A corrupt farce at the Auberge de Cash Till

They have cast off the last shreds of pretence. They are now not even bothering to pretend not to be corrupt. Can they insult the public more than they are doing now?

I can’t find it now – there are too many articles and posts on the subject when I run a search – but a month or so ago I wrote that the Prime Minister will never remove Konrad Mizzi or Keith Schembri because he can’t do so, and yet he can’t not act either, so what he will do instead is keep them on in the backroom while retaining the energy portfolio himself.

And that is exactly what he has done. Except that he hasn’t kept Mizzi on in the backroom, but in the cabinet – “without a portfolio”. What has changed here? Nothing. The baksheesh-rich potential of the energy and Projects Malta portfolios remain firmly in the grasp of Joseph Muscat and Konrad Mizzi, Mizzi is still in the cabinet and Keith Schembri is still Muscat’s chief of staff.

The situation is now actually worse than it was before, because Muscat has returned that bucket of sleaze, Manuel Mallia, to the cabinet – WITH THE GAMING INDUSTRY IN HIS PORTFOLIO.

This is a reverse victory sign to the electorate, and a big middle finger raised in the faces of those who were stupid enough, blind enough, and sufficiently devoid of insight to vote them in. That middle finger says, “You fell for it, suckers.”

For Muscat himself, though, this is a disaster. It has cemented beyond doubt in the public’s mind – the public, that is, who won’t be waving flags and screaming support for him on Sunday – that he is badly entangled with Mizzi and Schembri, and that whatever it is they are up to, they are up to together. They’re a bunch of crooks, and they’re running the country into the ground.

To those who say “But the economy is doing well and people have jobs”, I say: so sit there and count your money while you watch the institutions which are there to safeguard your rights, democracy, the separation of powers and the rule of law crumble and erode as Muscat kicks them to bits and pours the acid of corruption, lack of fitness for purpose, trading in influence, cronyism and abuse of power all over them. And then remind yourself that even though Malta is further south than Tunis and Algiers, it is, technically and at law, in Europe.

Back in the cabinet: the new Minister for Gaming