The spin and the mistakes with millions

So Prime Minister Gonzi and his team of spin doctors under the direction of the Cardinal* had decided to issue a statement saying that the official statistic that €80 million worth of arms traded with Libya from Italy through Malta should have read €8 million.

They said (well RCC suggested they say) that the mistake was by a local private company that erroneously wrote 80 instead of 8 million when filling in the forms.

Heh! Anyone who believes that one, raise your hands.

So the government simply passed on the statistic to the EU and hence the ‘error.’ I am surprised how willing certain private companies are willing to take the blame for everything.

This comes of course after a carefully stage-managed TV programme by the PN’s prime apologist, who presents a programme on public broadcasting every Monday and continues to make it obvious that he has only one agenda.

Last Monday he dragged on the Prime Minister, who was riding on a wave after his appearance during the Libyan crisis. On Monday on TVM he decided to lambaste the reporters of this ‘statistic’ story and accuse them of being irresponsible. Well that is a nice way of putting it.

I would imagine they were labelled as irresponsible because these kind of stories are very sensitive with such a volatile dictator living up to his reputation next door to us in Tripoli. He is, by the wa,y a Scud missile away, that is.

But with all due respect, it wasn’t a journalist who stated that Gaddafi should go, go and go. It was our Prime Minister, who on Sunday night at a press conference got carried away and said what the US and the Europeans wished for him to say. He said that Gaddafi’s days were over.

He will be a very disappointed and confused man when he realises that Gaddafi, like Sadaam Hussein in 1991, could very well stay on for a very long time. Then what?

Well, Dr Gonzi was not irresponsible. No, not all.

You will of course realise that these kind of TV programmes are well rehearsed. Yes. well rehearsed. The Where’s Everybody team know what I am talking about. Those in the PN who are no longer in the inner circle will testify how common it was to be rehearsed by this ‘team’.

After last Monday’s programme, the Italian ambassador wrote in a newspaper to say that the figure of guns sold to Libya from Italy was in fact €8 million not €80 million. A day later, the PM’s office issued the funniest statement of the year saying that a Maltese company made a typing error.

But then if you think that this isn’t funny do avoid seeing yet another programme next Monday on State TV about Libya. Just avoid TV on Monday altogether, and simply log on to Malta’s 2^nd most popular website www.maltatoday.com.mt. Yes, it is official MaltaToday has overtaken most Maltese websites and is now only second to The Times.

* The Cardinal is Richard Cachia Caruana