Guess what, friends? Muscat now has a 20-year plan.
When he was elected party leader, Joseph Muscat told us that he had a 15-year plan for Malta.
He had written it, he said, while he sat in the European Parliament.
We never saw this 15-year plan, but perhaps that might be because one or two of his advisers were kind enough to point out the obvious.
No, not that it was absolute crap, but that a 15-year plan written in 2007 by a lowly MEP whose only experience was in the Super One newsroom might be kind of irrelevant by the time 2013 rolls round.
Two years as party leader and the man is even more ambitious. Now, he has a 20-year plan.
What this tells us, apart from the fact that, like his predecessor Alfred Sant, he believes reality should not be allowed to get in the way of theory, is that he thinks Labour will govern for 20 years when it is elected in 2013.
You know, because that’s the accepted cycle, regardless of what you do and don’t do.
Strange, isn’t it? Muscat can’t give us a single Labour Party policy planned for its 2013 manifesto. And yet he has worked out what we will be doing in 2033.
timesofmalta.com, this evening
PL to present model for country’s development
The Labour Party is to start presenting its model for the country’s development in the next two decades in the coming months, leader Joseph Muscat said today.
72 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Nostradamus must be turning in his grave.
They’re not calling it a plan, according to the Times but a model; it must be the latest buzzword for the middle class. On the other hand, maybe it’s not a 20-year plan they will be presenting but a 20-year old “mudella”.
Antoine, can you further expand what you meant when you used the word ‘middle class’?
Mittel kless – Labour Party version. The middle class is something else.
Is the world not going to be hit by an asteroid in 2012?
innehhu l-VAT please…
So I presume it’ll be 4 times better than Stalin or Mao’s pathetic, short-sighted 5-year offerings?
Ah! But Muscat’s plan is certainly not as foresighted as the Clinton’s 20-year plan: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/19/obama-camp-using-disputed_n_73288.html
Kemm jara kbir, il-boy.
Interesting! He must have a fantatsic crystal ball! What a twit!
Saw the report on timesofmalta.com. Nothing about the “illegal immigrants”, whose number is likely to increase during the coming years. Not that I have anything in particular against these people; I just thought he’d give their presence a mention.
Parenthesis:
I was thinking that some time ago, Le Iene carried out an investigation among Italian MPs to establish how many sniffed or otherwise abused of certain substances.
Wouldn’t it be a good idea to do the same among our MPs and MEPs?
If I remember correctly they took make-up swabs of politicians doing talk shows. A big ruckus was raised and the thing got shelved.
Spot the odd one out.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2870927/Glazers-wont-return-to-Old-Trafford.html
Now he’s becoming obsessed with the Presidency of the EU in 2017. He is already seeing himself at the G20 summit, with ‘Lil din’ pushing among the first ladies.
Up until now I thought that the Super One hack, who never had a real productive job in his life, was just big headed. Now I think that he is outright dangerous, and can cause serious harm to this country.
Just shows that he really is a clueless w****r.
The leader of the Labour Party is, very simply, a non-starter. While watching Dissett, I was sorely shocked at his lack of knowledge and political acumen and at his obvious apprehension when asked about his plans, come 2013.
Sorely shocked? It’s not as though he hasn’t been the elected head of the Labour Party for the past two years.
I think I know why Joseph stretched his plan from fifteen to twenty years. Take this private member’s bill and his ‘personal’ crusade for divorce: first he utters a few words just when he was elected leader of the MLP, and gives the party delegates a cold shower.
Then when he is co-opted to parliament he tries to spearhead his private member’s bill with some pomp, than it dawned on us that he sneaked out of this crusade.
Lately when he was invited, as the LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION, to address a conference on how to strengthen the family in Malta he hijacked the conference with his people and spoke about HIS personal agenda on DIVORCE.
With all this coming and going he would need fifty years to introduce something which can been done in a matter of a few years…or months.
In 1971 it was ‘Malta Marida Medicina Mintoff’ and ‘Mara Maltija, trid tlahhaq mal-hajja? Ivvota Labour.’ The two issues then were corruption and the cost of living. The least said about what happened to corruption post 1971, the better, and we know by now that the solution to the cost of living was making sure that people had nothing to buy.
