Category: Politics

  • Smart savings ?

    How big a pinch in government spending is €175,000 per annum? That is the figure that Education Minister Evarist Bartolo claims to be saving the public purse by removing the smart card system and transforming that portion of money into a grant going directly into the students’ purses. There seem to be murmurs of new controls…

  • Institutes of Confusion

    Institutes of Confusion

    China Today. It’s all about China isn’t it? The latest very superficial Memorandum of Understanding to be signed with what Saviour Balzan in his infinite wisdom terms a “former communist giant” was the subject of discussion in parliament tonight. The opposition raised some valid questions about a number of matters mentioned in the Memorandum –…

  • Our missionary position

    Our missionary position

    This is a guest post sent in by a J’accuse reader.  While everyone this side of the Great Wall is falling over themselves to figure out how much of our taxes are being used to remunerate “our” emissary in the Far East, one simple fact from the horse’s mouth seems to have been missed. I,…

  • (All that) Bull in a China shop

    (All that) Bull in a China shop

    This must be the year of the bull. I know it isn’t (it’s the year of the horse and there’s no bull in the Chinese zodiac) but there’s so much bull in the year that it’s hard to miss it. Only the other day Malta’s ex-Commissioner to the EU now turned “I’ll never bend over…

  • The ghosts of politics past

    The ghosts of politics past

    The French news world was rocked this morning with the news that former President Nicolas Sarkozy was placed under “garde a vue” pending investigations into possible “trading in influence” that he might have engaged in during his presidency. Those more familiar with Italian political jargon would call a garde a vue an avviso di garanzia (indictment). What it…

  • That topless obsession

    That topless obsession

    The Malta Police have issued a video with a number of tips for tourists. This is a commendable effort aimed at informing tourists of their rights and obligations while holidaying on the island of milk and honey. I’m assuming that this is a serious effort and not some kind of parody and once again –…