AD’s PRO André Vella has submitted this post as a Zolabyte. In this piece and accompanying infographic Vella compares how the three parties square up before all the manifestos were published.  A political manifesto is the official seal of approval of a party’s agenda when (and...

You would not believe me but this election has many many echoes of 2008. This government is bending over backwards in order to show the voters how much change it has already brought into place and there is no doubt that some sort of progress has been achieved. On the other hand this blog was...

It’s a good thing that the parties have gone ballistic with colours in their campaign – the obsession is second only to their quasi-fanatic devotion to the newfound toys in the social media sphere. You’d have a hard time catching up with the goings on all over the place...

They kicked off. The campaigns that is. By some unwritten conspiracy I was meant to leave the island the day it all went into top gear – only just. I was still in Malta when Joseph Muscat’s team went for the mother of all gimmicks and gave us the midnight launch. Did we need to...

A couple of months ago Simon Busuttil visited the Luxembourg expat community in his capacity as EU MEP. Exceptionally I decided to attend the meeting and had a cordial chat with Simon. I say “expat community” but I mean “Maltese EU institution workers” because there is...

It would not be much time before Louis Grech would have to move out of the “pretty face” comfort zone and be obliged to give us a demonstration of his political nous. “From Brussels with love” was his honeymoon period – yet another  EU veteran riding on the crest...

In tennis they don’t use the word zero when counting scores. They have a fancy name for it – they call it love. Some say that the name came from the tennis courts among the nobles in France when they used to call the zero “l’oeuf” (the egg) thanks to its ovoid...

Jekk tinzerta tkun qiegħed ħdejn xi bajja Maltija taf tara kartelluni li javzaw lil kull min bi ħsiebu jgħum illi “Topless sunbathing is prohibited”. Dejjem laqtitni din fuq ħafna livelli. L-ewwelnett għax għadna iffissati biż-żejża. L-iskop ta’ din il-projbizzjoni...

The “Christmas Truce” has gone up in ashes with a Ho! Ho! Ho! and without so much as a by your leave. It was obvious from the start (as we had predicted) that the two parties would be unable to contain the inertia of the electoral swing. The 9th of March has a gravitational pull of...

The other issue relating to bias presented itself fittingly just as I was being discharged from my one-day stay in hospital. The one and only guest on Where’s Everybody’s TVHEMM was the indefatigable Franco Debono. Franco’s interlocutor on the programme would be the usual...

Anglu Farrugia’s smile should haunt Labour diehards for years to come. I say should because I am convinced that they are probably in the throes of jubilation and singing his praises at how his performance far outshone that of Simon Busuttil. Unfortunately it is only those blinded by the...

Oh what a night that was. Xarabank’s editors invited Simon Busuttil and Anglu Farrugia for what was meant to be the battle of deputy leaders only to find that in the last moment the Labour party had opted to send Franco Debono to face up to the nationalist party’s champion....