Joseph Muscat has a problem: David Cameron isn't the Labour leader
He's a Conservative, but that hasn't stopped Joseph Muscat from drawing comparisons
I’m sitting here reading The Case for David Cameron in last week’s edition of The Spectator (this week’s didn’t get here, because of that volcano).
Now that Cameron’s star is in the ascendant, we have the reason why Joseph Muscat and his coterie of clowns have stopped accusing the government and the Nationalist Party of being ‘conservative’, as though it is a dirty insult rather than a political philosophy.
And that’s quite apart from the fact that the Nationalist Party does not practise or preach Conservatism anyway.
Joseph Muscat likes to be associated with bright, new winners. Look how he jumped on the Barack Obama bandwagon, trying to draw parallels between the two of them, the microbe and the whale of world politics. He even got Toni Abela to read out, at some demonstration in Valletta, a faux letter (in Maltese) from Obama to Muscat.
When Muscat became Labour leader, Tony Blair had been gone for a year already. This presented Muscat with a problem. He wanted to depict himself as doing for the Malta Labour Party what Blair did for the Labour Party in Britain. But he didn’t want to identify himself with a man who was in the history books already.
And comparing himself to Gordon Brown was obviously going to be a no-no – not young and glamorous enough, and a besieged loser.
So in interviews, Muscat began to compare himself to David Cameron. He saw no contradiction in doing this while hurling insults about Conservatism at his opponents across the political barricades.
Rest assured that as Cameron continues to shine his way to May 6, Joseph Muscat and his communications coconuts will be doing their best to square a rather difficult circle: how Joseph Muscat might best bathe in Cameron’s reflected glory, while conveniently ignoring the fact that Cameron leads the Conservative Party against Labour.
75 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
One big difference between David Cameron and Joseph Muscat – one has style while the other has none.
Some more big differences: Cameron is tall, elegant, handsome and eloquent, while Muscat is none of those things.
Cameron is upper-middle-class. Muscat is working-class.
Cameron knows how to behave in all places and at all times – at least in public – and Muscat does not.
You can take David Cameron anywhere, but Muscat is best left at home or among chavs like him.
Oooh, Isard, are you gonna scratch his name on your pencil box now? Fucking PN suck-ups.
Dal-blog qed joqodli fuq l-istonku bit-‘taparsi imparzzjali’ kollu tieghu. Fi zmien xaghrejn l-anqas artiklu wiehed kontra l-Partit Nazzjonalista. X’inhu l-PN allura, perfett? Fejn hi l-imparzjalita’?
Kristu x’inthom patetici.
[Daphne – Eeeee, mela David Cameron Nazzjonalist? Iss hej, qatt ma kont naf.]
Qatt tixrob Smirnoff. Mur ghal Russkii Standart Imperia. The jewel in the Russian imperial crown, kif jghidu. Inkella Ultimat jekk issib ruhek il-Polonja.
Yakov, itlaq lejn is-Siberja.
Yakov Smirnoff
“Dal-blog qed joqodli fuq l-istonku bit-’taparsi imparzzjali’ kollu tieghu. Fi zmien xaghrejn l-anqas artiklu wiehed kontra l-Partit Nazzjonalista. X’inhu l-PN allura, perfett? Fejn hi l-imparzjalita’?”
Daphne has never ever claimed that her blog is impartial. What on earth are you going on about? I do believe it’s the Smirnoff talking when you make such incredible statements.
Spot on
I am ready to bet my last penny that prior to the election in 2013, Michelle will do “a Samantha Cameron” and announce she’s pregnant.
[Daphne – I doubt it. They can’t conceive naturally and there are restrictions on how many IVF cycles a woman can be subjected to. It’s very tough on both body and spirit. Also, she spent most of her last pregnancy in bed in Malta while her husband stayed in Brussels. I don’t think either of them is going to risk a pregnancy that will take her off the campaign trail in the most crucial period. Incidentally, I’m talking about this because they discussed all the details quite openly themselves in interviews. I wouldn’t dream of doing it otherwise – for a start, because I wouldn’t even know about it. I learned the details from public interviews.]
Cameron is as obnoxious, vacuous and detached from the electorate as Muscat. That’s what they have in common.
Beware: I think Daphne is a fan of SamCam.
[Daphne – This might come as a surprise to you, but I think I might get along better with Sarah Brown. But quite frankly, I wish they’d all stop having babies in their 40s – first Cherie Blair, then Sarah Brown and now Samantha Cameron. It’s getting to be ridiculous. What are they trying to prove, exactly? That they’re still having sex? That they are a million miles away from the menopause and still fertile? So bloody boring. I long for a return to the days when women had babies in their 20s, raised them and then just got on with the rest of their life. All this protracted reproduction and lifelong motherhood is becoming a farce. They might as well be back in their great-grandmothers’ day, still popping out babies in their 40s. How is that progress?]
Daphne, what do you think of David Cameron personality-wise? He strikes me as quite an insecure person.
[Daphne – He is the reverse of an insecure person. People from that sort of background are rarely insecure, generally because they have little or nothing to be insecure about.]
David Cameron is supremely confident. He’s not at all insecure.
You can get Spectator.co.uk on the internet.
[Daphne – I read magazines for pleasure, not information. Part of that pleasure is turning the pages.]
Good one, Daphne. Don’t think I’d want a Kindle for Christmas.
