They’re the ones who encouraged hunters to believe that under Labour they would be able to shoot anything, anytime
First the Labour Party went after the hunters’ vote by encouraging them to think they would be allowed to shoot at anything whenever and wherever they please under Labour.
Who can forget Labour’s staged waylaying of Simon Busuttil on the street in Paola, under the cameras and during the election campaign, by cocaine trafficker L-Imniehru’s son-in-law, pretending to be a desperate hunter?
And now that some of those hunters are doing exactly what they were persuaded they would be allowed to do, the Labour government is hypocritically ‘condemning their actions’ and saying that it will double the fines, after a convocation of booted eagles was shot at Buskett.
Double the fines? For heaven’s sake – one of Labour’s very first acts of government was to REMOVE the mandatory shooting-fee and the licence-band hunters had to wear on their arm to prove they had paid it.
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An acquaintance stopped me a few weeks ago, fuming.
He told me that during the last election he was convinced by a Labour candidate, today a cabinet minister, to vote Labour because he was assured “that hunters will be left alone to practice their hobby in peace without any interference from the police”.
He did vote Labour but some time ago he was apprehended by the police for shooting a protected bird. When he went to talk to the minister and reminded him what he told him before the election, the minister answered, “What do you expect me to do?. You don’t need me. I cannot help you. You need a good lawyer”.
Fuming? Seriously what does he expect; you said it yourself: he shot down a protected bird, PL or PN protected means protected.
And did he really think a politician was going to keep his word.
I call that ignorance.
60000 gullible shifters were persuaded that Muscat’s Labour movement would keep its promise of a Malta Taghna Lkoll. Why wouldn’t hunters do the same if they were led to believe that they would have a field day, as also all the other credulous malcontents who were promised heaven and earth if they voted Labour?
The day of reckoning is some years in the future and people could be forgetful just as much as credulous.
MLP was never a friend of the wild birds, otherwise would never have courted the hunters for their vote. People who are against animal cruelty should take a stand by contacting their MPs. and make their voices heard.
Was any hunter actually fined in this episode?
How can you kill such magnificent creatures and call it sport?
Perhaps a closer observation of taxidermists’ work would be in order.
Laws are useless if the rule of law is not applied. Joseph Muscat’s marketing of Malta taghna lkoll worked to win an election, but the result is creeping failure in government.
While the Government [PL] states that fines will be doubled and condemns the [shooting of the eagles] act to please the environmentalists, the Police [PL] do not enforce any laws to please the hunters and allow them to go on a killing spree.
Does Muscat expect us to believe that the police and the Labour government are not in cahoots on this?
I am starting to think that PL are turning Malta into some kind of Orwellian animal farm.
The separation of Government, Police and Law courts seems to be vanishing fast.
On the 3rd June 2013, a flamingo was shot at Salina bay.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130604/local/flamingo.472438.
The Police arrested three persons the following day.
On the 18th Of July 2013, the commissioner, Peter Paul Zammit, stated that the police are only waiting for the results of forensic tests before proceeding for the arraignment of a man for the above crime.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130718/local/police-awaiting-forensic-results-to-arraign-flamingo-shooter.478571
But we still don’t know if these results came out and if anybody was arraigned.
Steve, like you I have that date ( 18th July) resting on my desk awaiting results as promised by the commissioner of police. From which locality did we say the suspect hails?
And by the way, there are two other investigations pending. The MTV concert and the ‘tal-pastizzi’ brawl.
The Labour movement is relying on the poor memory of the electorate at the next election. That amnesia worked during the last election when the vicissitudes of the MLP rule under Mintoff and KMB was a fading distant memory of horrors long past that was submerged by an insistent false LP propaganda of a promised “new” movement.
The next election should be held roughly five years from now at the most. That should suffice for the electorate to retain the nightmarish memory of today’s events and to vote more reasonably.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/23/opinion/china-corrution-lijia-zhang/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
You can triple or quadruple the fines, but if all enforcement is removed it’s like putting a price on the head of the bogeyman. Both useless.
No more fines – prison sentences – now we have had enough.
What is the PN doing about this or is it too busy discussing gay civil unions.
Admittedly that may be important too, but one should also tackle the current problems – the sale of Maltese passports, and illegal hunting being one of the items on top of the list.
What is really happening to the PN – are they giving up because the PL has a 9-seat majority and any criticism or suggestions by the PN would be ignored anyway.
If so, the PN might as well disband. The 132,000 or so who voted for them expect them to behave with stamina and not let themselves be shoved aside.
We need extraordinary people to lead us through these terrible – I can safely say now – next 4.1/2 years of PL government who is out to ride roughshod over anyone who does not agree with its policies.
The PL and its sidekicks are feathering their nests out of the Maltese taxpayers’ money, and will be well provided for when their time is up.
Etil, I do not know what the PN are doing, but if I were them, I would do nothing. The Maltese population deserves every drop of what it shall have to suffer in the next 4 years. It is just a pity, that we, that were out and negative, shall have to suffer with the rest.
http://news.sky.com/story/1158905/migrant-crisis-un-should-police-libyan-ports
Bastards.
Iva, veru. Imma Issa l-finanzi tal-pajjiz ga fottewhom, inkluz bil-Laburisti kollha li appuntaw f-postijiet ivvintati w mhallasa b’miljuni ta’ Ewro mit-taxxi minn fuq dar il-poplu..
Issa iridu jaraw minn fejn dawk il-miljuni ta’ Ewro ser jigbruhom, waqt li l-Laburtisi l-maghzula jibqaw jerdghu.
What is your email address, please?
[Daphne – dcgalizia@gmail.com]
BAN HUNTING COMPLETELY – excuse me for shouting. These morons cannot be controlled and only a total ban could stop such barbaric actions. What happened to the referendum proposal?
Oh well, they’re going to double the fines. Those poor eagles must be really grateful. Penalising environmental offences is important but preventing them should be the primary aim of any system for protecting the environment. Not that I’m expecting Tagħna Lkoll to get that.
Too little, too late………
it is not the stiffening of fines that is required here.
IT IS ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW THAT IS REQUIRED AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE THE LAW. THIS IS WHAT IS REQUIRED IN THE FIELD – NOT WORDS SCRIBBLED IN STATUTE LAW.
A million laws are not as effective as one bobby on the job.
I hope Michelle Muscat is happy now that hunters under a Labour government can feel free to shoot anything that moves.
I am one of those who signed the referendum proposal and was assured that the necessary number of signatures were to be reached in a matter of days.
Weeks if not months have passed and it seems that this was just a joke.
Can someone give us a hint of what happened with those signatures, or were these shot down by the hunters as well.
Thousands of signatures have been collected (possibly 10,000 but I’m not sure). There is time until March 2014 to reach 30,000 and force government to hold a referendum.
At the moment the signatures are in the hands of the organisers of the campaign.