Joseph Muscat is on an unstoppable mission to turn the Labour party into a replica of the Nationalist party.
It is of course a mistake to allow Muscat to do this. It is bad enough having to see one image of Gonzi on TV; to see two of them would be a calamity. Muscat should try to come up with some original blueprints for his own political party if he wants to be taken seriously.
His new CEO, who effectively makes Jason Micallef redundant, should at least take a leaf out of Tony Blair’s early years.
There are certain things he should know.
Joseph cannot expect his wife, Michelle, to be at par with Mrs Kate Gonzi. The latter is a natural, and does not need to try hard to be a first lady.
Michelle, on the other hand, has to be conscious of everything she does: the clothes she wears, the words she chooses and the timing of her presence in public.
Too much of something makes that something ordinary. And ordinary is not good in politics.
If Joseph Muscat wants to score points, he has to score points on the ‘content’ front not only on the image front.
It is ideas that people want from Muscat.
Here is Gonzi’s biggest lacuna. On the media and communications front, on one to one, Gonzi is a winner. But on the content front he is weak and usually misinformed.
There are a hundred and one ideas that will never be taken up by Lawrence Gonzi. Why Joseph Muscat refuses to take them up himself is unclear.
The other aspect is that Muscat, young and with plenty of grey matter at his disposal, should have Gonzi’s quotes, promises and numbers at the tips of his fingers. It is here that he can, if he wishes, take on Gonzi head to head.
The last thing Muscat should do is to compare Labour to the PN. That is not a good thing to do.
No matter how old and stale the PN really is, the Labour’s curriculum vitae is like a read from one of the Harry Potter books; unreal, fairy tale like and imaginary.

Church allies itself to Adam Smith
The local church has come up with its home brewed proposals for the Gonzi budget, and guess what?
One of its proposals includes the introduction of a nominal fee for ‘free medicines’ at state hospital.
Yes, you heard right; a nominal fee. Bishop Cremona is an Adam Smith aficionado.
The Church – a reference point for our social conscience and with a mission to inculcate solidarity with the less privileged – has reactivated Alfred Sant’s infamous fee on ‘free’ medicines. Remember Satanic Alfred and his Beelzebub proposal to put a small fee on medicines?
Remember how Eddie described Sant’s proposal as shameless?
Great news, if you ask me. Pity the Church was not around in 1998 when the reform was shot down by the Nationalist party and all the friendly media.
Not only is the Church completely oblivious to its mission statement, but it has now started a campaign to convince government to tax its citizens to start paying for their medicines.
I am not one who believes in freebies. But then, nor am I a rep of the Catholic Church, with its vows of chastity, poverty and obedience.
Really and truly when you view the situation at Mater Dei I find it very difficult to understand why the Church is picking on this particular ‘issue.’
If the Church were a political party then I would be forgiven for asking. But the Church is not a political party. If it wants to stand up for Joe Bloggs it should harp about the waste of public funds at public institutions, organised and contracted by the Gonzi government prior to the election to the same private companies.
When Alfred Sant introduced such a measure, all hell broke loose.
The Church has no business proposing new revenues for the State. It should worry over incrementing the purchasing power of its flock.
If the Church had any sense it would be concerning itself with the absent health services that need to be extended to the public. Or the life-saving drugs that never get onto the national health register.
Or better still, why Mater Dei was so grossly mismanaged and serving as a siphon for passing on lucrative direct orders to the same old private companies.
The Church would be registering progress if it talked of the moral obligation to use public finances wisely and appropriately.
Every day I try to move closer to this Church, I stumble and fall and am dissuaded, because the Church becomes more of a contradiction in terms.

