The Police Minister and the Police Commissioner: they’re Lidl buddies
Published:
July 30, 2013 at 2:22pm
There’s the Commissioner of Police, photographed at Lidl in St Venera at 11.25am today. Did he have the morning off?
And is it usual for Commissioners of Police to do the weekly shop at Lidl on Tuesday morning?
The Police Commissioner and the Police Minister – both scouring the shelves at Lidl. Imma kif inhuma bla dekor.
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Maybe he was buying one of their special offer sewing machines so that the police can make their own aprons.
Is Lidl running a special offer on bikinis?
And that lady in blue,is she doing her shopping in uniform? Is that a nurse’s uniform?
Yes, sent by Dalli to save on Mater Dei expenses.
It’s actually a midwifer’s uniform.
The presence of the Commissioner and a midwife could be more than a mere coincidence. It could be the connection between Cops Caterers and Labour Delivers.
Tuesday mornings are a quiet time in most Lidls.
No he wasn’t off. He was stocking up for the catering division.
Constable Catering has the top chef checking the produce at Lidl.
He’s buying the supplies for the police catering division – perhaps another party for Manuel Mallia or some picnic on a police RHIB.
As the CEO of an internationally renowned catering company he likes to personally check that the ingredients are of the required quality. He has to ensure that the nightly boat parties are a success.
@ SM ‘required quality’ at Lidl?
They were right.
Aisle of MTV.
Perhaps there are generous discounts available at Lidl for the High Society crowd?
What’s wrong if someone shops at LIDL?
No delicatessen queues.
Air conditioned.
Available parking space.
Value for money.
No chatting at the counters and cash points.
Fast.
A good choice of quality products.
I don’t find anything wrong with the commissioner shopping from anywhere in civilian clothes. Lat Saturday I was shopping calmly at Lidl at around half past eight in the evening, we enjoyed it .
[Daphne – The Commissioner of Police has a very demanding full-time job. He should be doing the shopping on the weekend like everyone else in a similar situation, not taking advantage of the fact that he’s the boss to sneak out and do it on a Tuesday morning, on state pay-roll time. And quite frankly, it’s ridiculous.]
Maybe he works in the weekend or in different hours than we do. For all we know, he could have been on leave.
[Daphne – Then he should say so. He has an obligation to explain himself. He is the Police Commissioner.]
In Mallia’s case, the story was telling , but in this case there’s no news.
[Daphne – You say that because you are touchy about Lidl, John, and not because you are thinking clearly. The fact of the matter is that the Police Commissioner should not be hauling trolleys round Lidl on any day of the week, still less on a workday morning. It brings him into unnecessary and perhaps even unwise contact with people who include those of the wrong sort, and yes, it is undignified. A Police Commissioner should always maintain dignity about his person, even if it comes at a personal cost. People who don’t want to change or adapt their lives and habits shouldn’t take on that role. If it is not OK for the president of the republic to push a trolley round Lidl, it is not OK for the Police Commissioner to do so. If the President wishes to shop personally at Lidl, then he should leave his palaces and go back to his personal home. The reason the president is installed in a palace is the reason he shouldn’t do the supermarket shop at Lidl or anywhere else: dignity and gravitas, and separation from the rest in a ceremonial/official building.]
very well said and explained.
I think we can rephrase your statement and agree:
“The fact of the matter is that the Police Commissioner should not be hauling trolleys round A SUPERMARKET on any day of the week, still less on a workday morning.” This is similar to his FB ‘membership’ which I pointed out here.
We shop from LIDL, Pavi, Scotts, and from the mini market in our area, depending on our requirements, and where we happen to be.
We have the membership cards in the last three where there is points system. We buy our things where it suits us best. For less than €6 we got a bottle of Porto Rose’ which satisfies our taste buds perfectly.
E chi se ne frega?
And why should you be concerned if he was shopping at LIDL on a Tuesday morning?
[Daphne – Because he’s supposed to be working, don’t you know. He’s the Commissioner of Police. He has places other than Lidl where he should be on a Tuesday morning.]
Do you have Lidl shopping hour allowance on Tuesday mornings where you work Richard G ? Do you call that a privilege or abuse ? You decide. I call it arrogance.