In 1996 we were back to corruption and the cost of living, and it hasn’t stopped since then. Now we have Joseph Muscat, who has changed the party name and emblem but can do little or nothing about the mentality or the modus operandi. Here he comes with a 20-year plan.
I bet my last cent that when 2013 rolls round, it will be a rerun of corruption and the cost of living. As that butter TV commercial goes “Some things never change.”
“Labour is to start presenting its model…”
As opposed to actually presenting it? Maybe that’s the 20-year plan: two decades of acting aloof, mysterious and all-knowing while dribbling a trail of bait for the gullible.
I think he believes strongly that the world ends in 2012, so all that matters is that he looks good till the end of the world, then no one can say he hadn’t tried to give Malta the best he could.
If the world ends on the 21st December 2012, as some people believe, mela how very unlucky they are at Macina/CentruNazzjonali for the world to end just before they hope to have the Great Leader installed in Castile. Vera bziezel.
The following is from in the NSO demographic review of 2009:
“According to NSO projections, the total population is expected to drop to just over 400,000 in 2050, after
reaching a peak of 423,000 around 2025. Projections also reveal a continuous ageing population over the
years. In fact, the percentage of persons aged 65 and over is expected to increase to 20 per cent in 2025
and then to 24 per cent in 2050. On the other hand, the percentage of persons aged under 20, which was
estimated at 22 per cent in 2008, is expected to drop to 19 per cent in 2025 and to 17 per cent in 2050.”
So even though the population is to peak in 2025 (and not 2030) if Muscat’s consultant had read the whole paragraph, he/she might have noticed that the increase is not due to an increase in the birth rate, which peaked in 1944 and has been falling ever since with the largest decrease happening since 1989.
The population will peak because the children of the post-war baby boomers will be reaching old age and life expectancy is expected to increase.
This fact was also completely ignored (and I believe even questioned) by Alfred Sant and the Labour Party during the discussion on pension reform. Now this Smart Alec comes over and announces urbi et orbi that he will produce a 20-year plan to take us all to the promised land of milk and honey.
Assuming a myriad of assumptions, should the 20 yr model be implemented it will most definetely end with the words ”crash and burn”.
And why on earth is it being called a MODEL anyway?
God help us.
Because while I would never vote for a plan, I would go all the way with a model.
Who will be stupid enough to vote for a man whose ‘Hidden Agenda’ is so obvious!
Well, Emmanuel Mallia, Marlene Mizzi, Anglu Farrugia, Toni Abela,…
…about half the electorate – the half that has always done so.
20 year plan? Seems very Stalinesque. Look what happened to them. Twit.
Yes, to remain in Opposition for another 20 years.
At least that wouldn’t be so bad on the rest of us who don’t vote MLP.
well, would make a change if we are to have a long term plan by any govt, be it PL or PN, as both have thought within 5 year frameworks for the past decades.
PN should take it up too, not as a copy , but as a reasonable govt. should do.
In today’s world, any self respecting company CEO will tell you that even a five-year company business plan is taking things too far. Today the preference is for three-year plans because there are so many variables and the pace of change is so much greater than it was even in the recent past: inflation, technology, energy solutions, being ‘green’, currency rates, natural disasters, change in socioeconomic situations, change in demographics, change in values, immigration, emigration, number of students, terrorism, bank closures – and this just off the top of my head.
Can Muscat say that anyone in 1990 could have written a plan and stuck to it right through to today?
Bottom line is he likes to use big words to impress people who will say to themselves – ‘A 20 year plan? Wow, what vision this man has, how bright he is. I could never write a 20-year plan for my country so he must be brighter than me.’ How impressive.
I must be off now because I am in the middle of writing a 25-year plan for the whole world.
the mother of all plans
Surely better than PN’s no plan or plans gone monstrously wrong. I enjoy comments from PN people – most are abroad because they know Malta’s conditions under PN went from bad to catastrophic and yet they post from another country while they were forced to go abroad for a decent job.
[Daphne – No. They are ‘abroad’ because ‘PN’ dragged these two wretched islands kicking and screaming into the European Union. And what a blessing that was.]
How dare you call me a broad?
