A day spent in the grips of La Grippe (the common cold) meant a workday lost and blog day lost. Incredibly there’s more news to comment on than ever before – the storm we predicted a while ago is here and thank heavens for that. Here’s the snippets that we love best on I.M. Jack.
1. Middle Class
Yep. He’s definitely fixated with it and he will not let go and I am not speaking about Ed Miliband – at least he has the excuse of being a neo-Marxist. It’s (Inhobbkom) Joseph and his toying with multiple ideas like revisiting Labour’s history (more like reinventing) and redefining social castes in some mind boggling effort to garner support. Then we have the “innovative” concept of “the living wage” which has the Labour supporters drooling head over heels for a concept first flagged by a long forgotten pope at the beginning of the 20th century. I tried to find out more about what the living wage really is and basically it turns out to be a wage that allows people to live by being able to afford their basic necessities plus a bit. It threw me back to the Great Stipend Survey of 1999 when our KSU studied the expenses and costs of living of 500 students in what was definitely the most detailed survey to date. We argued that a stipend should cover these basic necessities (from transport to hygiene) and thus allow students to be non-dependent while also keeping them out of the labour market. That was a stipend argument (stipends Joseph – not a wage from an employer combined with a parrinu) Joseph’s seems to be a duty of society towards those who currently do not do enough to justify an increase in wages. Funny how he believes that the disgruntled employers – angry at years of Nationalist cheek – will usher him in only to find that they are being asked to foot the bill for the special needs of their employees. Instead of creating better economic conditions for workers to work their way up the ladder Joseph Muscat’s government will pass on the burden of improved conditions to employers. Good luck with that.
2. VAT’s next?
Paul Borg Olivier is in a fix because he now faces charges for not filing a tax return on time. Or something administrative of the sort. Like Daphne and Harry before him he is a bit of a fix with the law but more than that he has a problem with the very standards he has been busy imposing within his own party. The chaps in charge seem to have suddenly caught a bout of collective amnesia and nobody within the PN seems to be asking PBO to step aside – at least until his fiscal worries are over. Now that’s weird – especially coming straight up after the exacting conditions PBO himself set on all and sundry in the council. “Dimech or your mother” still echoes in the halls of Pietà. Meanwhile the Chancellor of the Exchequer (or the man who would occupy that position if it existed in Maltese politics) has gone all funny laughing off an incident about his maid not having been a registered worker. In a case of foot in mouth worthy of a nationalist party secretary general Tonio really has pulled all the shots in this one. I can sympathise with Tonio having registered a maid in Luxembourg myself only to have her f-off after two sessions and live off my taxes (I still had to pay her) while she enjoyed the whole incubation period of her latest offspring. I found out later that it was a scam perpetrated by many a maid in Luxembourg (in collaboration with doctors) and that honest tax payers like myself would often find themselves paying social security for registered maids who never ever turned up for work. But back to Tonio – it’s just not done is it? Not by a minister. What is this world coming to? Next we’ll have an association of contractors with a convicted criminal as secretary or something of that sort.
3. Disset Axed
Then there was the nationalist outpost known as PBS. We hesitated tagging this label before but now that the only two current affairs programs on national television are … wait for it… Bondiplus and Xarabank we cannot but go along with our original suspicions. There is no explaining why PBS’s only remaining investigative and informative programme would be axed unless there was a dire need to REALLY make it a one note band. We’re really looking forward to a season of Bondipluses regaling us with the oh so interesting story of attempts to dive into the Etna or about the farmer who has homosexual chickens that can play the guitar while ringing a bell. You know what I mean. Speaking of Bondiplus, the subject least tackled on the programme last year is back in the courts. Plategate continued today with a new, drier examination of testimonies – bafflingly 6 months have gone by and the Times reporter still cannot tell the difference between a blog and a post. Ah these paragons of reporting.
4. Gandir Malta
If you do not have it on facebook add it – Gandir Malta (Ahbarijiet tan-nejk minn Malta). It is busy doing to Maltastar and Maltese news in general what J’accuse used to do a while back when we had more time. We love the humour and we really dig the vibe. Keep it up Gandir!
