Perhaps Hollow Man Joseph Muscat would like to tell us what the Budget would have been like had we all followed his advice and voted No to EU membership?
What the hell is this man doing with an EU flag behind him when he worked so hard to keep us out. Or is this part of revisiting Labour's history?
When I read the piece below before uploading it, I felt like crying with relief even now, after seven and a half years.
And to think that Joseph Muscat, who was on Super One almost every night back then telling us to vote No and how the EU would destroy us, now has the brass neck to hector Tonio Fenech and Lawrence Gonzi about how they should run the economy.
Every time I remember how hard Joseph Muscat worked to keep Malta out of Europe, how opportunities would have been destroyed for generations, how young people would have been locked up on this rock like their parents were had he succeeded, I want to run down the road to San Pawl Milqi and assault him with one of those gingerbread men Michelle bakes just in case a couple of gay friends drop by while they’re being interviewed for a fan magazine.
But what am I saying? He’s a gingerbread man himself.
Read this and remember how the unrestrained efforts of Joseph Muscat and his poodle-meister almost had us thrown into a sort of hell that barely bears thinking about.
The Times (London) March 10, 2003
Malta to join EU after knife-edge referendum
From Richard Owen in Rome
A “YES” vote in Malta’s closely fought referendum on European Union membership was greeted with relief yesterday among EU officials as key votes loomed in other applicant countries.
They said that the decision, announced last night by Eddie Fenech Adami, the Maltese Prime Minister, would encourage pro-EU lobbies in nine other applicants, mostly from East and Central Europe.
Results showed that 53.65 per cent of votes supported joining an enlarged European Union next year.
Romano Prodi, the European Commission President, welcomed Malta’s “historic choice”. “This vote is a positive signal for the ratification process of enlargement.” Supporters celebrated in Valletta last night, honking car horns and waving EU flags and the red and white national standard.
Although Malta is the smallest candidate nation, with a voting-age population of only 300,000, European officials feared that a “no” vote would have sent the wrong signals over enlargement before an accession treaty- signing ceremony in Athens next month. Slovenia’s referendum is due in two weeks, followed by Hungary next month and Poland in June.
The Maltese vote was on a knife edge until the last moment, with the opposition Labour Party urging voters to spoil their ballot papers, abstain or vote “no”. Dr Fenech Adami said that Malta could not go it alone in a world of globalisation and open competition.
He accused Alfred Sant, the Labour leader, of scaremongering by claiming that EU membership would lead to an invasion of workers from Sicily, job losses and the end of Malta’s hard-won independence and neutrality.
Dr Sant said that EU policies were intended for much bigger countries and did not fit Malta, which would lose its identity. It would become a strategic Mediterranean outpost for the European powers.
Denis MacShane, Britain’s Europe Minister, said the result sent “a positive signal to the populations of the other nine prospective members”.
Malta’s hunting lobby had also campaigned against membership on the ground that EU regulations would prevent the shooting of small birds, a Maltese pastime.
British Eurosceptics have been accused of interfering in the referendum campaign by telling the Maltese that Britons regretted having joined. Tony Blair, in a letter in The Times of Malta, assured voters that there were no plans to create a federal European superstate and that they would benefit from membership.
Officials said the turnout had been well over 90 per cent. The poll was non-binding, but was seen as a crucial test for Dr Fenech Adami’s conservative Government, which took office in 1998. It was also seen as a significant expression of Malta’s “European” identity, in the face of longstanding ties with North Africa and the Arab world.
Tortuous road to membership
July 1990: Malta submits formal application to join EU
October 1996: Alfred Sant and Labour Party regain power and shelve EU driveSeptember 1998: New Nationalist Government reactivates EU application
February 2000: Accession negotiations
December 2002: Malta formally invited to join in 2004
March 8, 2003: Malta votes in favour of membership
May 1, 2004: Date set for completion of next EU enlargement, which will include Malta, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia
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You will never get an answer to this question. Perhaps Iceland will. Joseph Muscat is where he is thanks only to the EU. But he will never say this.
Muscat should hide his face in shame.
We’ll see when Muscat is in power, if he his budget will work miracles for the population.
What a stupid question for a title. Are you implying it would have been any worse in Lm? Not the ‘Iceland theory’ again, is it?
[Daphne – You would say that, wouldn’t you, Kevin. Mister Sharon No2EU Ellul Bonici.]
Dear Kev
Are you still trying to convince us we would have been better off out of the EU?
The horse is now just bones, yet you keep flogging!
Fortunately Malta saw through you lot!
How about this question kev, Is the missus still against us joining the EU ?
Kev,
In the Estimates for 2011, the government is estimating a revenue of €222 million in grants from the EU for next year.
Of course, we have our own contribution to make to the EU, which you would be able to tell us exactly how much it is, but it would be nowhere near €222 million.
Are you saying that a No to EU membership would have still given us these €222 million?
Daphne, I noticed how Kev did not comment about your guest post about AirMalta. Would that be because of his conflict of interest as former promoter of defunct MaltaFly?