Buttigieg. soon you will be paying to read newspapers and magazines from the UK on the internet.
Colouring books have bigger pages … so the pleasure would be even greater, presumably
“And that’s quite apart from the fact that the Nationalist Party does not practise or preach Conservatism anyway.” (Sic)
Apart from the fact that Dr. Laurence Gonzi ,our PN Prime Minister and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President of the Philippines are the last Heads of Governments in the whole wide world who still oppose divorce. But that’s not Conservatism anyway, it’s fundamental Catholicism.
[Daphne – Why ‘sic’, Charles? There are no errors of spelling or grammar in that sentence. Conservatism (the politics) has nothing to do with divorce. Conservatism (the attitude and mindset) is suspicious of divorce, but guess what? Most conservatives (small ‘c’) vote Labour. The least conservative voters are AB, and in their vast majority they vote PN, which suggests strongly that divorce is subject to other priorities.]
No errors of spelling or grammar in that sentence, Daphne. Maybe I’m wrong but I am under the impression that (Sic) indicates that what precedes it is written intentionally or is copied verbatim from the original, even if it appears to be a mistake.
[Daphne – A mistake in the writing, Charles, and not what the other person considers to be a mistaken opinion.]
What’s the score at the moment? Daphne 143 – Charles J Buttigieg 0? Anyone keeping count?
[Daphne – Ejja, let’s not be mean. Charles comes here for some decent conversation when he gets tired of hanging around in cyberspace with the ?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!gOnziPN crowd.]
I’d rather vote for someone who does what he believes in rather than someone who truly believes in divorce and at the same time shows submission to the Pope by kissing ‘the fisherman’s ring’.
Fifty years down the line, Joseph Muscat is not able to do the square root of what Mintoff did to the Catholic Church in the fifties.
Daphne, it would not be much of a surprise if Michele ends up pregnant like Mrs. Cameron in three years’ time.
Joseph Muscat will soon describing his party as Liberal-Democrats judging by the recent UK polls.
Don’t give that charlatan any ideas.
He’s already taken the idea of progressive and liberal down the toilet.
Good point. He’ll describe himself as a Maltese version of Nick Clegg when he more resembles Kim Jong-il, another fashion icon.
@ Isard du Pont
And Gonzi is tall, elegant, handsome, eloquent upper-middle-class, knows how to behave in all places and at all times – at least in public.
Perhaps that explains the reason why EFA anointed him to head a strong political party with a following of 53% of the population. Strange how your tall, elegant, handsome, eloquent, upper-middle-class Prime Minister managed to fragment his inheritance and shrink it to a mere 40% popular support.
Even stranger is the fact that Muscat, from working-class stock and doesn’t know how to behave in all places and at all times – at least in public, managed to unite a splintered party and see its popular support grow from 45 to 55% and still rising.
Charles Buttigieg,
The discussion centred on a comparison between David Cameron and Joseph Muscat. We were not comparing David Cameron with Lawrence Gonzi, for the simple reason that Lawrence Gonzi, unlike Joseph Muscat, has never thought to make that comparison himself.
If the Maltese equivalent of David Cameron were to lead either Labour or the PN, it would be a knock-out win for his party. He is the sort of man who bowls Maltese women over, if for no other reason than that sort of man is in woefully short supply here and so doubly attractive. Never underestimate how enervating it is having to look at ugly people who have no panache, all the time.
Gonzi did not fragment his inheritance. The Nationalist Party has won every election bar one since 1987, and this prime minister has to deal with a legacy of attrition and disillusionment that are the result, mainly, of boredom and taking things for granted, and nothing else.
The Labour Party’s popular support is not 55%. You are basing yourself on the EP election result of a year ago, which is false and misleading.
Support for the Labour Party is actually well under 50%, as it is for the PN.
You should know more about these things than I do, as I am told that you are an old political hand and did a numbers job at Air Malta, where yours was a political appointment in the old Labour days, but apparently not.
The latest polls show that if the election were held today, MLP would win by 10000 votes.
While the MLP core vote stands at a rock solid 49% (not ‘well under’, but just short of 50%), the ‘non-committed’ vote, or non-partisan vote, which is around 6%, is split pretty equally between PN and MLP.
[Daphne – Not so. The latest polls give a very high percentage (something like 45%) of people who answered ‘Don’t Know’ or gave no reply to the question ‘If an election were held tomorrow, who would you vote for?’ 34% replied ‘Labour’ (down two percentage points since September) and just under 19% replied ‘PN’. Interestingly, that was the figure the PN scored in the third quarter of 2007, just a few months before winning the general election. There is no way you will have a non-committed vote of just 6% two years into term and three years away from a general election. Six per cent non-committed is what you would have as late as the initial stage of a general election campaign.]
We’re not quoting from the same source. My figures are from polls conducted by the political parties. Unless I’ve been lied to.
[Daphne – You’ve been lied to. You will never have positive voter response as high as 49% for any party three years away from polling day.]
@ Isard du Pont
You are at an advantage on me because your identity is concealed however unlike you I have nothing to hide, I suggest to you to re-check your investigation about my career at Air Malta. You’ll be surprised to find out that throughout my time there, from recruitment to retirement, I worked very hard and my valid contribution was acknowledged by a number of PN Ministers. To advance in my career I competed with colleagues who came from both sides of our political spectrum and many times I lost to PN activists during a PL Administration.
