Video | Labour leader addresses thousands in Valletta rally

The Bidnija Witch couldn't stomach this massive protest. She is insisting there were only a few hundreds and not thousands. Like Peter Borg Olivier she has opted to live in denial while the rest of Malta is up in arms (not literally as in Tunisia) but figuratively. What was literal was the glaring manifestation of anger among those present, anger at the Gonz, anger at his lapdog Fenech, anger at Austin Gatt, anger at all the frontbenchers of this ill-begotten government whose days are numbered and which is heading for the most spectacular defeat in the history of national elections. While the anger demonstrate their anger, GonziPN continues with its danse macabre. They whom the gods want to destroy they first drive mad. Witness GonziPN's latest moves and it becomes absolutely obvious that it's gone off its rocker.

Gaucijay: well said, the obvious is the obvious and not everyone realises this is the case. The problems that face Malta are much in line with what they are elsewhere, except that they are exacerbated by the very low salaries seen here. Frankly I am amazed that they are so low and are kept that way by the machinations of the industrial hegemony that is based here. If it wasn't for the fact that the common-day prices for the general foods we see every day in Malta were as close to the other countries in Europe as they are seen to be it might be different. But when you see the reports that milk in Malta is more expensive than in the UK it makes you think. The Government of Malta (the current one) scraped in by 1 vote in the last General Election: in other words they got a severe bruising by the Electorate and in effect - did not have a mandate for a full term of Government. Now I am not a Constitutional Expert for Malta so I assume that the date of the next General Election is mandated to occur after a certain statutory period - save for the event of a National Emergency. It looks to me then that this General Election will be 2014! The Leader of the Opposition Senator Joseph Muscat could do two things: (i) he could wait and win the next General Election or (ii) await the fall of the Current Government. The most likely scenario is the first for the latter is very difficult to predict. The current issues expounded by Senator Joseph Muscat in this programme of expected charges for the Next Government (of which he is vying to run) are very appropriate and well-thought out. Consider then what is happening in other countries around the EU and the World and their approaches to the same sort of issues and let's for the moment set aside the Republic of Ireland. Most of these countries are trying to tackle their huge Government expenditures by curtailing that enormous expenditure of the Administration (Civil Service) and the way that they handle the business of Government. It was a wonderful charge to hear in the UK that the new Government there was to cut back the expenditure of Government by 30% in one/two terms of Government. It has never been done but it makes for good headlines. The reality is that if the Civil Service accounts for 25% of all the employment and it has such lucrative salary scales and pension benefits that are unsustainable in that they have to be paid for by the rest of the country (the remaining 75% of the population pays for the Civil Service) the financial sense of what is being done is manifestly right. Cutting out duplication and benefits packages is one area and reducing their index-linked annual salary rises is another but - let it be repeated - BUT the major onward costs are the Civil Service Index-Linked pensions schemes which cost the Tax Payers a huge extra burden. It is very well expounding the issues of Government Expenditure at the point of use but in many of these areas the overheads are enormous. If you or I was running a business the major issue we would have is Overheads and the necessity for same. The Civil Service in Government is the largest Overhead any Country has and it is there that Senator Joseph Muscat needs to make his Policy Statement issues. It may be unpleasant but it is necessary to address. And after addressing all this then the totality of the mess we are in can be reconciled. All across the World governments are looking at reducing their expenditure profiles and they all have the same issues. Reduce the core expenditure before increasing Taxation. Do that and then you will win the hearts of the People. Joseph Muscat must realise also that the Protest Votes in the Electorate must also be harnessed to the good. In Malta the only real Protes Vote is Apathy. We must get all of the Electorate to Vote, for without that dissent is rife. i suggest that there should be a constitutional ammendment to the Statuites in Malta requiring All Voters to Vote on default of which a fine is levied (Australia does it!) There is also the question of Voting Age and in that the debate is still unresolved. 17 seems to be a favoured point to start voting...and is even being considered in the UK! It matches the age of being able to join the Military Services. One area where Joseph Muscat might consider his strategic positioning is in the area of Green and Environmental Issues. All across Europe and Asia the issue of the Environment is becoming a voice of issue. Remember the closeness of the Green Party Leader to attaining high office in Brazil during the last few months: from out of nowhere to a main player in the potetial administration of the next government in 5 years time. Mr Muscat must take charge of the green issues in Malta for in that he will secure an outright win. It may be that he will have to adopt policies that are currently being nurtured by AD but so? Onwards and forwards then.