Indeed it is a blessing to be replaced from your own country by immigrants because that is what is actually happening. They come (conveniently claim asylum without any proof of course), most of whom work illegally (no tax/NI) send all their earnings to Africa thus again not 1 iota goes into the economy.
Then Maltese youths have to travel elsewhere because the businessmen, who are the ones who really control this hellhole of an island and not politicians, prefers paying low wages.
[Daphne – Would these ‘Maltese youths’ prefer to, say, collect refuse while running behind a truck?]
Thus the slow but sure replacement of a whole population. What a blessing indeed. I did in fact myself vote for EU and the only word stuck in my mind is the ‘pakkett ta’ 100 miljun’. I guess they were referring to 100 miljun Afrikan and not euros or Maltese liri. Perhaps I got it all wrong. What a blessing when you can’t even control your own borders.
Daphne not even the immigrants wanted to be rubbish collectors, do you remember that article on times when just 4 or 5 of them accepted the job. They are mostly unskilled/unqualified and greedier than we will ever be. But to answer your question, ofcourse they would do the job if the wages are acceptable.
[Daphne – Would these ‘Maltese youths’ prefer to, say, collect refuse while running behind a truck?]
Complicated one this. Besides the xammir tal-imnieher answer as to why youths won’t do it, there is a point though.
Businessmen want to pay the cheapest wages they can. We can’t on one hand want/expect EU standard salaries, while accepting people getting paid a miserable salary that in Africa is considered a fortune.
Simple economics of supply and demand determining price, and no watchdog.
The subject is certainly a topic worthy of a future blog-post.
I had the impression that you have a moderate to high standard of education but this impression is disappearing quite fast. Is it possible that you have not seen the overall improvement since forming part of the EU?
As for your jibe at the slogan – from just the EU structural funds, Malta has obtained over 850K Euros = over 140K per year. And this not including the other funds from the Norwegian and Swiss contribution and from the various EU programme.
From the way you write, especially against the employer, you sound like an old moulded communist rather than a liberal, moderate progressive. Do you really think that the Island would not have had the problem of irregular immigration, if it would not have been in the EU? Do you really think that these people that are risking their lives would have missed Malta on purpose?
If these regularised immigrants are finding work (and this is regular work, with regular salaries and social security contributions) then I cannot think how the12K that are supposingly unemployed cannot do the same? Or is it a case of wanting to bum it off on the society whilst performing on declared work?
Can you explain how the UK second car importers are employing persons to purchase the cars for them in the UK as they cannot cope with the sales? Are these being bought by the “filthy rich employers”?
“do you remember that article on times when just 4 or 5 of them accepted the job” – How, then, does that explain the fact that many rubbish trucks have at least one African man working as a refuse collector, and that many street-sweepers are of African origin, too?
The PN took the decision (years ago) to have broad policy and strategy without going for a tight plan. This is exactly what happens in a company – and the results are there for all to see.
The only requisite is to look at it in an objective and open-minded way and not in a tight and egotistic way.
Just having strategies, the government has opened the way for the private sector to be the driving force of the economy, whilst still welding control through the legal system. The results are that Malta has traversed the worst world economical upheaval of the last 100 years with very few scratches.
And BTW – I live in Malta and have done so almost uninterruptedly for the past 20 years or so.
Do we live in a different country, or what?
Can you please say how things in “Malta under PN” went from bad to catastrophic? Has a civil war started, or what? And which plans have gone monstrously wrong?
Do you seriously believe in Joseph Muscat’s supposed plan? Haven’t you realized that two years have passed since his election as party leader, and the party hasn’t produced a single policy document, yet? But you believe in his 20-year plan, of course.
It’s incredible.
Mark, for your information I left Malta during Mintoff’s time as prime minister because the situation in Malta was diabolical. From what I see every time I come to Malta, you have LESS to moan about, both compared to that time and compared to the situation in many other countries, including European ones.
You guys would moan and complain if Malta was heaven on earth. I think it’s a Maltese trait. It has always been there. I knew people who were doing quite well and still complain all the time. In contrast, people in the UK just get on with it, even when life in many instances is tougher than in Malta.