You’re all coconuts, can’t you see he’s in deep thought investigating something?
I am more interested in the nurse doing her shopping in uniform when it is against the rules to do so.
If there exist in Malta good satirical scriptwriters, like they have in Britain and in the USA, they would be spoilt for choice with all this abundance of funny material happening every minute or two in Malta under Joseph Muscat dot com.
But the audience is ridiculously small.
I spent years taking the piss out of people, to their face, (and they were paying me well for the privilege), and no one ever, EVER, got the joke.
OK granted. The British or American satirical humour is not much understood in our Sicilian/Italian-mix mentality. But then, even those scriptwriters of Latin humour, though not my favourite, will have a field day to choose from under Joseph Muscat dot com.
Script writers for what? Political satire as in parody needs good actors. That’s the key.
And as the Admiral says, the audience is probably even smaller than the pool of suitable actors.
Catsrbest, Teresa Mannino would play havoc with their ego.
Assuming he was on vacation leave, would there still be a problem?
Not that I don’t agree with you about the ‘dekor’ bit, but in this case, and that of Mallia, would one be overstepping the limits of what is generally considered appropriate social behaviour in shopping at Lidl?
[Daphne – People are free to do what they like and shop where they please. But Police Commissioners and Police Ministers and Prime Ministers are like judges and the president – they have to keep a certain degree of distance from the public and a bit of dignity about their persons. You don’t want to see them hauling packets of lavatory paper into their trolley and looking at prices on tins and pushing their thing round any supermarket, and especially not Lidl. That’s what it’s about. The rest of us can do what we want. And yes, it is undignified, too, and completely unstylish, to be penny-pinching when you are in a position in life when you don’t have to do that, and when nowadays it’s all about knowing your food and having a pleasant food-shopping experience by going to farmers’ markets, good butchers and sourcing your food properly. We’re not talking detergents here. Food is serious business. Our life and health depend on it, and we should be more careful how we choose it. One of the advantages of being Manuel Mallia or the Police Commmissioner is having sufficient money to buy food of known and good provenance, and taking the time to do it.]
you can ignore my previous comment where i said i needed an answer on why can’t a police or dr can’t buy at lidl or any where! this is sooo right! very well said!
I agree with you, Daphne, but in Malta one cannot always avoid the man on the street. I do find it undignified seeing the police commissioner shopping at Lidl especially on a working day, and when there are very serious crimes that need solving.
I would be more shocked seeing Dr Mallia shopping at Lidl after declaring 500,000 Euro of cash at home. This sounds VERY bizarre indeed.
No, doing your own shopping is not undignified, irrespective of your station in life.
[Daphne – Yes, Maria, when you occupy a certain state role, it is undignified, not because the act of shopping itself is undignified, but because it puts you in situations where the required distance – the distance which shores up the respect required for that role – is not present. There is a word in Maltese to which I can’t quite find the English equivalent: suggizzjoni. The rest of us can do our own shopping. The Police Commissioner, as long as he fills that role, should get somebody else to do it for him or use the internet to have it delivered. The Police Commissioner should never put himself in situations where he is approached by all and sundry in the lavatory cleaner aisle, for the simple reason that the act of hauling things into a trolley in a supermarket makes him highly approachable and vulnerable to overtures, which both erode respect for the role.]
I know you have a thing for Lidl, so do I, but its because I visited the San Gwann outlet a few times and found the fact that you still need to go to the supermarket afterwards an inconvenience. They do not carry much choice. Your reasoning seems to be based on social standards you impose on yourself, but that’s beside the point.
[Daphne – No, Maria, my reasoning is based on propriety and the established practice of people in certain roles having to keep a distance from exposure to approach by individuals. A police commissioner is a police commissioner at all times, even in the supermarket aisle. It is a ROLE not a job. I do not consider doing my own shopping to be beneath me. I have done it for almost 30 years and there are times when I actually enjoy it. If it is not beneath me, then it is certainly not beneath Peter Paul Zammit. But we are not talking about Peter Paul Zammit here. We are talking about the Commissioner of Police. And no, he should not be in a supermarket aisle bumping into people who might and will approach him inappropriately. And yes, it is terribly inappropriate and undignified to put yourself in that position. The Commissioner of Police should be a remote and unapproachable person, not somebody to whom every citizen thinks he has access ghax minn taghna u narah jaghmel ix-xirja ghand il-Lidl jew lis-Scotts.]
