ToonToday: Blame game

Editorial • 19 January 2003

80 year olds and the others

There are few words to describe the cock up orchestrated by some over zealous Nationalist appartchiks. The news filtered out this week that hundreds have been earmarked by the boys from Pieta for mental infirmity. The problem is that most of them may be old but they are definitely not insane.

The selection was left to party bums who act as street leaders.

To write off dozens of elderly folk and accuse them of mental infirmity just because of a hitch from a street leader is suicidal.

That the Nationalists can get away with this is surprising.

It means that ninety year old Gigi Gauci, the veteran Labourite will have to visit a medical board to check out if he was all there.

I can hardly think of anything worse than being considered a lunatic and senile and being asked to confirm that you are not.

Politics is becoming unbearable.

It should not change what one thinks of Europe, but it does make one worry that the people who are trying to get us in are making a mess of things.

If this referendum is to be a reflection of what people truly want, then let us stop breathing down their necks.

With the Labour party it is very much the pot calling the kettle black. They too have unleashed their electoral sieve. Arnold Cassola, the Green chap residing in Brussels, may well lose his vote, because Maltese electoral law stipulates very clear guidelines about the length of stay one needs to spend in Malta.

These are the rules that determine the electoral process in Malta. Some of which allow political parties, far too much power and interference in our lives.

What a week

This has been a busy week. First VAT and then the referendum date.

We had the decision by the Labour party to revert to VAT. The news came on Saturday, after years of uncertainty on what tax regime the MLP should uphold.

It was like a shot in the arm for the Maltese business community.

It also left a big smile on finance minister John Dalli, who naturally felt vindicated. It left a sense of silliness and void in those unsightly fellows who dumped their cash register in 1996 as they celebrated a Labour victory on the premise that a Labour government would remove VAT.

The newly announced political convergence on VAT closes a long chapter that translated itself in hysterical spin campaigns and retribution from both sides. It also put Alfred Sant in the bizarre position of stating publicly that he personally disagrees with VAT but will go along with it.

It reconfirms the certainty of the John Dalli vision of a tax regime for this country.

If only Dr Sant would choose to carry out the same U-turn on the European question.

We could then all use some of our precious time to attend to some national issues in need of urgent attention.