As for the 20-year plan, any fool would know that unforeseen circumstances and events would derail even a 5-year plan. Of course, Joseph Muscat has such a brilliant mind that he has taken into account even as yet unknown events. He does not commit himself to anything even in the present, so a 20-year plan is a bit rich coming from him.
Typical Marxist stuff, all these plans.
I bet my last euro it’s written by Mario Vella of East Berlin fame.
Mark C, get your facts right. Today’s Maltese youths want their money through less hardship. Imagine a situation where you are an employer and you send for an 18-year-old to offer him: refuse collection, a day in the sun and rain mixing concrete, a day scraping walls, a week cleaning debris from construction sites etc….Mhux jibghatek tixxejjer bil-familja.
david g – we have people rummaging through the rubbish in the hope that they find something of value, people stealing empty rubbish bins so much so that now they are hammering the rubbish bins to walls so that they don’t steal the empty bins. Do you think they wouldn’t do the same thing for a decent wage and conditions? Of course they would, we never had any problems with rubbish collectors so the whole point is quite useless.
Mark – rubbish bins have been stolen for ages same goes for plants, flower pots and even newly planted trees. This is not a sign of some economic problem – but a sign of the Maltese – anything that is not attached and outside one’s house, is free to be taken.
If there are Maltese persons out there that are really that bad, then we would not be seeing the irregular immigrants working (legally or not).
The only persons that are really in a bad state are unfortunately most of the drug addicts. These cannot hold to a steady job and require 10’s of Euros per day to keep their habit.
People steal toilet seats from public conveniences too, so what does that prove? If the destitute need to steal to survive, they’d start with food not receptacles for refuse. Dustbins are useful only if you have anything to throw away.
Wrong, David G. It’s the employer li jibaghtek tixxejjer. In today’s world, you need qualifications and certificates to do any job, even “unskilled labour”. I know, I’ve tried it. The solution would be to re-introduce some flexibility. Digging trenches and collecting refuse should not require a diploma from MCAST. You try asking for a job as a tile-layer or handyman or labourer or bog-cleaner, and then come back on this blog and tell me all about it. The only way you’d be able to get those jobs would be 1) if you’ve years of experience in the field, 2) if you quit school at sixteen and did a few months’ training for the job or 3) if you’re an illegal immigrant who gets paid less than the minimum wage. If you’re Maltese and ask to be paid less than the minimum wage you still will be turned away, because employers are naturally suspicious.
This job-thing is a delicate subject but some of you seem to be living in a 1950s fantasy world.
So that’s what he was up to at the European Parliament, warming his seat and doodling a 20 year plan. The pompous little twit would be more useful back at Super One.
Or on the back of a rubbish truck (better, why not in it?)
With all Joe’s plans and models, Gonzi will again give them a run for their money come 2013.
The accepted modern management view these days is that “It is not the plan, but the planning.” This is because planning is a continuous strategic/tactical thinking, whereas a plan is something that can easily go wrong and be superseded by events. Let alone a 20-year plan…
He’s planning the plan and the plan will plan the planning process. He’s sounding more and more like his predecessor.
At least that one had brains.
Yes, like his predecessor… the one with the pjan ta’ bidu gdid…vizjoni ta’ Malta moderna…Seen some pages from it at Maghtab recently…
@ Mark C
Maltese youth are going abroad in droves not because they have to but because they want to and many of them leave at the first opportunity they get. It’s the ones armed with a degree under their belt and plenty of determination to reach the higher echelons of their career who are leaving and not the poorly educated ones.
However unlike you I see this as a positive thing in more ways than one – the education system is not as bad as some people would like us to believe and our youngsters are able to hold their own against foreigners; people who live abroad and further their careers can eventually contribute their services to the Maltese; it’s thanks to having joined the EU that many more people are now able to leave
If you voted in favour of Malta joining the EU purely on the basis of the “100 miljun” as you put it then silly you! True we’re getting many illegal immigrants (some might say as a consequence of joining the EU and we do need to deal with the situation better)….but can you mention any affluent country who doesn’t get illegal immigrants?! Or would you rather have the Maltese population remain a homogenous one (our gene pool is as pure as that of any bastard after 2000+ years of colonisers) at the expense of fostering more mediocrity and akbar zibs who think they’re god almighty preaching to the great unwashed? God knows there are enough of them around!