Not everybody thinks that shopping is an “experience”. I’ve been to the farmer’s market and the only good thing about it is that the prices were not as expensive as what I pay in Gharghur. Quality was the same.
I have a very good butcher, just a stone’s throw away from your very good butcher, and thankfully I only have to wait half the time I’d have to wait if I did my meat shopping a few meters closer to the main square.
Prices are just about the same, but the look of my butcher’s shop may put you off … its not as nice and shiny as the one you like.
[Daphne – I work with food, Maria. I don’t go to butcher’s shops because they’re nice and shiny, but because they’ve got the right cuts from the right animals, stuff I happen to know about. With other things, I might not bother, but with this, I do. Most health problems in Malta are caused by bad food and too much of it. I wasn’t always so concerned, but working in the field has taught me a lot and changed my attitude completely.]
GS Superstore is quite convenient too, and thankfully I’m not a police commissioner, minister, judge or president, so its OK for me to go to this supermarket just as long as I don’t look at the special offers or any other reduced items lest I be penny-pinching.
[Daphne – Oh, I look at those. But you know what? I long ago worked out that the best way to save money is by avoiding the special offers, which only make you spend more by buying things you wouldn’t have bought anyway. The temptation to buy something just because it’s cheap is great, but wasteful.]
I agree with you on various subjects, and I dislike this bunch of political scum as much as you do, but my dislike stems from their history, their policies, their behavior in relation to what really matters (excluding shopping), and the future they will eventually ruin for most of us.
I know your dislike is more personal but you cannot impose the same social restrictions you impose on yourself on others. Your elitist approach to food is not as impressive as other subjects you’re very good arguing at.
[Daphne – I have no elitist approach to food. Unfortunately, because of my social background for which I cannot be held responsible (not that it is a crime, but apparently yes, it is some kind of criminal liability here) there are some people, and these appear to include you, who approach me well-armed and bristling with hostility and preconceived notions of ‘snobbery’. The reality, of which you appear to be entirely unaware, is that people from that kind of background are massively down-to-earth, practical and thrifty. This is the reason why so many of them shifted to Labour this time: they worked out, for practical reasons, that it’s best to be in with the new rulers, something which their families have been doing throughout Malta’s history, which is why it comes so easily to them.
The snobs and spendthrifts tend to be relatively new money and keen on proving their status. I, on the other hand, have nothing to prove, which is why I will often be seen wearing a pair of old shorts and paint-spattered shirt, with my hair in a mess, at the vegetable truck. It is also the reason why certain Labour supporters of a different social order think that this is evidence of my low social status (they use more graphic descriptions), precisely because this is how they sort people and because part of proving they’ve arrived is swanning around and showing off, and avoiding going out like that lest anyone think they’re some kind of peasant, a factor which I do not consider at all.
So yes, I do my own shopping (for 20 years, for a family of five), haul it back, unpack it, and even work to earn the money to pay for it. My approach to food comes, as I said, from working in the field – not only working with cooks, but interviewing health professionals who are unanimous about the fact that most health problems in Malta come from poor food or the wrong food. The tragic irony is that poor food is actually more costly than good food.
Poor food includes anything that is highly processed and with ingredients far removed from their natural state. This means that the people who can least afford to do so are spending a high proportion of their meagre income on food that is bad for them, through lack of knowledge and because they don’t have basic cooking skills. The worst part of it is the perverted snobbery involved: they actually seem to believe that buying a frozen pizza which they can just pop into the oven is high status because it is more expensive and involves no work, while making your own is low status because it is cheaper and you have to work at making it. The health professionals are up against a serious problem, because the approach to food has to be tackled at the root, and that’s going to be difficult.]
can you help me out? I Can’t spot what’s wrong here!! Everybody deserves a break I guess!! if you’re a police or magistrate, Dr or whatever you are, just a quick run to the supermarket would’nt kill anyone! so what? explain please!
Lidl did he know he’d be photographed there.