When the PN gained power in 1987 I was unceremoniously removed from my office in Management and my post was assigned to a PN activist, I was left without an office and doing nothing right through 1996 when I won a court case against Air Malta and was awarded financial compensation as well as backdated promotions.
When the PN regained power in 1998, thanks to the court sentence, I was allowed to carry on with my duties in a very senior executive capacity without any political hindrance. Prior to my retirement Minister Giovanna Debono publicly remarked that my sterling services to her Ministry surpassed those of other Executives who supported her party. No mine was not a political appointment.
[Daphne – May I butt in? Strange how the PN government thought fit to wreak vengeance on a relatively lowly Air Malta person like you while retaining top man Louis Grech throughout. I must be missing something here – how does Giovanna Debono come into it?]
Charles J. Buttigieg
In 1987, some 90% of Air Malta staff were staunch MLP supporters, especially Wistin Abela’s ‘friends of friends’. How come the new government singled you out while others continued their work as usual?
Charles J Buttigieg,
Where on earth did you get 55% from?
Apart from the blip of ’96, by 2013 Labour will not have won the trust of the electorate for 37 years!
THIRTY SEVEN YEARS!
‘[Daphne – He is the reverse of an insecure person. People from that sort of background are rarely insecure, generally because they have little or nothing to be insecure about.]’
I don’t agree. It’s that sort of background coupled with rigidity that is making him insecure. Winning an election as a candidate for Prime Minister requires one to become a ‘man of the people’, something which he is probably not keen about. It is not snobbery but rather inflexibility towards the diktats of contemporary electioneering.
[Daphne – The British do not require their leaders to be ‘men of the people’, but rather the opposite. They revile, despise and mock any leader who comes across to them as being rather too much ‘of the people’ (Gordon Brown, John Major, Neil Kinnock) and demand the manners, accent and mores of somebody from that class of people they associate with leadership. Or hadn’t you noticed? In Britain, the more working-class a person is, the less likely he is to respect as a leader somebody from his own background. Meanwhile, a British person from a non-working-class background will just look down on a working-class leader for other reasons. So working-class leaders are screwed on all counts.
That’s why the British Labour Party only soared to success under the leadership of Tony Blair (Fettes College, smart background, modulated accent, upper-middle-class manners and bearing if not actually the background), and why Margaret Thatcher reworked herself entirely – accent, bearing, the lot – rather than make capital of the fact that her father was a grocer. It was also a main factor in David Davis losing out to David Cameron in the Conservative Party’s leadership battle.]
And don’t forget Winston Churchill.
Mind how you go, Darren. Churchill’s family were essentially Liberal and that’s where Churchill sailed into Westminster from, around the turn of the century as I recall.
His claim to fame before WWII was his “People’ Budget” of 1909 when Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was the nearest thing to socialism Britain had ever seen until then.
[Daphne – It’s not the politics we’re talking about, Chris, but the British electorate’s preference – on the historical evidence, right up to the present – for upper-class and upper-middle-class leaders or those who, like Thatcher, mimic them (and marry them). This is across all the political parties, including Labour. Winston Churchill, whatever his politics, was not just run-of-the-mill ‘posh’ but an aristocrat, grandson of the 7th Duke of Marlborough and born and raised at Blenheim Palace.]
That the British prefer to have upper/upper-middle class leaders is not in dispute at all. I agree, QED.
I was merely pointing out that, if we’re talking Conservative Party leaders, Churchill cannot truly be considered as one, in my opinion. The historical evidence proves it.
[Daphne – We were talking about all British party leaders, but never mind. The point has been made. I do think it’s interesting though; the situation is very different in Malta, where leaders must perforce come ‘from the people’ or make a great effort at seeming to do so.]
It is interesting and indeed something of a dichotomy – one has to be high-calibre in all senses of the word, yet come across as (as you say) “from the people”.
As is customary, Dr Sant proved to be the exception.
Personally, I blame Mintoff for dragging politics from the realm of decorum, into the gutter, for changing it from something one aspired nobly to, to something almost universally despised (ostensibly).
You seem to be a bit out of synch with British politics, Daphne. The one thing that has ham-strung the Tories for the past decade has been their reputation as aloof, wealthy toffs. David Cameron is a toff of the old guard, but he does his best to hide it.
[Daphne – I am not at all out of synch, I suppose you mean ‘touch’, with British politics. I follow the situation as closely as I do the situation here, and have done so for 20 years at least. The Conservatives did not have a hard time getting elected because they had a reputation as ‘aloof, wealthy toffs’. In fact, when the Labour Party tried this line of attack in an anti-Tory campaign, it backfired hopelessly. The Conservatives had a hard time because they were in government uninterruptedly between 1979 and 1997, and after their rout at the hands of Tony Blair – a toff straight from Conservative central casting, incidentally – they remained in shocked disarray for years, unable to get their act together or even to produce an appealing leader before Cameron. You might consider the reverse of your argument: that the British electorate thought it safe to put the Labour Party into government only when it chose a ‘toff’ Conservative clone as a leader. John Major, and now Gordon Brown, are reviled not so much because of their politics as because of the hopeless crime of being dull and ordinary. Margaret Thatcher underplayed the grocer’s daughter angle and remodelled herself as a ‘toff’ after first marrying one.]
Evidence?
Note how rarely he (or the Conservative press) mentions his Eton schooling, or the aristocratic leanings of Brasenose college, Oxford.