National paranoia versus national crisis
It is interesting to see how several politicians of all hues have convinced themselves that Malta’s national crisis is all about the coloured people that land on our shores.
That we have a problem is true, but that this is the national problem is a gross exaggeration.
Problems exist everywhere, but the magnitude of a problem varies from one problem to another.
Last Friday was a great day to appreciate to what extent the Maltese government’s proposal on burden sharing could be construed as either a success or a failure.
The Times described it as a resounding success. And Super One of course insisted that the government had failed.
It is typical of the partisan media to take different takes on the same issue. This is Malta, after all.
In reality, we have put this subject on the agenda but we are leagues away from convincing larger member states to oblige themselves and come to our rescue.
I am not suggesting that we should not tackle the migrant issue, or stop telling the EU that we are unhappy with their nonchalance. Yet, the real problem is that politicians are in dire need of a scapegoat. The scapegoat has finally been selected, and it is the black man from poor and deprived Africa.
It is okay for Maltese to donate eurocents to the missions in Africa and Latin America, but once they land on our shore we all become little Norman Lowells or Martin Degiorgios, and want them to leave.
The Nationalists accuse Joseph of having voted for a motion in the EU parliament that would allow immigrants to have a vote. And Joseph accuses the PN of having failed to get the EU to accept demands for burden sharing.
Everyone is trying to tune in to the frequency of radio xenophobia and score political points. It is a shame.
We are nowhere close to a crisis. No one coloured is taking our job, none of them are taking our money and most of them are doing the jobs that most Maltese do not want.
None of them is taking up crucial Maltese jobs. No one is sucking up lucrative tenders from the blue-eyed boys. Unlike France and England and other European countries, I do not see black police officers or black public officials. And if I did, I would not cringe.
Joseph Muscat and Gonzi’s insistence that we have a national crisis is populist talk purposely worded for the insular Maltese electorate.
And if anyone suggests that the army is wasting all its resources on the migrants, the answer to that is: what the flying socks is our army supposed to be doing? Fighting a war with the invisible Saracens or warding off the flies at It-Tokk?
Really and truly, if the coloured people arriving in their silly boats were replaced by voluptuous Russian girls with big lustful smiles and indescribable curves, I would bet my last dollar that the national crisis would suddenly evaporate into thin air.
Then I am sure none of our politicians would want the EU to take their share of our burden.
And no one seems to complain that blacks are willing to carry out work most Maltese are unwilling to do; collect trash, work on construction sites – Sundays included.
If there is a national crisis it has got to be the general disregard for our environment, the state of our economy and the questionable political class that rules us with their coterie of cronies and yes men.

Envious me
I really have to say that I have to make a resolution and learn how to enjoy myself. When I hear that Giovanna Debono has been appointed acting prime minister in the absence of the PM and his deputy, who are in the UN on a mission to change the world, I realise what it means to be on the top of things.
When I remember that Minister Pullicino was having a whale of a time in Jamaica on a holiday with friends (not Charles Azzopardi) I feel envious.
When I recall how David Casa makes it a point to hop over to Rome to visit some of his friends and nightclubs with those Jackie O spectacles, I ask myself why is it that I, too, cannot have the best of both worlds.
When I imagine that some time next year Richard Cachia Caruana will be positioning himself for the job of Commissioner, all I can say is that some people have it good.
And when I see how all the criticism levelled at the government being deflected by the good offices of the spin engineered by the Galea Curmi brigade at Castille, I feel just great.
Then, like a bolt of lightning I come to my senses and thank the Lord that I have not fallen for any of the above-mentioned kudos.
Lino Farrugia and the privileged hunters
Lino has stated that there are a number of privileged hunters who are not prosecuted because they are above the law.
Long shot, Lino.
This is one of Lino’s typical pot shots. It is his attempt to give the impression that there are bona fide hunters who do not shoot birds of prey, and other protected birds. He is suggesting that those who do are the ones under some kind of protection. Ha, haha, hahahahahaha... water, please!
The only hunters I know who do not shoot birds of prey are the ones who do not carry a gun or who watch telly instead of waiting for a poor Black Stork to fly over.
The carnage over the last weeks is proof that none of the hunters can be trusted.
The government was correct to call on the Commissioner of Police to investigate Lino’s allegations. If found to be false, the next step should not be a simple reprimand in the press, they should really push for criminal charges to be instituted.
Dolores oh
So an internal investigation takes place at MCAST and we only get to know about it because we ask questions. It then turns out that the Minister was aware of allegations that lecturers had cooked up exam grades, and not only that... the lecturers themselves were also identified by the investigations.
And guess what? They're still there... lecturing at MCAST.
It is really Dolores all over again. She can ignore us as much as she likes, but no way will we ignore her.
She had a responsibility to inform the public of this very, very serious screw up with exam results at MCAST, which had been investigated.
Surely, someone will come to her rescue, and undoubtedly it will probably be that unpardonable pompous apologist who writes in another newspaper, and lives off the retainers of government and its agencies and scribbles in Victorian English.