The next time there is an election for Sliema’s local council don’t expect a long list of potential candidates queueing outside Paul Borg Olivier’s door.  Silvio Zammit (no relation) is the latest PN councillor (and deputy mayor) to resign from his post citing...

Until I find time to post about “the issues that aren’t” I’d like to take a quick look (and provocation) at the idea of “the future” that has slipped in among the top hit concepts in Maltese political discourse. “The future” and its natural...

Recent events in the holy of holies that is parliament are beginning to make the Council of Trent seem like a walk in the park. I have already registered my consternation at what seems to have been a missed opportunity by the PN to take the initiative following the summer recess and to finally...

Only yesterday Austin Gatt and two of his sidekicks were busy presenting a White Paper that was almost being hailed as a quantum leap in the state of digital rights on the island. Essentially Gatt, IT Claudio and Arriva Delia were promoting a suggested new constitutional provision that would...

Random thoughts on parliamentary democracy. 1. October 9th. Luxembourg’s parliament reopens after the summer recess as does Belgium’s senate. L’essentiel reports that 30% of the members have sat in parliament for over 15 years. A commentary on Belgian radio remarked that it...

For the record, just for the record, there is a difference between selling off the MANAGEMENT of car parks and selling off the OWNERSHIP of car parks. Yep. Before we rush off to create petitions and cry about the sale of public land to private entrepreneurs let us just make sure we got this...

No. I am not ignoring what is going on in Parliament. How can you? On the other hand I still am amazed at how ridiculously shallow is the level of political assessment in this country of ours. Kudos, first of all, goes to Lawrence and his “team” for having managed to string...

Anton Refalo cannot afford to sit at his desk and string a few (empty) words together and just send off one article. Which is why following his Independent article from October 4th he is now “gracing” the pages of the Times with a new magnus opus. This time, the erstwhile loud...

The Honourable member from the 13th district has published an article in today’s Independent that deals inter alia (amongst other things) with the concept and history of the “minimum wage”. The issue itself has probably been milked dry and I strongly suspect that bar for a...

So the first round goes to Romney. Or so they are saying. Is it possible to draw conclusions from the electoral run-up in one of the world’s largest democracies and apply them to what might happen in the island-democracy (tal-klikek) some time soon? Well, with a modicum of restraint...

I was listening to yet another radio discussion on France INFO about the Salon d’Automobile that is on in Paris at the moment. It’s actually called the “Mondial d’Auto” but nostalgics still refer to it with the original name. Listening to the experts debating the...

Aħna li ngħixu il-bogħod minn xtut gżiritna inbagħtu l-iktar mill-bard u kesħa li taffliġġi l-ambjenti illi naħdmu fihom tmenin fil-mija tas-sena. Filgħodu naraw it-tbassir tat-temp b’għajnejna jaqgħu l-ewwel fuq it-termometru u imbagħad inqabblu malajr malajr mat-temp...