[Daphne – On the contrary, they mention them all the time, and as a plus, just as the Labour-leaning press took great pains to mention that Tony Blair went to school at Fettes College.]
Note how he’s had to talk about The X-Factor, or pretend that ‘Keane’ is his favourite band and that he enjoys Take That.
[Daphne – How do you know he was pretending? I’m not working-class and I make no bones of the fact that I love Eastenders and don’t miss an episode, and that I frequently become addicted to those Maltese soaps on Net, Super One and TVM.]
Note how Nick Clegg, following his routing of both Cameron and Brown during the first leadership debate, is now being attacked (by the Daily Mail, no less) for being a ‘closet toff’, accused of having Louis Theroux as his fag when at school (‘fag’ in the old public school sense, not the more modern homophobic usage) and of being wealthier than he pretends to be.
[Daphne – That proves nothing. It is the equivalent of the Labour Party here attacking me (and I’m not a party leader) for 15 years as ‘tal-pepe’ and out of touch with the people (ha!) and a new generation of Labour elves coming along and, unaware of this previous long line of attack, trying another one instead: that I’m a closet hamalla social climber who married above my station into a family that’s ashamed of me. It means nothing. If even I can tell the social origins of a British person by the merest nuance in an accent or bearing, then rest assured that the British voter can do so even more accurately. Cameron, for example, does not have an aristocratic accent, so no amount of portraying him as your typical ‘useless aristocrat’ is going to make the average British voter confuse him with one. In fact, whenever I hear him speak his accent never fails to jar because it is not what I expect to hear.]
Note how many broadsheet articles over the past week have focused on Clegg’s supposed upper-class background, and used that to attack him.
[Daphne – Far from it. Your own prejudice might cause you to see as an attack what might merely be a statement of fact or even an admiring observation.]
Note how George Osborne, the shadow chancellor of the Exchequer, has taken a hammering in poll after poll. The Daily Mail (hardly a bastion of anti-conservatism) has run reports that he’s had elocution lessons – to sound LESS posh.
[Daphne – He’s taken a hammering because he is perceived to be frivolous and useless, and to have a sense of entitlement which he uses to manipulate situations to his advantage, precisely the things which voters abhor in politicians of all stripes and classes.]
Note, if you will, how the Tories parodied an image from the TV program ‘Ashes to Ashes’, with Cameron perched atop an Audi Quattro, looking disheveled and more ‘pint after work’ than ‘sherry in the library’.
[Daphne – Nobody of that age has a sherry in the library any more.]
From William Hague or Michael Portillo, erudite, aloof and upper class, to David Cameron, sitting atop a bike, sleeves rolled up. The Tories have caught the zeitgeist, and have changed tack accordingly.
[Daphne – Michaell Portillo and William Hague are anything but upper class which, I hate to say it, kind of sums up what you know. Portillo was a lower-middle-class boy clever enough to get into grammar school, and to compound matters, he is what the racist English still think of as a dago: the son of a Spaniard. Hague had a more advantageous background because his father owned a manufacturing business, but he is still resolutely middle-class and went to a comprehensive school. His main problem was not his background but his personality and his total lack of charisma and physical charms. Never underestimate those factors, which were also factors in the unpopularity of John Major and now, Gordon Brown, while the opposite helped Tony Blair, Cameron and Clegg in their rise to popularity, and even, surprisingly, Thatcher.]
Cameron’s head of communications – his Alastair Campbell, if you will – is one Andy Coulsen, whose previous job was editing the News of the World.
[Daphne – That is not because he wishes to seem more working-class, Galea, but because he needs to set a thief to catch a thief, a principle which our own Labour Party here repeatedly overlooks in attempting to reach beyond its captive market, believing it possible to target people like me by using people like Kurt Farrugia and Charlon Gouder.]
Your reading of the British political psyche is dated – while historically correct, it bears little resemblance to modern-day Britain. And I say that as someone who has spent a considerable part of their life living in the place.
[Daphne – And despite that, you still think of Michael Portillo and William Hague as upper class, which shows that your years there taught you nothing. But never mind.]
What a shame you find it impossible to reply without ever resorting to personal digs.
[Daphne – They’re not personal digs, but statements of fact: it’s odd that you took your Maltese social system with you to England and think of Michael Portillo and William Hague as upper class when they are transparently and obviously middle-class accordingly to the system within which they live and work. And it’s strange how you overlook the personal digs you make towards me, but anyway.]
I shan’t bother with specific retorts, as you’ll undoubtedly come back and insist that you’re right all along. Which I have no doubt you believe yourself to be.
[Daphne – Obviously, I would never say anything I believed to be wrong. That would be stupid.]
Perhaps my initial comment did not make it clear enough – I didn’t mean to imply that Portillo and Hague ARE posh (or that Cameron ISN’T), but simply that they (and their party) chose to paint them that way.
[Daphne – You didn’t imply it. You actually spelled it out. ‘Portillo and Hague are upper class’. And why Portillo, anyway? He was never party leader.]
When Tory strategists woke up and smelt the proverbial coffee, they did an about-turn and turned more plebeian. Do you seriously think the Conservative party of old would have brought Boris Johnson back into the fold so openly, and then put him on the mayoral ticket?
