Here we go again

Alfred Sant’s declaration that Labour’s halving of the surcharge will not be applicable to businesses continues to prove that all these election gimmicks are turning out to be half-hearted promises.
The fact that we got to know about this after a nosey parker asked a question is even more worrying. If Sant really wanted to address cost of living increases, the best thing would have been to offer the 50% surcharge to businesses.
In normal circumstances, they would advantage the consumer with better pricing structures. More on this next Sunday.

Daphne Caruana Galizia, unlike others, believes the ultimate nemesis is a party like Alternattiva Demokratika, not Josie Muscat and his band of right-wingers.
Instead of focusing on the plusses of the PN in the last 20 years, the panic-stricken gladiators are decapitating anyone who stands in their way.
In 2003 I wrote an editorial that called on all voters to give their number one vote to the Nationalist party. It was one of the most difficult editorials I had ever written. It was driven by the belief that losing out on European Union membership was not an option, and that Alfred Sant’s partnership proposal was a whole load of absolute rubbish.
This is 2008 and there is no life or death situation ahead of us. Alfred Sant has a track record of taking awkward and bad decisions and it may also be very true that I would never buy a second-hand car from Alfred.
But Alfred Sant does not – and I have said this before – eat babies. He does however take hopeless decisions. And neither does he send people like Daphne or myself to the Gulag. Surely, he will not appoint her or me as a consultant; but whether these are the criteria for having a change in government is a different matter altogether.
But this does not give the PN and its bumpkins the right to rubbish the essence of any democratic movement, or show disrespect in the most arrogant of manners to those who choose to vote for another party.
The Greens will not elect anyone in the next election, but it doesn’t mean that we should call people names if they decide to dispense of their vote.
Daphne seems to have forgotten that in 1992 she had written in the Sunday Times describing then prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami as a little village lawyer. Better still: she seems to have forgotten that in 1992 she herself voted for the Greens!
At that time, not even I considered Eddie to be a little village lawyer. Indeed like all good Karkarizi, I grew up fully aware of what the Fenech Adami family stood for.
What was more disappointing was Lawrence Grech, the former Sunday Times editor. Mr Grech had always been a champion of electoral reform and change. Suddenly this weekend he found the time or rather saw it fit to pen an opinion column on why a vote for Alternattiva is such a bloody waste of time. He went further, and said that even if they – the Greens – won 10% of the national votes AD would not be elected.
Mr Grech then surfaced on Michael Falzon’s newspaper analysis on Radio 101. He said that people already vote for a coalition because of the single transferable vote system.
What Mr Grech conveniently forgot is that when Greens got 23,000 votes in the European elections, voters were also trying to say something. They were primarily disgruntled Nationalists trying to send a message.
Yet sadly, the PN response to the electoral fiasco at the European elections was to ask Godfrey Grima to write a secret report.
Listening to Radio 101 one listens to vitriol against the Greens which is disproportionate but simply inexplicable.
The Greens may be badly dressed Sliema boys, but many of the principles they stand for are honourable. The fact that they do not get enough votes is not because of their ideas or their looks, but because of an electoral system which is unfair.
I may or may not agree with the Greens on every point, even though I pride myself on having been one of their founders way back in 1989. But I cringe like everyone else when I see commentators questioning the right of people to choose one party over another.
Once again the mistake committed by Tonio Borg before the 2004 European elections is being repeated by PN Janissaries.* The Nationalists have made mistakes but they have enough bonus points to use to convince people of their merits.
Someone should tell DCG to shut up.

It goes without saying that the reportage from both parties is depressing if not downright fallacious. These are the ones that really tickle my fancy.
The PN media have taken deputy leader Charles Mangion to task over the use of specific phraseology where he referred to the Nationalists as having a different DNA.
The PN media screamed wolf.
Someone should really tell the boys at Pieta that stating that someone does not share the same DNA is not offensive. It happens to be a common way of differentiating between people sharing different viewpoints. It is ENGLISH.
If they want to get at Charles Mangion they should hit out at his conflicts of interest in his role as a notary, not about ridiculous DNA statements. They should ask him straight questions on whether he will take any dividends or allowances or profits from his massive business interests.

Lino Farrugia has now targeted Winston Zahra.
Zahra has had the gall or rather the courage to stand up and be counted with Birdlife. He is against spring hunting.
Good for him and good for us that people care to speak up.
But to some others, to express one’s opinion against hunting is as bad as telling someone their mother is a whore.
And once again, it has been proven to all of us what a wonderful thing it would be if Lino Farrugia were to have his way.
It would be a wonderful uplifting experience.
We would be shooting at everything that flies and we would be doing better than that: we would be trapping everything that crawls, and we would be running.
We would running around with a greenfinch in a small cage and talking to the bird as if it were our spouse.
Lino Farrugia is a particular variety of Homo sapiens who still takes himself seriously.
He is urging everyone not to vote for the larger parties.
Perhaps now is the moment to get together and ask everyone to boycott Lino Farrugia, isolate him, ignore him or for the love of mankind, catapult him back into the dinosaur age.
There I am sure he would be at home. I would just love to see him take a pot shot at a massive Tyrannosaurus Rex!

*Janissaries were Catholic slaves who converted to Islam and served as the Ottoman Sultan’s elite and suicidal front-liners.

Comments

Arnold Galea
Dear Saviour

DCG should not shut up she should be more tolerant. That is all, and should avoid stating that who votes Labour is stupid. At least there are 45% labour supporters and come next 9th March there will be more than 50%. Are these all unintelligent?

Unfortunatley Daphne is full of hatred but not only for Labour for many many people who do not share her views.

In my opinion she needs to learn to tolerate different opinons and criticize the policies, if she wants she can do this 24 hours non stop 7 days a week!!!!

Posted at: 2008-02-24 04:56:26

"Someone should tell DCG to shut up" - try doing it yourself, Saviour, why don't you, and see exactly where it will get you. Unbelievable - another man who thinks women should speak only when permitted to do so. Oh, and when they do speak, they are inevitably described as 'hysterical'. Give it a rest, will you? If I'm hysterical, then what in God's name are you?

Posted at: 2008-02-23 18:43:13

lucy
Saviour,
I thoroughly enjoy reading your blogs.

I have become sick and tired of having people dictate to me how i should vote. As though i were some moron with no brain cells. Many say I will waste my vote if I vote AD. Well, then, if voting for my principles, values and beliefs is a wasted vote, then so be it.

And by the way, I am not a disgruntled PN supporter, I believe wholeheartedly in AD's values and principles and have done so since the first time I could vote.

Just because I do not fall within the blue

Posted at: 2008-02-14 15:54:09

Arnold Galea
Dear Saviour

I do not agree that last election was life & death. I do believe in the idea of the EU, however, I never felt the need to be in the EU to feel European, I have always been European.

Posted at: 2008-02-14 13:02:22

kenneth
prosit, this guy thinks he knows it all, hallina saviour..wher eis your hidden agenda.....

Posted at: 2008-02-14 06:44:13

Michael
Prosit saviour ta l-artikli interessanti li taghtina.keep it up.L-aktar gurnalist li nhobb naqra min tieghek.Tista jekk joghgbok tibghatli bl- e-mail is-surveys li ghamiltu s'issa u anke 'l quddiem dwar persentaggi fuq il-partiti politici kollha.
grazzi u Prosit.

Posted at: 2008-02-14 02:00:28

mike
good one...
Posted at: 2008-02-13 13:03:02