Perhaps Lino Spiteri might write one of his holier-than-thou columns about this matter, given his deep involvement with this theft-by-government at the time
Shareholders of the National Bank of Malta – sequestered from its private owners by Mintoff’s government with the assistance of Lino Spiteri in 1973 and renamed Bank of Valletta – have won yet another law suit.
Some weeks ago, it was those shareholders who signed their shares under duress who won their suit against the government.
Today, it was those shareholders who didn’t sign over their shares, but who still had those shares forcibly transferred away from them, who won.
And some of them actually expect a positive decision on compensation from the man who made such a show of kissing Mintoff’s coffin, and who turned Mintoff’s funeral into a travelling Hugo-Chavez-style peasant circus for his, rather than Mintoff’s, personal glorification.
Is-sewwa jirbah zgur. No, actually, it doesn’t.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140206/local/shareholders.505754#.UvPCSLCPIdV
Lino Spiteri should also explain his mad claim that Mintoff did not force the shareholders’s hand:
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Lino-Spiteri-on-National-Bank-saga-Not-true-Mintoff-forced-shareholders-hand-20120426
Lino is right. I heard they held palm branches during the offering and showered Mintoff with thank-you cards for deliverance. Hosanna, they cried, with tears of joy as fears abated and peace was restored.
I imagine you’re the sort who laughs at funerals. Did you kiss Mintoff’s coffin too, like you regularly kissed his unwashed arse?
Come on, Lino ‘know all’ Spiteri. Tell us the truth you tried to conceal during your heyday. Don’t be the usual hypocrite.
And he saith unto them: Blessed art thou that shareth with the children of Dom, and let not thy fruit grow thick in skull and shallow in marrow, but let them bank their trust in the prophet that laboureth for this nation of children of mine.
Yes, Bank of Valletta, transfers galore.
Fat chance.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140206/local/fzl-proposes-reopening-of-agreement-with-church-on-teaching-of-religion.505768#.UvPdLMId-TM
Here we go again. Will this require a constitutional amendment? Or is just to distract the masses from the “passports for sale” scam and worldwide PR disaster.
Thinking of himself as such an upright person and a man of high moral principles, I expect that in his Sunday Times of Malta column, Lino Spiteri makes an apology to these shareholders.
If that happens, Monday’s news will be about Air Traffic Control’s busy Sunday monitoring the droves of porkers holding acrobatic aerial displays.
Lino Spiteri’s early career trajectory was intimately entwined with Mintoff’s anti-democratic takeover of all institutions and processes that might have kept been an obstacle to his excesses. Anything Spiteri says should be seen in that perspective.
I understand that Spiteri showed much early promise. It is a great shame that he squandered it in Mintoff’s service.
Good point. A betwixt and between soul. A sad outcome. All his potential ruined.
I will always wonder if, deep down, as he ages, that he rues the day he lined up with the despots.
People like Lino Spiteri prize power above principle. That is why they come undone in the end.
The guy is a hypocritical so and so. He should write in his column how he blocked competition to his protected monopolies, by denying trade permits and imposing import restrictions during 1981-1987.
He should also elaborate what he got in return for blocking competition from trading in order to safeguard selected monopolies that were flourishing and ripping the Maltese at the time. And yet, he has the gull to write about the oil scandal.
Lino Spiteri is now showing his true colours. He spent years trying to project, through his column in The Sunday Times, the idea that he is an independent, sober, detached observer of the Malta scene, a sort of ELDER of Maltese society.
With Muscat’s daily scandalous undemocratic behaviour, Spiteri should have a field day, but no.
At the end of the day they’re still joined at the hip, and the hip has a name.
That’s nothing. Joseph Muscat has just sold Malta to the Chinese.
Lino Spiteri cannot hide from the fact that he was a cabinet minister from 1981 to 1987 and is collectively responsible, together with the rest of the cabinet, for what occurred in that dreadful period.
Not only did he not resign his post, but he continues to criticise to this day the then Opposition, for bringing the government-sponsored atrocities to the attention of the international community.
Instead of hiding his face in shame he continues to pontificate on the virtues of good governance as though his record is anything to be proud of.
It irks me when the Nationalist media quotes him when he occasionally criticizes the government. The man should be ignored and left to fester in his deep routed hatred for the Nationalist Party.
Lino Spiteri is responsible for il-Bagit ta’ Qawsalla, which preceded colossal job losses to add to the already high level of unemployment.
He should confine himself to hair shirts, sackcloth and ashes and spare us his hypocritical rambling.
La Redoute, I love you.
Lino Spiteri was the minister responsible for trade in a time when you had to pay kickbacks to obtain a trade licence – though not to him, of course.
Lino Spiteri is very good at twisting facts and an expert in projecting his weaknesses unto others.
He never admitted that at the time he was Minister of Finance, Malta had one of the highest figures of unemployment during the year which he had labelled during his budget speech as “IS-SENA TAL-IMPJIEGI”.
He also backed Sant’s decision to remove VAT during a TV debate with John Dalli weeks before 1996 General Election after which he was appointed Minister of Finance again only to resign the post one or two months after saying he did not agree with Sant’s decision to replace VAT with CET.
He admitted in his autobiography that he was not one of Mintoff ‘s inner circle.
Lino was described by Alfred Sant as an armchair critic.
Alfred Sant, eh? Pity he didn’t confine himself to armchair criticism.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uRr9lVQ54hM&feature=c4-feed-u
The Maltese ‘newspapers’ are full of holier-than-thou and hypocritical columnists that are so disgusting and lack credibility. Lino Spiteri is just the epitome of that sad crowd.
Reading Claire Bonello in The Sunday Times is like going for a 7am swim at a habitual spot in the Blue Lagoon and discovering that somebody has decided to dump it full of dense mud at 6.55am.
Entirely my fault if I jump in there.
Indeed, in fact that is why I stopped buying it, quite a long time ago, now.
Lino Spiteri’s contribution to Sea Malta was the lumping of the dregs of his constituency onto its payroll.
I’m curious how many EU passports and citizenships the compensation to the National Bank shareholders will amount to.
Zero.
I honestly think that Lino Spiteri has spent so long in “jien totalment meqrud” mode that he hasn’t actually noticed there’s been a change in government. It’s still 100% full-on anti-PN “qrid”!
Well, I guess that after virtually 25 years, one becomes a creature of habit.
Fifteen. Spiteri was a government minister in 1996.
Indeed, ‘Doute – but there were 10 years’ “qrid” before that too.