Who is going to defend the non-shooting Maltese public against collusion between hunter Michael Falzon and his friends’ 100,000 signatures?
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June 1, 2014 at 10:49pm
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Er, Simon Busuttil?
100,000 signatures sounds a bit suspicious.
How do I check to see that someone hadn’t copied my name and ID number from the electoral roll and added it to this petition?
And how many of them are of legal age?
A very good comment Mark! Will the names ever be published?
What excuse is Muscat going to use to delay the referendum indefinitely?
Joseph Muscat will hold the referendum and side with the hunters. That was the deal.
The rights of minorities are already protected by relevant provisions in the Constitution of Malta. There is no need for any amendment to the law on abrogative referenda.
But, even assuming that government would be irresponsible enough to give in to pressure by the so-called hunters, the amendment that the hunters are seeking to push through would in no way apply to the attainment of their objective, since the perverted pastimes of groups of individuals, be they minority or majority, cannot by any stretch of the imagination be considered to be a ‘right’.
One trusts that the Opposition will finally stop faffing around and set about taking a clear stand by calling a spade a spade, starting from the presentation in Parliament of petitions drawn up by disturbed individuals.
We have seen the results of the retail version delivered by Franco Debono and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando in the previous legislature. We do not need to see the same thing done wholesale this time round.
I spot ex Labour member of parliament Pace Il-Vavu (tal-mustacci) at table with Michale Falzon.
If this government decides to undermine the basic democratic right for a referendum to pacify these bullying rednecks, then that would be the time for people to take to the streets in protest. It would be suicidal for the PN to toe the hunters’ line – because the PN is now our only defence against the excesses of the PL-sanctioned hunting lobby.
People who are as passionately against hunting as hunters are for hunting have votes too, and in much greater numbers.
It is time for a showdown to settle this problem once and for all. I urge the PN to be on the right side of history once again, and in so doing, regain the votes of thousands of people.
Well said. The PN has all but lost the hunters’ votes anyway. Losing the remaing few will not make matters worse in the long run.
In fact, this is a great opportunity it is finding itself in. Get Clint Camilleri, Michael Falzon, etc all white-hot with fervour for hunters, let them support the abrogation of the abrogative referendum. Do not touch this attempt even with a ten metre barge pole, and let them carry the hunters’ baby on their own.
The PL will clearly be identified as the hunters’ party and this will put an end to the blackmail of the PN at every election.
This is something which the PN should fight as a point of principle because now the hunters have overstepped the limit.
They want to limit our democratic right to ask for an abrogative referendum. It is now not just a question of animal rights but an attack on democratic rights.
And anyway, we are now in the EU and the blackmail factor which the hunters have been using has diminished. There is such a thing as overplaying your hand.
Two close relatives of mine have switched from voting PL to AD just because of Muscat’s dilly-dallying on the referendum, his love-me, love-me-not sequence of utterances on the spring hunting referendum.
If the PN stand out clearly on this issue they will gather thousands of votes, besides credibility, without losing any hunting ones since the latter have been lost to Labour since before March 2013.
Let the PL be transformed into a hunters’ and trappers’ party – very liberal and progressive. Labour is today a collection of several fringe parties.
Hear, hear, with great big bells on.
If the MLP (stop calling it PL) is in league with the shooters’ lobby (stop calling them hunters), and if the PN is in favour of spring hunting, then who will speak for the rest of us?
Call me old-fashioned, but I believe in that thing called representative democracy. Some of us think that the shooters should give up their hobby for the sake of the common good. Some of us think it’s time all shooting and trapping was abolished.
Who will speak for us?
Wasn`t it the PN in government which had promised hunters and trappers that nothing was going to change with EU membership , or have you forgotten ?
That was ten years ago. Desperate measures were needed for desperate times. Or you would never have gotten yourself an EU passport, Eddy Privitera. If that’s what it took, it was justified. We haven’t forgotten.
Thanks, Daphne, for this post.
I know that Mr Falzon is a devoted hunter which makes his part in the hunters signature fiasco a conflict of interest.
Anti hunting citizens must be fully aware of this.
If they are so confident that the majority of the country favours spring hunting, then why not hold this referendum and show us they are correct?
The hunting issue is a typical example of how the Maltese are divided into two distinct groups, and it is not simple red and blue.
Those that support the hunters are generally the kind of people who want the kind of government that Joseph Muscat is delivering, a government that uses patronage and favours to reward those who support it.
These people do not want democracy, free speech or equal rights; they care little for those. They want to be able to be able to speak to “someone” who can pull strings to give them what they want whenever they need to.
This is what won the PL such a huge majority and why people still support it in spite of the excesses of the first year in government.
I will therefore not be at all surprised that the referendum on hunting will be thwarted some way or another.
Can we (all those against bird shooting) sign a petition for the ‘un-blocking’ of the referendum?
Common sense tells me to just vote in the referendum but things don’t seem to work this way in this country where common sense is not so common.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/comment/blogs/39558/dont_touch_the_referendum#.U4woPHKSzE1
PN, just come out and say it loud and clear: THE PN IS AGAINST SPRING HUNTING AND BIRD TRAPPING. The hunters’ vote is lost already so what else is there to lose?
Not coming out clearly against these barbaric practices can only lose you the environmentalists’ vote.
About time principles and beliefs are clearly stated, irrespective of the consequences, otherwise one would be no better than he who believes that politicians “sometimes” have to tell the truth.
I see that the hunters are all wearing camouflage gear; did they buy it from a surplus store of the AFM or were they given by the army as surplus to requirements?
As to whether there will be greater numbers voting against Spring hunting, only time will tell, just as we had seen happening in the divorce referendum.
Who’s ‘we’ Eddy? Joey’s intelligentia panel of which, no doubt you are a most worthy member?
Wait, Wait…I’m confused. If they say they have 100,000 signatures against the 30,000 or so the anti-hunting lobby have then they are no longer a minority. So their minority rights rant doesn’t hold water any more. You can’t have it both ways.