[Daphne – Oh marelli, honestly. I won’t tell you that you haven’t a clue what you’re talking about, because you’ll take it to be a personal dig again, but really – do you know what plebeian is? A plebeian party would be the Malta Labour Party. It is in fact the epitome of plebeian in all possible ways and aspects. Have I read you wrongly, or are you saying here that the ‘toff’ Conservative Party of old would never have put Boris Johnson on its ticket or brought him into the fold ‘so openly’ because he is not a toff, and is doing so only now as an attempt at making the party seem more plebeian? Boris Johnson, plebeian? Boris Johnson is the central casting toff, such a cliche that he actually makes a virtue of it and sends himself up. He even has the aristocratic accent (despite not being one) that David Cameron hasn’t. I despair.]
One last point – I’m not sure which is funnier: comparing yourself to Nick Clegg, or Kurt Farrugia et al to broadsheet journalists.
[Daphne – I did not compare myself to Nick Clegg. Obviously, you can read simple statements about as well as you can interpret class distinctions in Britain.]
‘He’s (Clegg) at ease with his poshness in a way that Cameron isn’t, possibly because he went to Westminster rather than Eton and has been coached on how to turn the volume down on his patrician heritage from the age of 13.’
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100036138/sky-tv-leaders-debate-will-david-camerons-performance-be-enough-to-stop-nick-clegg/
This UK journalist seems to have a similar opinion to mine.
@Daphne
re sic: not just a mistake in writing.
sic /sik; Eng. sɪk/ Show Spelled[seek; Eng. sik] Show IPA
–adverbLatin.
so; thus: usually written parenthetically to denote that a word, phrase, passage, etc., that may appear strange or incorrect has been written intentionally or has been quoted verbatim: He signed his name as e. e. cummings (sic).
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sic
[Daphne – Those are all mistakes in writing. An opinion with which one disagrees does not qualify for the appendage ‘sic’.]
I admit that I do not follow all of Joseph Muscat’s interviews, but I understand that the concept of “progressive” has been in use by Cameron’s Conservatives.
Other than that, I do not see any similarities between Muscat and Cameron. Muscat comes across as ambitious and arrogant.
Cameron comes across as an educated person, has a particular style in the way he puts his argument (“oh look”) and this is backed by his schooling and political experience.
Actually, Cameron has a number of interesting proposals in this campaign, of which the chief one is that of Big Society. Do you think we will hear something like that from Joseph Muscat soon?
Seems like Mr. Buttigieg has abandoned The Times lately. It’s like jumping from the frying pan straight into the fire!
If he didn’t like what he saw on the Times comments, he will get even straighter answers from Daphne, here.
And Mellieha is such a lovely place!
And Santa Maria Estate is the nicest part. If you show your identity I might ask you to join us for a drink at Villa Casablanca.
Incidentally I just abandoned Bocca on the Times but you’ll find me elsewhere there.
Taking refuge in calmer waters?
I guess LGBT Labour should avoid watching David Cameron’s interview with gaytimes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/video/2010/mar/26/david-cameron-gay-times-interview
They’d enjoy the Flintstones jingle though, which goes “Let’s have a gay, old time ….!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hByFDVwiQq8&feature=related
Fred and Barney totally had a thing going on. I think their relationship did more for gay rights than LGBT Labour can ever hope to achieve.
As a fellow homo however, I do believe that LGBT truly hopes to achieve something good for gays. But the way it stands now, LGBT Labour or the whole of Super One for that matter is a mecca for gay underachievers. They will probably end up doing more damage to the rest of us.
[Daphne – Oh right, I have it from a gay man now. So Super One IS a kind of gay mecca. I thought I must be imagining things when the young men there struck me as predominantly gay, or rather what my grandfather would have called ‘pretty-boys’, because there’s a certain degree of over-reliance on the facial grooming. That must be one hell of a big closet Jason’s got there. The strange thing is that none of them are actually in LGBT Labour. What’s their problem? Too frightened to come out? Not sure what mummy will say? Still got those duttrina lectures ringing in their ears?]
I just hope wannabe metrosexual Muscat treats gay issues a bit better than divorce by not having free voting in parliament. If he tries to copy David Cameron ha jaxxaqa.
What’s wrong with having gays at Super One chairing all the programs? One TV won the Vodafone whatever award, so it must be something positive for the PL to have gays on TV.
[Daphne – Homosexual ghettos are as bad an idea as heterosexual enclaves. You get a skewed perspective, if for no other reason than that Jason appears to be recruiting for reasons other than ability, hence the disaster with Super One news.]
I would like to clarify that in no was way I making fun of anyone in particular. I just remembered the jingle today – hence my joke – and thought that it sounded quite outdated, given the implication of the word “gay” today.
Most homosexuals are more polite, artistic cultured and have more talents in their genes than the average heterosexual, showmanship and broadcasting are special talents. Rediffusion and the old Malta television had the best broadcasters we ever had and they were known gays.
I very rarely watch any of our local stations however most of the Maltese do and the big majority prefer One TV and One Radio. People prefer Gay hairstylists, clothes designers and interior decorators too.
You can’t help stereotyping can you?
Yes, but Rediffusion and ‘the old Malta television’ had talented gays, One TV and Radio One, have not.
You very rarely watch local news, my foot! And both Labour stations are the most popular because all Laburisti like you watch it all the time because it is the only language you and them understand and it sounds like music to your ears. To you what comes out of them is the gospel of the day. No wonder your comments are always skewed.
David what I remarked is a known fact.