It’s useless to argue with people like you, your mind is like a pebble, unchanging, it erodes away into sand, shrinking in size over time.
Let’s put it this way, Kevin Ellul Bonici: Were Malta to be out of the EU, would Sharon not be out of a job?
It’s not like you to be diffident of theories, kev. Perhaps it’s because this particular “Iceland theory” does not involve the CIA/Mossad/MI5/EU/Vatican but only a bunch of Malta Labour pillocks who – lest you forget – later sought to keep your Missus out of the feeding trough.
Ghamilli pjacir, Antoine Vella, and don’t attribute your screwed-up understanding to me. And if your feed comes through a trough – again, not everyone else’s does.
I would, wouldn’t I, Madame EU Passport.
@ Tubbigieg – rest assured convincing you doesn’t cross my mind.
@ Libertas – funny you should ask me what Malta’s contributions are. Shouldn’t that be made available by the government? Eat cake & silla, tfal ckejknin!
@ ciccio1910 – it’s because I don’t give a fly.
@Il-Ginger – ‘unchanging’ is not exactly how I would describe myself. But good prose. Keep it up… it’s all in the mind.
Kev, is it because you do not give a fly, or is it because your (and Sharon’s) Brussels/Malta/Brussels trips are conveniently subsidised in the Euro 100 million capitalisation provided for in last week’s budget?
Our trips are not subsidised, ciccio1910. Stop acting like an underaged disgruntled loser.
Loser? Why so?
This is a question about accountability of the bureaucrats in Brussels – the ones you caution us about.
How do you mean your trips are not subsidised if Airmalta is incurring losses which are being paid for by taxes in Malta?
Underaged? Hardly so if you call me ciccio1910.
Kev, your theories about Iceland are as good as your wife’s theories about the EU!
@ Joseph Micallef – What happened in Iceland is evidenced by fact. It’s ‘theory’ only to those who bathe in the general media spin without delving deeper into ‘the news’.
Kev, contrary to what you say they are still theories and it is going to take some time before any are confirmed.
On the other hand one undisputable fact is that following the debacle, Iceland are pressing to join the EU and the EURO. There only “huge” difficulty is that the amount of cash they require to cover the mess caused by their own previous mistaken decisions (the EU is one of them – putting most of their eggs in the EU/EURO cold UK basket another) is going to make membership very difficult particularly now that the larger countries are not prepared to shoulder the burdens of short-sighted decisions.
You can join the flat earthers if you will, Micallef, I have little time for you. But remember, it is the career politicians that are forcing EU membership on Iceland. The majority want Iceland to remain a free nation.
I see we agree on something.
Probably conspiracy theories of the “Sqallin kind” are your forte.
“Malta’s hunting lobby had also campaigned against membership on the ground that EU regulations would prevent the shooting of small birds, a Maltese pastime.”
What a lovely description of Maltese leisure activities.
Not being resident in Malta, I may have missed this, but has Joseph Muscat (or the Labour Party for that matter) ever come out and said “We were wrong! Sorry!”?
I mean this is not rocket science. You are either for or against EU membership. If the PL are now for it, they should explain why they were so hell bent against it then. If they are against it, then they should come out and say so. As I said I’m no longer resident in Malta, so this may have just passed right over my head.
I cannot stomach the cheek of people who were/and still are despite what they say anti-EU – who after all are working in the EU no thanks to their beliefs. As case in point is our friend Kev
‘just in case a couple of gay friends drop by while they’re being interviewed for a fan magazine.’
Daphne, can you please tell me when and in which magazine was this article published?
[Daphne – First magazine, when it was edited by Marie Benoit.]
Thank you.
Intertwined title and outdated contents.
The EU flag is doing a V (Victory) sign behind Joseph’s back.
Is-sewwa jirbah zgur.
A black cassock and a white surplice. A perfect image of an alterboy reciting the priedka tat-tifel.
@ Steve. They never said anything about why they were against since we joined, and the present PL Leader (an ex MEP) when being interviewed says ‘Heqq issa qedin fl-EU’.
And when they brought the Italian singer Toto Cotugno for one of their own great celebrations and he performed the song ‘Unite Europe’ the intelligent audience started booing him.
Can you ever know where these people stand? But I know what they want. They want to be in government, without any serious political policies, so that some people very close to their leader fill up their pockets like they always did when they were in office.
for all of us to remember…. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7vooIY8Yxs
“What the hell is this man doing with an EU flag behind him when he worked so hard to keep us out. Or is this part of revisiting Labour’s history?”
Several things, actually. First of all, he is telling us how unsuccessful he is at campaigning an issue he is passionate about. Secondly he is indicating how inconsistent he is about things that matter. He is also emphasising what a poor visionary he is and what a brass-faced hypocrite he is to boot.
But most of all he is advising us not to trust him with our livelihood and peace of mind. If he got it so wrong on this issue, how will he ever get anything else right. Five years of U-turns, second thoughts, recycling of discarded ideas, undertaking half-baked projects and trying to please all and sundry would see Malta in financial ruin within a couple of years.