EUtbatija - ghadek hemm isfel?

So a national protest did not deserve the home page?

The only way we can start solving our problems is by leaving the EU to remove the strait jacket we have been put into by its membership. Remember that we are paying it €186,000 every day simply for membership which it will increase again next year as it always does. This is apart form all customs duties and levies which we pay for anything imported from outside the EU and which all go to the EU while we pay the Customs Officers to collect them. This is also apart from its share of VAT, the taking of the interest earned on our foreign reserves which had to be sent to the ECB in Frankfurt instead of those interests being earned by Malta. This is apart from the loss of the Italian Protocol, the loss of the Libyan Oil Contract which the EU forced the PN Government to renounce because they considered that by getting cheaper oil we were causing unfair competition to the German and other mainland industries. Another effect of the loss of the Libyan contract is higher prices for fuel apart from the higher prices being also caused by the minimum taxes that the EU orders on energy products. This also applies to gas. EU membership also gave us the mass invasion of our country by illegal immigrants whom we have to keep here as per the EU Dublin II Convention and the fact that the Maltese Government was forced to repeal the reservations that it had made to the Refugee Convention. EU membership also brought us the closure of so many of our industries and loss of work for our citizens while we also have an invasion of foreign workers from both the EU countries and other countries from around the world with whom the EU has agreements to allow their citizens to work in EU countries. These are only a tiny fraction of the bad effects of membership which was exacerbated by the adoption of the Euro which is on the way out and which is going to beggar us especially with the millions that Gonzi has promised to bail out the other Euro defaulters. Now everyone can see how the Euro has been going downhill where it will crash in the not too distant future. Greece was yesterday downgraded to junk status so we can all kiss goodbye to the money which Gonzi has given to Greece from our taxes. The free movement without any checking in the Schengen Area of which we have become members has led to an explosion of criminality as had previously been experienced in other member countries the moment they joined Schengen since criminals can go freely from one country to another without any hindrance. Remember that all politicians have tasted the EU gravy train which is there for the chosen few while the rest have to carry their burden. So remember that when the politicians tell you that it's not in our interest to leave they mean THEIR interest and not our's. OUR interest is to leave this EU hell. Remember when Dr KMB and the CNI used to tell us about all this and they were ridiculed? Now you can all see it yourself and know who was and is still right in insisting that we leave this EU cacophony and madness. Go see whatthey told us all along throughout the years on their website on www.cnimalta.org and also see the European Parliament video on how we can leave this hell. They have a link to it on their website or you can also go direct to this link. http://www.europarltv.europa.eu/YourParliament.aspx?action=viewVideo&packageid=f5077c6b-3b92-4a1f-8271-c7a49c3bc6e8

price of unleaded petrol as per OPEC prices of to-day 1 Barrel of oil= 158 litres 1 Barrel of oil = $ 91.67 exchange rate $ 91.67 = € 68.75 Cost of 1 litre = 43.5 €cents Cost of refining/transport/storage/distribution= 16.5 €cents Total cost 60.00 €cents Selling price of 1 litre = €1.31 per litre Profit per Litre = 71€ cents. So while OPEC makes 43.5 €cents per litre, our goverment makes 71.00 €cents. In some other countries the price per litre is much higher. Therefore lets not only blame OPEC for fuel price increases. The majority of the profits are made by our governments with their taxes.