Dave Cameron fakes some insecurity as a ploy. He cannot face the British public in a purely natural manner when both he and his wife are multimillionaires from birth. He has to strike a balance.
As Daphne said, the British recognise upper-class men and women as better leaders. This also applies to the armed forces.
The only exception in ‘recent’ British political history was Labour’s first PM Ramsay Macdonald. Not only was he the son of a farmworker and a maid but he was a genuine bastard.
This was not a very acceptable accolade in 19th-century Scotland. Yet he made it to No 10 not once, but twice.
Daphne, Louis Grech and his deputy had a contract and in 1987 they were sidelined together with a number of other executives. Eventually Louis and his deputy were paid off. In 1996 Louis was reinstated this time as Chairman and the rest of us were reassigned a proper job. After 1998 the political harassment stopped and that’s one reason why they kept Louis Grech.
My last appointment was General Manager –Malta Aircharter managing the helicopter operations, hence my indirect involvement with the Gozo Ministry for which I still have a lot of respect.
[Daphne – I happen to know rather a lot about Louis Grech’s case. This point interests me particularly about people like yourself: you didn’t complain when you were singled out for special treatment by being given a job because of your political preferences, but then you complain because you claim you were singled out for special treatment and removed for the same reason? And please don’t tell me that people were selected ‘blindly’ for jobs at Air Malta in – what was it, 1973? – because they were not. That’s why something like 90% of Air Malta’s staff were Labour voters in the late 1980s/early 1990s. I happen to know of one particular family three members of which got jobs at Air Malta for no better reason than that their uncle was a senior public servant (Labour): the father at Air Supplies, one daughter in ground handling and the other daughter as an air hostess. That’s the way it went, and you know it. I also happen to know how and why you got your job – weren’t you at a bank immediately prior? – and have more than a few eyewitness descriptions from people who worked with you, of your reaction when Mintoff was elected in 1971. So please, don’t try to pretend you got your job at Air Malta because you went through a rigorous selection and interview process that focussed on your abilities. If those abilities developed later, than fine. But there are hundreds who were selected as you were and you have ended up dragging Air Malta’s bottom line into the red, simply because – to stave off accusations of political discrimination – they were allowed to stay in jobs they were never fit for in the first place, or that Air Malta never needed. Even now, when you visit Air Malta’s offices, you don’t feel you’re visiting the administrative hub of a vibrant business, but that you’re lost in some quiet and meandering civil service corridor.]
Charles’ usual rub. One of typical Labour ‘status quo’ animals who never move forward but dwell in the past. Mr. Buttigieg stays hopeful because if AST found a niche in Joseph’s scheme of things, who knows, if Labour is elected he may be rewarded with some prestigious position even if past his retirement age.
X’inhi l-problema, Mr Buttigieg? Issa fit-2013 meta jitla’ Joseph Muscat jaghmluk chairman tal-AirMalta. Inkella jekk veru jidhru cari s-snin post-pensjoni fuq il-lineamenti ta’ wiccek, jaghmluk konsulent.
Would it be the ******* family by any chance? You can answer the question if you like but spare the family the embarrassment by not showing the surname.
[Daphne – No, it isn’t.]
Strange because I know of a family who is employed with Air Malta in the exact same way!
[Daphne – Not at all strange, jobs at Air Malta were handed out as favours to entire families.]
What was my reaction when Mintoff was elected in 1971, Daphne? Tell the world I don’t mind but be careful because you might be shooting at the wrong target.
[Daphne – I don’t wish to do so, Charles. This is not one of those websites ?????!!!!!!weRe u like to hang oUt with oTHer Labour voter’s. You were a young man then. The odd thing is that you never grew up, saw all those terrible things and still thought to yourself ‘Hmmm, Labour, what a great idea.’]
I dare you, spell it out. Since when have you become so modest.
I challenge you Daphne and I’ll be waiting.
[Daphne – Charles, when I say I don’t want to, just take me at my word. This is not about challenges. I don’t want to because I don’t see the point, and because I’m not going to be unpleasant about you just because you’re stupid enough to hang around with people who are unpleasant about me. Why do you care what I think about you, anyway?]
Stop your bull Daphne,you’ve got nothing to tell. Let me tell you how unreliable your source of information about my personal life is-contrary to what they fed you I was never employed with a bank.
[Daphne – I never said you were, Charles. I was asking you. Thank you for your answer. I don’t deal in bull. You’re getting your websites confused. And why do you assume that what I have to say about your reaction is negative? It might be something positive like: “Oh thank heavens that nice man Mintoff is now prime minister! At last the poor workers have somebody to defend them.” Incidentally, how did you buy a villa on the Santa Maria estate off an Air Malta salary? Did your wife work? Did you get a special deal from Albert Mizzi? That was a joke of course, based on the fact that he owned the one and ran the other.]
This to change the other post.
Daphne, once again your source had fed you duff and incomplete information about my personal life.
Besides Villa Casablanca we also own other prime properties and they are not tucked away in some ugly little alley in one of our less prestigious villages.
Unlike you and your protégée’s pretentions I wasn’t to the manor born and there’s nothing grand in my family social background to write home about, all working class except for one exception, a former President of the Republic but that doesn’t really count because he was a lejburist from Gozo. My late father was illiterate who ran a small bakery in Mellieha, the upbringing was uphill all the way but he and Mummy always gave us all they had to give.
