It’s noon, so pour yourself a nice big G & T before you read this one (or some black coffee if you’re at work)
This is Muscat excitedly sitting in the PM’s chair on Day One. Somebody took a picture and put a copy of the Economist to decorate the desk, and uploaded it to the DOI site. The photo was immediately removed when they realised what the cover was.
Edward Scicluna, the Minister of Finance, quoted in The Malta Independent this morning:
“We have talked to rating agencies and assured them that we have a long term plan. By virtue of our roadmap we are confident that the markets will be calmed, just as they were when Mario Monti was elected instead of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.”
Imagine going to the rating agencies and telling them ‘we have a roadmap’. Did they mention, incidentally, that it is ‘kostid’ and ‘konkret’?
I’m left with that sinking feeling that the brain drain over the next five years is going to be massive. Meritocracy, my eye – the only movement we are going to see is a movement away from these shores.
THIS MORNING’S MERITOCRATIC APPOINTMENTS:
The Labour Party’s communications Bugs Bunny, Randolph Debattista, has been appointed to Minister Louis Grech’s secretariat, while his boyfriend, Cyrus Engerer, has been appointed to the secretariat of PS Ian Borg (EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds) within the same ministry.
How meritocratically cosy. Their colleagues would be well advised to knock on the stationery cupboard door before opening it. And the rest of us need to know whether a firewall is going to be put up around Cyrus to bar him access to citizens’ private information through government, given his less than impressive record with raiding hard drives to blackmail others.
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Kien hemm xi hadd fl-ispots li qal li jemmen fil-meritokrazija.
Insejt minn kien.
Ramona Frendo.
Ms Ramona Frendo Bortex.
Eh iva. Hadet xi haga?
We need a data protection firewall to shield us from the Minister for the Economy and Investment:
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/03/guest-post-a-message-for-labours-chris-cardona-marc-sant-and-clifton-galea/
I believe what we have is a kitsch government.
Instead of voting for a real response (if it really existed on the ballot sheet is another issue) to some of the problems of the past 5, 10 years, we now have a fabrication that was acurately designed to replace it.
Labour was good at creating a culture of fakes. Together with the floaters or switchers they conspired together to believe what they don’t believe and to feel what they are incapable of feeling and in the end persuaded each other that a Labour government will be a good response, fresh, great, important and of value.
But a kitsch Government is all we ended up with.
For many it will take time to recognise a fake but it will happen.
Please do let us know when you will be moving away. The earlier the better.
Malta will surely rejoice.
[Daphne – Simon, I was away from Malta for three months in total last year, but did you even notice? No. This is the age of the internet, remember. As for my physical presence, I don’t think I actually know who you are, so it’s not as though you actually see me.]
I should have guessed you were you away. How silly of me!
You were attending a REFINING YOUR INSULTS course in journalism !!
Or maybe on a HOW TO HELP THE PN LOSE AN ELECTION? course.
Well 5 stars for the latter that’s for sure.
BTW, the G & T choice was a great idea !!
What happened with Cyrus’ case? Is he still facing prosecution?
Couple of things here:
Was Scicluna in any way implying that Gonzi was another Berlusconi?
Cyrus, as far as I know, has, if not a criminal, certainly an unsavoury record. Does the MLP want to have the Maltese Government associated with such people?
Scicluna wishes to draw a parallel with what happened in Italy. Unfortunately for him, what we’re seeing is assymetry.
It has long been established that the MLP is associated with unsavoury people.
issa oqghod spettatura la ma kontx protagonista . malta taghna ilkoll.
[Daphne – The one thing you can’t accuse me of, my dear, is not being a protagonist. I am the archetypal protagonist, which is why your lot hate my guts. Voting doesn’t make you a ‘protagonist’ – don’t be so bloody pathetic. Everyone votes, or almost everyone.]
Daphne ilha protagonista. Kieku il-PL ma semmewhix daqshekk
Ghala le? Tatkom spazju ukoll.
Government by slogans.
At least this campaign has taught me a couple of things – I used to overestimate the importance of a good product and of facts and figures, and I underestimated the importance of packaging and slogans and sound bites.
X’kuntradizzjoni fit-terminologija. Jaqaw gew “mind controlled” kollha b’dil-frazi?
Spettatrici; jekk ha tikteb bil-Malti ikteb Malti tajjeb.
Cyrus Engerer, a man who stole naked sex pictures from his ex lover and emailed them to that ex lover’s friends and employers, now given access to citizen’s private data through his job in the office of the deputy prime minister.
You have got to be Labour to like this.
Speaking of immaturity and arrested development. What a nonsensical statement for a minister to make! Also, does the Minister know that Monti ruined the little left following Berlusconi? God help Malta.
Where is the defender of the principle of meritocracy? Still dreaming about the Change.
I bet my bottom euro that soon we will see JPO and Diva Debono climbing up the ladder of meritocracy under Joseph’s leadership, taf int, ma’ Joseph nahdmu.
And what about that Arrigo? He is using the JPO’s syndrome: jikxef sormu fuq Facebook instead of doing it properly within the confines of the PN’s executive meetings.
Ma kontx taf li l-Facebook ghall-Maltin, sar qisu harga ghand tal-growser, meta taqbez ftit il-kju, jaqbzu fuqek?
l-Istess hemmhekk – Min l-aktar ha jsabbat saqajh.
My advice to PN: Get off Facebook. Seems to do more harm than good.
Arrigo is always ready to point fingers.
Perhaps reporters should really become investigative.
Perhaps they may discover whether someone obtained a tender while his wife was Mayor.
All I can picture at present, is that before long we will see all these appointees climbing Castile stairs to ask Joseph to sort them out. I do not think they are able to deliver.
Daphne you might also like this one…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-12/europe-gas-carnage-shown-by-eon-closing-3-year-old-plant-energy.html
Ara fejnhom il-hbieb. I am really under the impression that while Schulz blocked the EU budget yesterday, he will open a little window for his baby Joseph so that he can secure the money due to Malta.
Then Joseph will be hailed as the saviour and Gonzi will be considered as a failure. The socialists principle, rub my back and I rub yours.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130314/local/muscat-schulz.461418
‘dan il-gvern ser ikun wiehed li jhaddan il-metrokrazzija’
Just jekk tkun Labour u taf lil ministru ikollok puzizzjoni ahjar.
Ejja ha norik min hu bugs bunny
The goings on in the Nationalist Party are quite interesting at the moment.
There’s a notable internal struggle with some also playing dirty and trying desperately (with no success) to distance themselves from their recent dismal failure.
In my opinion, using Facebook “childlishly” is a national epidemic and not limited to the Labour Party. A Facebook page is up “Mario DeMarco for Leader”.
Another post is going round to support Anne Fenech for Deputy Leader and so on.
It looks to me like Facebook users are keen to “fix” the party while the key players are taking advantage of the situation. None of it augurs well for the Nationalist Party.
Anne Fenech for Deputy Leader. You must be joking. Anne Fenech for Leader. Definitely the best person for the PN.
What has happened to Joseph’s face since he became prime minister? He looks like a dead person.