I do not usually shop at Lidl but sometimes I go for the fun of it.
I must admit that the choice is poor and unless one is cash-strapped he goes somewhere else. On the other hand some things are really cheap such as toilet requisites and detergents.
I go regularly to the farmers’open market on Saturday. It is not cheap but there is a nice variety and the produce is fresh.
As regards the Police Commissioner he is free to go wherever he wants to shop. Maybe he was accompanying his wife. Many men go shopping. I remember a judge going to the supermarket early in the morning before Mass.
His wife worked as well and he would help her out.
Anything wrong with that? Marriage is partnership and everything to share.
[Daphne – You miss the point completely, Lola.]
No nurse or midwife is allowed to wear her or his uniform out of the hospital and this for obvious reasons.
Hospital management please take note.
For me it is disgusting to see nurses or other hospital workers shopping in uniform either before or after their duty. It is a source of infection.
Nurses have showers in their quarters.
Some years ago while going to work at around 6.30 am in the morning, I used to see a nurse in her uniform waiting for the bus on a bus shelter in a very busy street in Qormi, the so called Telgha tal-Pepsi. Sense of hygiene? Zero.
I don’t think that whenever the Police commissioner takes a day off he should inform the whole nation. It’s his right like anyother worker.
But I surely agree that certain people should maintain their dignity as they have particular roles in the society and they are not the “normal” citizens.
I would like to point out that hospital personnel are not supposed to go around in their uniforms, spreading jerms or taking jerms with them to work place.
Tghidlix li din il-mid wife minn ghand il-Lidl marret ghax xoghol hux?
Angela Merkel when on vacation likes to go shopping from discount store; quoting BBC.
[Daphne – Yes, and that fact made the BBC news. Ask yourself why.]
Federal elections in Germany are quite imminent and discount stores in Germany (Lidl, Rewe, Aldi, Netto, Edeka) have excellent offers, ample parking space and usually employees with good manners.
Ms. Merkel, affectionately known as Mutti in Germany, hence has a chance to meet voters without need to pay home visits.
Daphne, I trust that my answer was adequate enough.
I believe it’s also a matter of culture.
I read an article about Merkel’s private visit to Capri on an Italian magazine.
Last summer Merkel visited Capri and flew on a military flight. Her husband who accompanied her during this holiday didn’t take the same flight as his wife as he was being charged for the trip. (It seems that the state covers only Merkel’s expenses). He travelled on a low cost flight down to Italy.
Haha I have to say that you are looking at this in a very biased way. We cannot comment on why he was there on a Tuesday as he could have been off work or on a break.
I think it is complete drivel to say that ” Police Commissioners … have to keep a certain degree of distance from the public and a bit of dignity about their persons” so they should not shop with everyone else!!! They get paid by the public and in these times most people prefer that they live like the regular man rather than in a different world. if he was buying luxuries and getting his staff to go shopping for him you would probably be the first one in exposing him and saying that he is squandering his public paid money on a public lifestyle and this is not befitting of a man who is in the public eye etc etc. Just look at how well recieved Boris Johnson is for cycling the streets of London, or Kate Middleton for wearing a £40 dress as an example.
Snobbery and self elevation may possibly appeal to you but does not tend to appeal to the everyday voter.
[Daphne – Read my responses to other comments. It has NOTHING to do with snobbery. Kate Middleton used to go to the supermarket immediately after she married. You will not see her there now. Ask yourself why.]
Can you send the photo to the M anager of MidwiferyServices at Mater Dei,please to stop the practice of going shopping in uniform?.She needs to take action immediately for many
reasons.
I can supply you with her e-mail address.
Thank you for your consideration.
I do not agree that it is undignified for a police commissioner (or judge) to be shopping at any supermarket. Pope Francis is rightly preaching a culture of normality, where “important” persons do not consider doing normal things to be below them. Of course, one has to strike a balance, since occupying some roles may mean refraining from other activities which may be “normal”, such as going to the kazin for a drink.
Forsi mar jinvestiga pajzan biex ma jarfu hadd. Ma tistaghx tghid ? Il-Lidl ghandhom hafna serq imma ma tantx jinqabdu nies jisirqu.