Marisa was begging for it…

While David Casa was busy crafting mysterious articles about the European Union’s answers to the financial crisis, the big news in Malta was that ex-PN darling and ex-Housing Authority Chairman Marisa Micallef (ex-Leyson) had been appointed consultant/press-officer to Joseph “Decision-maker” Muscat to the tune of €40,000 euros. The news spread like wildfire after it broke and the first reaction we got from the PN sympathetic crowd had to come from a DCG back from her Chinese break. Daphne replied to a comment on her blog (Something else to bicker about) thusly:

Hi Daphne

What about marisa micallef leyson? What is your thought about the latest news?

[Daphne – I think that when a twice-divorced woman has a daughter to raise, she is sometimes forced to make uncomfortable decisions to pay the bills, decisions that she may not have made otherwise. Mrs Micallef Leyson asked the government to create certain jobs for her, after her search for permanent employment in Britain did not work out, but was told that this was not possible. She may have believed that she was owed allegiance in return for her own allegiance; she may have been wrong or right in this – I don’t know. It’s not how I see things, so I can’t understand that way of thinking. But I can see the reasoning behind it in a way. She may have found herself in a difficult position financially. Knowing what it’s like to pay the considerable bills that come with running a household and raising children, I must say I find it difficult to pass judgment. Thousands of otherwise decent women the world over resort to being paid for sexual services to pay the bills when they’re really on their uppers and have children to raise, and even then I find it hard to judge. EUR40,000 a year is a lot of money for a single mother to turn up her nose at, and we’re not all lucky enough to be able to earn our living using our own initiative.

To begin with it is hard to ignore the “I find it difficult to pass judgement” bit but, if you do, then you will find that in this quick riposte to the provocation by “no comment” (another cheap anonymous commentator), the not so subtle undertones are there: Marisa needed the cash so she rushed to whoever could cough it up. As if the implication of mercenary was not enough (in the week Mandelson was interviewed stating he would work for the Tories if need be), we have the second bait thrown speculatively: some women end up prostituting themselves in order to pay the bills. There you have it: financially despondent Marisa (who to boot does not fit into the “Happy Family” model) is a mercenary who responds to the same instincts as a woman driven to prostitution in dire circumstances.

More refinement of this argument would come from Daphne later on in another comment but then again that is an individual person’s blog in which that individual has every right to state (and defend) her opinion – even when not passing judgement. What is surprisingly interesting is that this philosophy of the “mercenary” in need is as contagious as swine flu and before you know it there’s breaking news featuring PBO who is gingerly reacquainting himself with the right buttons to press:

Nationalist Party defector Marisa Micallef is a “victim of the financial crisis”, according to the Nationalist Party’s general secretary, Paul Borg Olivier. (…)  “I understand she was unhappy the government was not able to provide her with a job but the government is not an a la carte restaurant or simply contributing to ‘pocket money’,” Dr Borg Olivier said when contacted. He claimed that Ms Micallef returned to Malta after becoming a victim of the economic crisis in the UK last year, implying that she basically lost her job and needed another one. “Ms Micallef’s acceptance of a job with the Labour Party should not be taken out of its context,” he added. (Times of Malta)

You might have some reservations about the government not being an a la carte restaurant for some people but you sure have to admire the way in which the character assassination of Marisa Micallef ex-Leyson has begun in earnest. Now J’accuse still has to pen its own tuppence worth of ideas about the whole Micallef-Micallef affair so what we are doing here is pointing out the heavy, old-fashioned, blundering and inconsistent PN PR machinery at work.

The PN line has been spun: Marisa Micallef is a victim of the financial crisis that for all intents and purposes barely exists in ministerial declarations . She is desperate for money and people who are desperate for money will sell their soul to the devil (or invent ingenious ways of not paying VAT for 13 years and codename them “No Johnny Cash” while becoming Vice-Mayor for Swieqi on a PN ticket). The government is not an infinite source of à la carte menus and cannot fork out “pocket money” to whoever makes too much noise.

“Pocket money”? Is that what they call “cejca” these days?