The plagiarists from hell

Published: May 6, 2010 at 10:49am
Can anyone work out what sort of waistband that is? Or has he just been for a quick slash?

Can anyone work out what sort of waistband that is? Or has he just been for a quick slash?

Is the Labour Party paying Marisa Micallef to raid the cliche cupboard and plagiarise other people’s speeches and references?

Is Joseph Muscat such an empty vessel – a hollow shell created to adapt to situations as they arise – that he is unable to just be himself and speak with conviction?

His speeches and his articles always sound so false and shallow because they are not felt at all. They are not meant. And worse still, they are cribbed from those of men greater than he.

The last time I heard Joseph Muscat speak with true passion and real conviction was seven years ago, when he detailed the horrors of EU membership and urged us to vote No.

Yes, he spoke with passion then. He spoke with conviction. It was palpable. I compare that anger, that motivation, with the shallow falseness of his speeches now, and I am not surprised that they fail to convince even many of his own party electors.

His article in today’s The Times reads like a schoolboy assignment cribbed and plagiarised from bits and bobs on the internet, which appears to be the preferred method of the Young Turks of Labour’s mittilkless. Copy and paste. That’s why it reads so jerkily. That’s why parts of it are literate and others are not.

I cringed as soon as I started to read it and knocked up against the phrase ‘for all our tomorrows’. For all our tomorrows? That has to be one of the most hackneyed in political communication. And it started out as the title of a song by Joe Cocker. And it sits so awkwardly with the rest of the article, which is…..well, let me not be cruel.

It was just as bad yesterday, when Muscat cribbed a speech by Barack Obama safe in the knowledge that his awestruck audience wouldn’t get the reference. Ah, but the reporter from The Times did, and said so today.

Taking a page out of US President Barack Obama’s 2004 Democratic Convention speech, Dr Muscat said: “This is not an issue of the North versus the South, the blue Malta versus the red Malta or Nationalists versus Labourites. This is something that affects each and every one of us.”

So false, so shallow. A creature of his own invention. And then we wonder why he hasn’t come up with any policies yet. Simple: the only people he can crib them from are the Nationalist Party. And how can he do that while criticising them?

And don’t get me started on the irony of that Inspector Gadget speaking in parliament yesterday evening about corruption. Inspector Gadget of all people. He’s a fine one to talk.

Austin Gatt may have a zillion shortcomings (and still we like him) but I’ll stake my life on the certainty that he never used threats and isolation in a pitch-dark cell with shit-smeared walls and only one piece of bread in 27 hours to persuade anyone to sign a false confession admitting to attacking a police officer.

LABOUR – WHAT A PARTY. YOU COULDN’T MAKE IT UP.




25 Comments Comment

  1. Anthony Farrugia says:

    timesofmalta.com: Terminally Ill Prisoner Dies

    G.Camilleri(15 minutes ago)
    Interesting when you google Saviour Gauci criminal you get http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2010/01/02/the-road-to-hell/

    It’s very interesting debate what Dr. Daphne Caruana Galizia, wrote down.

    Should we forgive? I bet if I was the relative of the women who he stabbed and killed, I will surely not forgive.

    You got a mention and a doctorate.

  2. tat TWO NEWS says:

    Mhux ovvja li il-qadd tal-qalziet jixpaqqalu, daqs kemm jintnefah bieh in-nifsu. Qiesu buzzieqa mimlija bl-arja. Ghandhu xi jghid dwar il-gass tossiku, kull ma jaghmel jeqred u jifixkel biss.

    Nahseb li jekk jgaghtuh il-lok xi 39 container jimla bil-qrid negattiv tieghu.

  3. red nose says:

    What a pity that only a select few read your comments! What a pity that the thousands out there do not know of your remarks and eye-openers!

  4. Brian says:

    The more I read about Joseph Muscat, the more I believe that he has become a puppet leader, ‘kidnapped’ by his own people within the hierarchy of the L.P.

  5. TROY says:

    Daphne i think that’s the tip of his tie

  6. I love Gowzeff 4 nEver says:

    The thing is, will all the incapabilities of this MLP reborn PL, they are going to be in power, by default in around 36 months (or just under). You (and I) will have to call Joseph Muscat our prime minister and he will smirk back with a twinkle in his tooth and retort, I told you “glad to be Prime minister at 39. Now bugger off and let me claim Castille and salute the wave of red banners in front of the steps of the high office. Then we’ll go round Bidnija hooting and calling Ms. “mara ta’ gay” biex tihu gost.

