At least somebody other than Luciano Busuttil thinks that the prime minister was brilliant last night

Published: November 26, 2014 at 10:18am

It’s Jurgen Balzan in Malta Today, this morning:

There was little doubt that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s riveting budget reply to the opposition leader’s comments was intended yesterday to drag the 2015 Budget back to centrestage, which it had lost to two bullets discharged into a car.

The Prime Minister gave an energetic speech to parliament in which he brilliantly outlined his government’s economic vision but failed to address the pressing political concerns which were highlighted by the leader of the opposition on Monday.

Amazing how some people just miss all the embedded and overt codes of hamallagni – or maybe they see them and love them, thinking them ‘brilliant’ and ‘energetic’.

I’ll agree with him that it was riveting – for all the wrong reasons, though.




18 Comments Comment

  1. Chris says:

    X’int tghid Daphne? Hamallagni? Nahseb ghandek zball ghax skont Aaron Farrugia d-diskors ta’ Joseph Muscat kien diskors ta’ (wait for it) Statista.

  2. dutchie says:

    Isn’t it old news that the photos showed three bullet holes? Yet here again, “two bullets”.
    What’s with the changing numbers in different stories?

    • Mila says:

      Ah, but the gist is ‘how ridiculous for a magnificent budget to be outshone by a couple of bullets in a car’.

      Minimize the scandal, do not mention the Minister, his driver, the chase, the official changes in the story, but glorify the budget.

  3. bernie says:

    Din tal-iStatista toghogobni wisq. Ebda statista ma jipprova jirredikola lill-min ikun irid jindirizza l-kummenti tieghu. Jekk hemm xi haga li Joseph Muscat jipprova jibrilla fiha hi t-tendenza ta’ ‘english humour’ bil-Malti. (tsk tsk ….) ghaliex ghadu jgib ruhu ta’ gurnalist tas-Super One minflok ta’ politiku u wisq inqas ta’ Prim Ministru.

  4. M.Mifsud says:

    And how about the PM’s jibe at Simon Busuttil that he was taking a government car and free fuel?

    Isn’t that the usual process for Opposition leaders? He isn’t doing what the prime minister is doing, and renting his own private car to the state to carry on using it himself at a cost to the taxpayer.

    The added problem here is that the prime minister’s WIFE has a free car and driver off the public purse.

    • Jozef says:

      It’s ara x’qed taghmel int as opposed to ara x’ghamiltu intom.

      Or better, it will get worse and there’s nothing you can do about it.

      That includes the PM ignoring the speaker’s instructions, his armed escort disobeying the army officer’s demand to stop and let him carry out his duty. This was Monday.

      The Palace is the army’s competence, it’s a fundamental of our checks and balances. When Muscat’s escort is made of police officers, Monday’s was an extremely serious precedent.

      A message to both the Speaker of the House and the President of the Republic.

  5. pablo says:

    “I will not protect no-one” Times of Malta quotes Muscat as saying.

    Helena Dalli’s property with unsanctioned works

    – Luciano Busuttil’s conflict of interest in tender process

    – Chris Cardona’s hijack of the casino licences tender and giving it to the lower offer

    – Konrad Mizzi’s wife’s perk of 13,000 euros a month

    – Manuel Mallia’s ministry intentionally misrepresenting the facts of an attempted murder case and the antics of his driver/babysitter

    – Joe Muscat entering into a contract of car lease with his own office without issuing a tender

    These are all either illegalities, or abuse of one’s public office laced over with lies and feeble excuses, and when a Prime Minister simply says “oh well, my eyes see nothing wrong” he is protecting his mates, and fair enough, they need to protect him.

    • Francis Saliba M.D. says:

      “I will not protect no-one” Times of Malta quotes Muscat as saying.”

      That must be a “fingers crossed” promise strictly for the future only and not applicable to the past two years. It is a promise that will be kept as convincingly as that other notorious promise of a power station that would be generating electricity by next March but of which there is no trace as yet.

    • Tom Double Thumb says:

      Isn’t the secrecy surrounding the agreement with China, the contract with Henley and the names of those buying Maltese (Eurfopean) passports protecting HIM (His Imperial Majesty) Joseph Muscat? The first and greatest of Joseph’s commandments is “Save your own skin”.

    • Hunpty dumpty says:

      ” I will not protect no-one” means ” I will protect someone “. Two negatives make a positive.

  6. The Three Monkeys says:

    Does the PM know that two negatives make a positive – “I will not protect no-one”. I never had any doubt.

  7. Jack Beans says:

    It’s Malta Today application of the Taghna Lkoll message: trying to be everything to everybody. It’s called ‘balanced positivity’ for the newspaper.

  8. A says:

    “he brilliantly outlined his government’s economic vision but failed to address the pressing political concerns which were highlighted ….”

    These are exactly the kind of people that voted for the Labour Party – they like to believe in dreams (vision) but are unable to handle reality.

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