No Joe South: I am not an invester in this Bioethanol fuels programme for Malta. All I am saying is that as a major inward investment destined for Malta (formally acknowledged in the European Press last year and published variously in EurActiv and the Biofuels Digest both of which have been running this since April last year) that it is just what Malta and other countries need to arrest the spiralling increase in prices of transport fuels. These biofuels gained the press notices of these two sources because they will be using non-food based sources of biomaterials in their manufacture and not food crops. If you would follow through the research in the papers referring to Bioethanol made from biomass and followed this through all the information I have reported will be at your grasp. This Bioethanol will not be made from Corn or Sugar Cane or Wheat or Rice or from any Food Based crop or land used to grow foods. My interest in these developments is from an outsider to Malta (even though I used to live there) as I now live in Cyprus. Again like you in Malta we are so dependent upon oil for our transport and our continued use here is realtively "peanuts" compared to major countries like the USA or Germany or China that we have no say about the prices we pay for these fuels. The suppliers wouldn'y care two hoots if we were to say we are not buying their fuels, for our usage is so small in the frame of the toatal used in the World as to not even worry the likes of the oil barons. Deamnd is demand and Malta's use at roughly 850 million litres of gasoline per year and 900 million litres of diesel is but small fry compared to Germany's demand orChina and India. As a small nation we are left at the beck and call of international oil prices so that an active alternative and substitutof the queue here so an alternative made from within our country would be a great move forward. The reading of these two projects for Malta and a proposal from the same company in England and Holland and VietNam etc. as well as elsewhere is signalling the right message to these oil giants. A colleague of mine has recently ben to Finland and then to Sweden and he was surprised at the rapid developments there with Bioethanol being made from non-food sources including wastes. This can be done as well here in Cyprus and Malta and it will be a blessing for us all. I would have thought that by now the Government of Malta would have been able to announce these proposals for the construction period for these plants is aroiund 2 years and the timing of such to deliver cheaper fuels for Mlata or Cyprus or England or Holland is part of a long process to free us all from the contued dependence on oil. And just to remind you: it has recently been stated that by 2030 the World will have a furthe 1,300 million cars on the roads with most of those being in China and India. The demand for oil - assuming that there is still that capacity to use - will therefore increase by around 30% over today's needs. This is not sustainable for Our World. We need a more environmentally friendly fuel and, before you say it. Electric Cars are so far off the roads that they will not be able to compete even if as China says it will have produced 20 million by 2020. The availability of Electricity being produced and stored in a system that allows you or me to drive 300 to 400 kms without the worry of having to recharge a battery (the tank of fuel analogy that Henry Ford so elequently had stated for hin by Eddison in that we can now choose to drive ourselves from door to door rather than being tied down and being driven by others) has given us all the freedom we needed. The personal car is here to stay and the packet of a fuel tank giving us that freedom to move independently is something that most of us will be very reluctant to part with. If I had €100 million to hold an investment in one of these projects I would. Like you, though, (and) I assume I am not related to the Mega-Rich organisations such as Bill Gates or the Rothschilds or IKEA and therefore my aspirations are to be able to buy cheaper fuel for my own small 1800 cc VW car and not provide huge profits for the oil companies I also have the idea that we should also be more environmentally friendly in our actions. If both of these aspirations join together then better still. This i believe is what is being heralded here in this development.

Charroll, are you an investor in this bio-methanol dream of yours?? Do you have some sort of interest in it?? Why don't you ask Bill Gates about bio-ethanol, especially since the price of corn will be going up in the near future??

Mr Joseph Muscat will be pleased to know therefore of the €240 plus million inward investment proposed by a British company to develop two major Biofuel plants in Malta and Goxzo which in addition to providing over 400 permanent jobs will provide almost half of the fuel needed for our cars in Malta so avoiding the use of imported oi by the end of 2013. This is fully in line with the Labour Party's proposals (and dare we say the Greens - Alternativa Demokatica - proposals to free us of the continued use of imported oil and the enormity of that cost to all of Malrta' car drivers. Now let's hear from Joseph Muscat more about this proposed investment for it will occur just at the time he takes over from Dr Gonzi.

Mr Joseph Muscat will be pleased to know therefore of the €240 plus inward investment proposed by a British company to develop two major Biofuel plants in Malta and Goxzo which in addition to providing over 400 permanent jobs will provide almost half of the fuel needed for our cars in Malta so avoiding the use of imported oi by the end of 2013. This is fully in line with the Labour Party's proposals (and dare we say the Greens - Alternativa Demokatica - proposals to free us of the continued use of imported oil and the enormity of that cost to all of Malrta' car drivers. Now let's hear from Joseph Muscat more about this proposed investment for it will occur just at the time he takes over from Dr Gonzi.

The Gonz either has no conscience or he is following orders from the Cardinal in Brussels. I should think the latter is more the case. There must be a hidden strategy the bottom line of which is known only to the Cardinal. Very similar to the divorce legislation ploy. Proof of the latter lies in the fact that the Bidnija Witch has already shown readiness to support the No to divorce movement - a move the average person couldn't have anticipated or even suspected to be plausible. RCC may have been brilliant up to 2008 ... but no longer. He played his hand once too often if he pushed this one too. Once too often, one should say.