Notwithstanding, one of my brothers today is a multimillionaire and my other brother owned two four stars hotels and numerous other properties in Malta and abroad before he passed away at the age of 45.
Daphne my beloved late parents didn’t give us blue blood, instead they gave us the spirit of survival, the will to carry on, the courage and the noble sentiments to make it on our own.
You’ve got nothing on me biex izzeblahni barring an occasional misuse of syntax. If you have you would expose it without feeling any remorse about it.
You criticise the Elves for their use of interrogation marks instead of making categorical statements when you do exactly the same to avoid the legal repercussions.
Finally, to answer your impertinent question, my wife never worked, as there wasn’t the need for her financial support. She preferred to stay home being a good wife and a good mother and she has no regrets.
Have a nice day if you consider digging in people’s private affairs nice.
[Daphne – Charles, if only you knew how little I care about what you do and say. You’re completely irrelevant. The only reason I have to take notice of you is because you post comments here, and expect me to answer them, and I do. But please don’t take that as a sign of interest, because it really is not. If you own a villa on the Santa Maria Estate and ‘other prime properties’ then good luck to you. Perhaps to relieve your evident boredom in retirement, you could start a consultancy project advising other Air Malta employees on how to build up an impressive property portfolio off their company salary. I’m quite sure they would be all agog to learn your secrets. I, however, am not.]
That’s the last we’ll hear from Charles Buttigieg for a while, and thank heavens for that.
“Daphne my beloved late parents didn’t give us blue blood, instead they gave us the spirit of survival, the will to carry on, the courage and the noble sentiments to make it on our own.”
You don’t write this sort of drivel in 2010. It makes you come across as incredibly smug.
My ‘beloved’ parents didn’t give me blue blood either. They gave me food and clothing and shelter and a bunch of noble sentiments which have been my curse ever since.
Maybe he’ll start comparing himself to Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats. Apparently he has become quite popular in the UK.
I think it was a wrong move by PL to create a “special” section for gays. This is to suggest that they are different, special cases, and have to be treated as such. E.G. It’s the same with women’s sections.
@ red-nose
Do you honestly believe that the PL gives a hoot whether having a section for LGBT is right or wrong? Remember, that the LGBT community, whether out of the closet or in, can muster a considerable number of votes.
[Daphne – Only people who think that homosexuality renders one silly, stupid or an alien species would reason that homosexuals are different to everyone else and don’t factor in jobs, taxation, the economy, the EU, immigration, standard of living and heaven knows what else when deciding who and what to vote for. Homosexuals are no different to heterosexuals – why would they be?]
PL does not give a damn. There is a catch to be made here in terms of votes, period. Remember, the number of decisive votes during the last election?
Will PL put their money where their mouth regarding divorce? What we have heard from them on this subject is so much wool over the eyes. They are neither modern nor progressive.
It is the same with gay rights. They have created a convenient ghetto from which they could milk a good number of votes.
On the basis of the rubbish spouted out from tasteyourown whatsit, you would believe that PL’s platitudes on behalf of the LGBT community are intentionally and doggedly undermined by the people there who see nothing wrong in outing and shaming a gay person and mocking transsexuals.
Forget the fact, that the person in question was out already of his own volition and has nothing to be ashamed of.
Not only this, however, but for these progressive paladins of gay rights, calling people gay or transsexual is the ultimate insult or ‘shame’.
The pertinent question is how many LGBT people out there are truly floating voters, intelligent and not blinded by crass loyalty to a party that is just stuck in the mud?
Daphne, thanks for your efforts to try and enlighten those who are still in the dark about life around us
Watch it Joseph, someone might have the bajd …
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8635180.stm
Again, you misconstrue my points (as well as misunderstanding my point about Johnson). Whether or not a politician IS or ISN’T upper- or working-class is of little importance – what matters is how they are presented to the public.
Boris Johnson: He was cast out of the Conservative party by Cameron’s predecessor, Michael Howard, for lying to the party. One of Cameron’s first moves was to bring him back into the fold and push him to the fore, a symbol of the Torys’ new image.
While he’s undoubtedly a toff, he’s an affable, self-effacing one with quite the common touch. He’s presented ‘Have I Got News For You’, for Christ’s sake. He’s miles away from being a plebeian, but ask your average Londoner whether they feel they have more in common with Johnson or his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, and I can guarantee that Johnson would win every time.
[Daphne – You’ve asked the wrong question. What you’re talking about here is not whether voters feel they have more in common with Johnson or Livingstone, but who they like and trust more. Obviously, they like Johnson more (any sensible person would, he is so amusing) but there is no doubt that they would have ‘more in common’ with Livingstone. People vote on the basis of who they like more, and not who they have most in common with. I don’t think I had anything in common with Fenech Adami except on some matters of politics; I would probably have had fairly interesting conversations with Alfred Sant, but there is no doubt about who I liked and trusted more.]
It doesn’t matter that he’s had a charmed upbringing, that he’s inherited truckloads of money or that he’s as upper class as they come.
[Daphne – His upbringing was far from charmed. It was actually very difficult. His father was a serial adulterer who made his mother miserable and eventually abandoned the lot of them, without money. His mother scrabbled for a living. His sister Rachel wrote a column once describing how in her view her brother’s extrovert personality is deliberately modelled on their father’s. Interestingly, despite being ‘typically English’ his ‘real’ surname is Kemal Bey: his paternal grandfather, who was Turkish, changed his name to Johnson when he became a British subject.]