    I know it’s a nightmare, but it’s not like the PN is doing anything to fight for the seat of government. See the latest saga of the power station.

    The thing might be the best option for us, but still there is a smell of wrongdoing. Questions unanswered (ghax insejt, ta) at the auditor leave much to be desired. Something is amiss for sure.

  7. Martin Luther says:

    It is only a matter of time before the Great Leader solemnly declares “I have a dream”.

  8. LG says:

    Well, perhaps he’s copying David Cameron who plagiarised John Lennon’s Imagine. So even in copying, dear Joseph may not be that original.

  9. AL says:

    I think I’m going to become a regular DCG, you’ll love it I’m sure :)

    Your very objectively-articulated article *cough* sums up into a weak opinion that Dr. Muscat’s speeches are, well, not up to standard shall we say? You said he recycles his own and others’ ideas, catch-phrases and what not, and that his ‘projection tactics’ are passionless and repetitive. I have been following your extraordinary literature *cough* since..well.. since you became a self-proclaimed political missionary, and since then, your writings are always the same: a well-written (I’ll give you that) kaleidoscope of offensive comments. Nothing more. No news, no revelations, not even opinions! (that’s of course if you omit ‘offence’ from the meaning of ‘opinion’). Never well-structured or researched… They sound like a regurgitation of pseudo-neo-aristocratic gossip spat amongst a handful of 50 year old ladies sitting on their counterfeit Victorian chairs. All acting like they run the country with their caked faces and bright red lipstick at 10 in the morning.

    My point is, dear DCG, keep your blogs coming :) They’re ridiculously amusing (or was that amusingly ridiculous? I might have gotten confused).

  10. Malcolm Vella says:

    CAN ANYONE WORK OUT WHAT SORT OF WAISTBAND THAT IS? OR HAS HE JUST BEEN FOR A QUICK SLASH? ….. errrrrrrrrrr maybe its his tie in front of his trousers?

    [Daphne – Damn, you’re right.]

  11. kev says:

    “The last time I heard Joseph Muscat speak with true passion and real conviction was seven years ago, when he detailed the horrors of EU membership and urged us to vote No.”

    That sums it up, doesn’t it? It’s the difference between genuine politics and the politics of expediency, irrespective of whether or not one agrees with the political content.

  12. maryanne says:

    They are so insensitive, even towards each other. Yesterday, Dr Zrinzo Azzopardi wrote a feature in Maltastar.com entitled ‘It’s All About Values’. And then today, Joseph Muscat starts his article by mentioning values in the first two sentences.
    Qisu seraqlu l-ideja.

  13. Abulafia says:

    If Inspector Gadget is really being helped by a certain “Dr” Ancel Farrugia Migneco, former MLP candidate who took Malta to the European Court of Human Rights but his applicant seemed to have stopped on April 12, 2001, then we’d better have a look.

    “Dr” Farrugia Migneco is an importer of diamonds:

    http://www.tradeindia.com/Buyer-152182-142178-1057-BRANDING/Diamonds/Global-Intermed-Services.html

    and an oil and gas investor:

    http://oilandgasinvestornetwork.ning.com/profile/AncelFarrugiaMigneco.

    “LABOUR – WHAT A PARTY. YOU COULDN’T MAKE IT UP.”

  14. Gahan says:

    Today there was this blessed debate. If I wanted to follow the debate it was being broadcast on the radio, and if an MP wanted or wants to vote against the government he or she is free to do so.

    I’m sick and tired of this “cry wolf!” every time there is a major project.

    In my opinion if the contractors of the new power station were corrupt they would have given a “pizzu” to the PL like many big fish do in Malta.

    Rubbing shoulders with an Israeli firm was never dreamed of by the pro-Palestinian MLP.

    Tinten il-bicca, Guz!

  15. Harry Purdie says:

    An amazingly cynical chameleon.

  16. Pat Zahra says:

    Embrace life with confidence and put your best foot forward this season with pale pink tie tips that overlap the waistband for an effect that is naughtily refreshing. Belts in naff tooled eco-leather may also be worn. For the man who makes his own rules.

  17. if you have nothing to say keep quite. have you ever seen mr. pullicino swimming? i cannot believe how you find time to write such non sense. r spiteri

  18. Vanessa D. says:

    I think he’s actually “under tall” for his tie, which is flapping below his belt. Maybe it’s for us to notice he’s got the equipment down below. Who knows? (And who cares, anyway!)

  19. Omni Sapiens says:

    And yet, in all probability, he will be our prime minister in a few years time!

    When will we have a decent option come election time?

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