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 wrong kind of passion for politics who will have seen anything of value in Labour’s bumbling deputy leader. His performance was catastrophic and whoever coached him must have been tearing out his or her hair from the first minute.
It has nothing to do with Simon Busuttil and whatever performance he put on. As I said in yesterday’s post, Anglu Farrugia would be capable of losing a debate with himself. He is completely at loss in 99% of the subjects brought up and it is evident that he can only sound convincing to ‘kerchief waving constituents gathered at a coffee morning. How many more times must he be forced to face the agony of prime time television only to squirm and faffle the moment anything technical or specific is brought up.
The Living Wage? More like living hell. The moment Anglu attempts to describe the economic reality of the living wage and what it is about he makes it sound like a cross between viagra and self-raising flour. He had absolutely nothing to go on – and were it not for the PN bungle with regards to taxing the minimum wage I have a strong suspicion that Labour candidates would have absolutely no other example of taxes that would be changed to alleviate what they call the burdens on the less wealthy.
Which is where I have to speak about the man who sat on the sofa and who had approximately a quarter of an hour to have his say compared to the interminable 45 minutes in which Anglu Farrugia gave us his little bit of circus. Carmel Cacopardo’s interventions were not only incisive and clear but they were relevant. No theatrics, no faux rhetoric or time wasted on personal arguments – straight to the point. Cacopardo spoke of policy. He had questions, he had criticisms and above all he had solutions.
It is such a pity that Carmel Cacopardo and his party will once again be a victim of the winner-takes-all politics that is so useful to the PLPN. You’ll see how on the eve of the election Simon’s nationalist party will be busy unearthing the ghost of Franco and instability in order to scare votes away from electing the third party. It will be too late then to explain that this third party has concrete ideas and would stick to a coalition on terms of principle not for the sake of power. A coalition government would be the stuff that dreams are made of – with a serious AD keeping the arrogant arms of PN in check.
What would be more realistic in a world where voters vote with their minds and not with their hearts would be AD winning over the cape of opposition party from a Labour party that is devoid of ideas and that has become a veritable farce of a party – all slogans and no substance. In a real world the 62,000 persons living below the poverty line would be voting AD into parliament and making sure that they get a strong say in the opposition. In a real world that is…
but this is the world of Anglu Farrugia, the Where’s Everybody aquarium and endless spin that will do its utmost to make a very serious party as AD seem as irrelevant as Franco Debono.
In un paese pieno di coglioni ci mancano le palle.
5 replies on “That inexistent opposition”
The figure of 62,000 does not refer to people living below the poverty line but people at the risk of poverty (i.e. for whom the main source of income is a social benefit). Quite a difference, considering that that is an area which in Malta has seen no cuts.
While AD are rather adept at talking, their biggest problem is their candidates. Many people do not know who the candidates representing AD on their district are, and no matter what the party says, you ultimately vote for a candidate, not just the party. And, well, if you don’t know who the candidate is, you will hardly vote for them.
If your true intentions are to vote for a valid representative, you could try and get to know who that person might be. Bear in mind that AD does not get any financial support from big business, is shunned by the media, sidelined by PBS and has an uphill climb to reach out to the electorate with its limited resources. Ultimately the question is , can we really get better with the PLPN duopoly and are you ready to take a brave step and go for change, a real change.
Well said Christian Holland, it appears that every once in a while you need to stir the pot to avoid the accumulation of slime and the green policies are I feel best addressed with the Green Party. PN has had its fair share of good and its share of corrupt practices, yesterdays’ Busuttil’s slap of the wrist in the case of Tonio Fenech is a case in point. And is it not the case that competition is lauadable in a capitalist culture? Nuff said.
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