how high the deficit was going to be” (or words to that effect.)
If in the 70’s and 80’s “someone” had had the decency:
1. to invest in the required infrastructure;
2. to stimulate the Malta Drydocks into working instead of wasting their time on trucks running around the island and terrorising everyone in sight;
3. to close down (better still never opened) the Malta Shipbuilding and
4. to really put some confidence in the Maltese to increase their economic output;
5. to build a new power station and not be poisoned by the discharge and dust from cheap Polish coal;
6. to repair the water distribution system (ah I forgot, there was no need for this the solution was easier – just stop the distribution!);
7. to invest in a decent telecommunication service and not purchase a scrapped, mechanical system (though it did have its own uses and records – it was the first skype like mechanical teleconferencing equipment – pick up the phone and you could enter into a conference with three or more people concurrently!).
Then there would not have been the need to increase the deficit so as invest in 8 years what should have been invested over the previous 24 years.
Yes, we had and still have a deficit, but I can tell you, it is better to have a deficit and live decently (maybe even emulate the Leader of the Opposition and buy Alfas, ask for a VAT refund and maybe even ask the government to buy it back from us) then to have no deficit and living on the street.
As economists (objective ones) can tell you, running a fiscal deficit and increasing government debt can stimulate the economy. And as budget deficits are usually due to the level of government spending being too high for prevailing tax levels. As I really cannot see that anyone would agree to reduce the government spending on health, education and social services (the real high cost expenditure of government – though I believe that social services should be reduced – but that is my believe) the other solutions would be an increase in tax and/or payment for health services (this is an option that Edward Scicluna is proposing!)
Can you mention one non-oil-producing country that has a budget surplus?
I think you are all too scared of a deficit. It’s a natural state in any growing economy and unless you have a vast natural resource which can keep you going (as Norway with their oil – bastards – and Canada to a small extent with their gas) you have to sometimes progress through loans.
I have just taken a home loan which I will be paying for until my grey days, but that doesn’t mean that moving towards purchasing a property was a bad move. Taking that loan and investing it in a property means I now have a significant investment to use throughout my life, whether it’s for living purposes, or to simply resell and grow with.
Same thing goes for a state. Sometimes investments are needed to grow the economy to a state where the repayment would be suitable.
Now I know pretty much squat about economics and I might be wrong, but that’s how I see it.
Ettore Bono says:
Saturday, 30 May at 1635hrs
“The thing is, Chris, that a very large percentage of our deficit has nothing whatsoever to do with the global economy and everything to do with gross mismanegemnt of the economy by the PN.”
Are you in a position to substantiate what you wrote? Or are you just being economical with the truth?
Daphne,
As Andrea might care to confirm, the correct linguistic form should be “Mein Lieber Schulz”.
To all, who may be interested:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,626815,00.html
Hi Leo,
I already read the Spiegel article. I can’t figure out Herrn Schulz. He seems to be a pretty ‘left sock’ and that is, somehow, his only message.
I thought ‘Mein liebe Schulz’ is a quotation and therefore I didn’t mention it. The correct form in this case is ‘Mein lieber Schulz’.
Joey and his Alfa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7KfZ3egKPs
Can you blame Ettore Bono for getting his Labour leaders confused ?
Joseph Muscat is a clone of Alfred Sant minus wig !
“The cargo shop was then granted entry in Sicily four days later.”
Maybe Auchan wasn’t enough to keep the weekend shoppers entertained.
@ Ettore Bono: while serving drinks at “sei sette” did you manage to spot John sipping champagne?
I believed your version about Gerald.