And lastly, I observe that you’re not as you put it “one of the PN people forced to go abroad for a decent job”. Then pray, you must surely be one of many PL people who have been enjoying greatly improved conditions in Malta under PN for the past 20+ years but harp on as if everyone’s been dying of hunger. Delusions or sour grapes?
Snoopy – you really do not know anything about Malta do you. The immigrants don’t want to be in Malta, the attempted fleeing and their own testimony should have given you a clue.
Daphne….this time I shall hold you harmless. But please…prior to uploading certain posts as that of Mark C, of from-bad-to-catastrophic fame, a health warning is warranted: Reading this post can seriously damage your sanity. Please do ask your webmaster to fix a pop-up as the mouse hovers over such items. The size of those appearing on cigarette packets would suffice. And for Mark C’s paranoid benefit….I’m born, bred and living in Malta.
The day that I would want our youth aspiring to be rubbish collectors is the day I will give up on this country (No offense to rubbish collectors – their job is indeed essential and we can’t live without them). They ask for a decent wage and you accuse them of being greedy and spoilt for choice wanting the latest gadgets etc. Even Africans joke and taunt us about Malta’s wages, biex taraw fiex wasalna afrikani jidhqu bina u kundizzjonijiet tal-pajjiz.
Mark, you wrote: “Even Africans joke and taunt us about Malta’s wages, biex taraw fiex wasalna afrikani jidhqu bina u kundizzjonijiet tal-pajjiz.”
Sorry, complete and utter crap! I know and have dozens of Africans working for me in the UK. I assure you, I know first hand they they will consider themselves VERY lucky if they had the same standard of living as you have in Malta.
The protest… what a brilliant speech by John Bencini …bellahni!!! Man Pn are in deep trouble you want to punish the poor people with the tariffs while the rich who control Gonzi take all…prepare yourselfs for the biggest defeat in the history of Pn ahahahaha
Mela kien John Bencini li belhek, u llejla stess? U hawn jien qed nahseb li kont iblah diga.
You have now completely and utterly convinced me that your brain has fewer neurons than that of the Caenorhabditis elegans worm.
I see you are still protecting all your little chicks over here from any comments that would disturb their equanimity
cluck cluck
[Daphne – No, Twanny, I’m not. It’s not my problem if the average Labour supporter requires the deployment of sperm in countering an argument, making it necessary for me to delete it.]
Yeah, right. Why not let the posters judge for themselves? Or aren’t they big enough to be allowed to do so?
Do you have the common decency to explain the reference to “sperm”?
[Daphne – Posters are what teenagers stick to their bedroom walls with Blutack. Big, in the English language, refers to size and not age, unlike impoverished Maltese which uses the one word for both. I’m quite sure you know what sperm is in Maltese and don’t need me to explain to you how this features in the arguments of the sort of people who would vote for Joseph Muscat.]
Daphne, maybe he (Twanny) uses the word and does not even know what it means – seeing the level of intellect of these moderates and progressives, I would not be surprised!
Snoopy, I know this will sound childish, but I’m ready to match my English with yours anytime, anywhere and in any way you like.
Just say the word.
[Daphne – Going to turn up in a mask and false moustache, are you? You know where you can borrow a wig or two.]
I don’t care what words other people use. Your remarks will lead the posters here (words can have more than one meaning – didn’t you know?) that I used the word in my comments. Kindly clarify that I did not.
You are right about “big” versus “old” in English. Not about Maltese, of course, as there are plenty of ways to differentiate between the concepts.
[Daphne – Nobody is suggesting that you did, Twanny. And quite frankly, I don’t see why you’re bothered about clearing your name. After all, it’s false.]
Yes, it’s funny that. When you use a nick for a certain time it becomes you. Strange but true.
Dr. Muscat has a 20-year plan for Malta. Nice. Very optimistic apparently. I think he should have a 20-year plan for himself, like learning how to be on time, knowing how to communicate politically, get some Maltese parliament experience etc.. then one day, when he is decent enough, the people might just give him a chance to ‘lead’ Malta.