The widely-held perception was that ‘Boris is the type of guy you’d gladly have a pint with’, while Livingstone was sulking in the corner with his Che Guevara t-shirt while furtively sipping on a glass of Chablis. That’s the image the public emerged with, and it won Boris the mayoral seat.
[Daphne – No one likes Lefties, except in France and Italy, where gloom and doom are seen as a sign of intellectual superiority.]
Far be it from me to teach a grandmother to suck eggs, but you of all people should know that in real politics (as opposed to the Mickey Mouse goings-on in Malta), appearance and perception are far more important than the reality of it all.
[Daphne – That’s the case here too, but in British politics, what you see tends to be what you get, because with such intense press scrutiny and so many opinion columns written, it is impossible to hide anything or even to pretend. And that’s why David Cameron and Boris Johnson can’t even pretend to be ordinary. What they are saying instead is: ‘I might be a toff, but I’m a fun toff. We could have a drink together and chat.’]
I mentioned Portillo because I happen to know a few of his relatives – who, incidentally, are lovely people – and am familiar with some of the games they were forced to play for the sake of Michael’s career.
[Daphne – Not least, no doubt, all that palaver when he was foolish enough to mention a homosexual encounter at university.]
And what makes you think that I ‘took’ my ‘Maltese social system to England’ ? Whoever told you that I was born, or indeed brought up, in Malta?
[Daphne – A deduction based on your surname being Galea and your having said that you lived in England for a few years while you are clearly not just a few years old. But very well, you might have spent the other years in the United States or Italy, or are the descendant of a Maltese but are not Maltese yourself. It doesn’t matter, anyway – I’m grateful for the opportunity to discuss politicians other than ours. It’s a relief.]
The satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’ has a cartoon running called ‘Dave Snooty and his Pals’ in the style of the Beano’s ‘Lord Snooty’ which features Boris often. (Private Eye is edited by Ian Hislop who also appears on ‘Have I Got News for you.’) Boris went to Eton and was a member of Oxford’s Bullingdon club like ‘Dave-I’ve-always-been-called-Dave-and-not-just-because-Anthony-Blair-was-called-Tony’.
[Daphne – George Osborne, not Cameron.]
It is a real stretch to say the Conservatives promoted Boris on the basis that he is not an ‘ABC1’ and helped to dilute their presentational weakness of being elitist.
Boris comes across as the amiable fool, but is very sharp. Perhaps he plays up the buffoonery. He was a reliable reporter for The Daily Telegraph before going in to politics, getting his time pressured work done every day.
[Daphne – He is, in fact, the equivalent of our very own John Attard Montalto: vide the discussion going on elsewhere on this blog.]
First of all I really like your post. I think it’s exactly to the point and explains the problem with Malta’s Labour Party and Joseph Muscat, seen in the light of the comparison with the likes of Cameron and Tony Blair (if any form or comparison can be made, that is).
I also fully agree that the British (and not only), at the end of the day, want to look up their leaders and admire them. Why do you think that Italians continue to vote Berlusconi? They all run him down but secretly they admire him. He’s got all that the average Italian dreams of: power, money, women and yes, displays charm and compassion.
With respect to the doom and gloom being considered intellectual, I don’t know about France, but in Italy doom and gloom communists (those in their 50s who run around with a grim face, cotton-white hair, stained clothes and hang around organic food shops) are considered just “communisti” – stop, not intellectual.
Communism has disappeared, except for the few nostalgics, the equivalent of the nostalgic Fascists, and what remains of the “left” is disguising itself as centre or, nonetheless, centre right.
It appears to me that the “gloom and doom” communists are no longer fashionable, although I agree that they were, up to ten/fifteen years ago.
In spite of its scourge and tyranny Communism also had a share of good notions just like Fascism, Nazism and extreme capitalism. The Red Revolution was a war against Capitalism which at the time was extremely extreme.
The end of WW II Christian Democracy replaced Fascism and years later Mikhael Gorbachev’s Glasnost
paved the way to move the USSR away from its far left position, and the rest is history.
Extreme ignorance and poverty caused by despotic right wing regimes encouraged the proletariat to revolt and its only hope then was Communism. Today both sides had got closer to the centre and mellowed and the ideological divide is now based on democracy, tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
The world’s biggest problem is now Religious fundamentalism which will only end when Islam moves to the centre.
Cameron a Conservative? Ha ha ha – he’s the most despised ‘conservative’ leader since Ted Heath – it is evident that the readers here do not really follow UK politics. Cameron is not on the ‘ascendency’ – he’s on his way out – despite 13 years of disastrous labour (socialist) policy he cannot make headway – because he won’t address the real issues afflicting Britain which any ‘Conservative’ politician (and for the matter the majority of British people) worth his salt would instantly address – The EU, public spending, the Global Warming Myth, Immigration et al – in fact he’d make pretty good Progressive company for Joseph Muscat. – Cameron won’t last beyond this election whatever the Spectaor says – it’s going to be a hung election – Cameron will be gone within 24 hours of the result – in Britain, unlike here – the people are educated enough to vote a phoney out whatever colour he represents. be it Cameron, Broon or Clegg the liberal – they are all the same – variations on the same theme – and the British public has had enough of ALL of them. Come the end of May I will be proven correct – or else lynch me.