Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1211430
SUNDAY • 16 FEBRUARY 2020 • ISSUE 1059 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY €1.95 maltatoday CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF BOLD JOURNALISM WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT/20YEARS COMMENT & ARTS inside our MT2 and MT3 sections maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 FEBRUARY 2020 COMMENT What are we skinning? The one-off cheque most of us will supposedly be getting from the government to make up for rising bread and milk prices. Why are we skinning it? Because it's a one-off cheque of €35 for families and €15 for single people that is clearly a reactive and populist move designed to prevent the electorate from asking the hard questions. Hard questions? What do you mean? Well, the first one that pops to mind isn't all that hard, actually… namely, after the cheque has been spent on x amount of milk cartons/ loaves of bread, what then? Well okay… but surely it's better than nothing? Yes, it is. But adopting a 'better than nothing' attitude to every single 'solution' proposed by this government is what will lead to a massive pile-up of problems in the near future. Look, I was raised not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Ingratitude is deeply unsexy, I agree. Being broke is even less sexy. So I'll take what I can get. Okay, okay. So will I. But tomorrow will be another day, a day that the government may not be in either a mood or a position to issue cheques willy-nilly. So you're saying this cheque is one massive tease? 'Tease' is just about right. Individually, it's a paltry sum, the hint of having money in your pockets. The promise of more. But that's about it. Okay, so what we need to do is make sure that the government keeps sending us cheques on a regular basis? Or, we could collectively raise our voices in favour for a more socially robust economic model which does not require the government to panic- distribute handout money to the general populace in an attempt to placate more sustained and widespread frustration at the fact that the cost of living is going up while wages continue to stagnate. At least now we definitely know that we've got a problem there. Yep. The truth shall set you free? Let's hope so. Do say: "The government issuing cheques to compensate for the cost of living may temporarily generate a feel-good factor and a sense that the powers- that-be care for our immediate well-being, but such temporary solutions also hint at a reluctance towards addressing deep-seated problems, and an attempt to nip any productive criticism towards our economic model in the bud" Don't say: "A cheque every now and then is good, but send me one every week and you'll have a voter for life." No 21. Edward Scicluna's bread-and-milk money MICHAEL FALZON Delusional Delia, delusional PN PAGE 7 EDITORIAL The police got the blues PAGE 2 GODFREY BALDACCHINO One-party democracy? PG13 The Skinny Malta, shrunk down Gilbert Gravina & Liza Caruana-Finkel Doctors do not want a total ban on abortion: research says so PAGE 14 "The signs suggest that Malta is heading towards a one-party democracy. A consistent, seven- year pattern is no statistical fluke" "I've got the bread right here if you want it..." maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 FEBRUARY 2020 Music Kill The Action Q and A Ruth Portelli Film Birds of Prey, and the fantabulous emancipation of one Harley Quinn CLASSIFIEDS & COMMERCIALS ARTS • TV • WHAT'S ON He's baaa-ck Francis Zammit Dimech on his new job in the PN INTERVIEW MT2 GODFREY BALDACCHINO Are we headed towards a one-party democracy? COMMENT Adrian Delia has majority support among members But a third of PN members want him out KURT SANSONE ADRIAN Delia continues to draw on the support of Nationalist Par- ty members with 56.8% saying he should not resign, a MaltaToday survey among tesserati shows. However, a third of members (33.6%) believe the party leader should resign, with the biggest resistance coming from the 10th electoral district, a traditional PN stronghold. The survey also shows that Delia enjoys a high trust rating among members, as opposed to his par- liamentary group that receives a medium score. The survey was conducted be- tween Wednesday 12 February and Friday 14, at a time when De- lia faced calls for his resignation by some members of his parliamenta- ry group in a rebellion that culmi- nated with the 17 Blue Heroes tag posted by MP Jason Azzopardi. MaltaToday obtained an an- onymised list of party members that included their age, geograph- ic distribution by electoral district and gender. PGS 2-3 PAGE 4 Funding snag for Malta gas pipeline MATTHEW VELLA MALTA'S bid for millions in EU cash to finance its gas pipeline to Sicily has hit a snag, after failing to get funds from the 2019 round of disbursements under the Connecting Eu- rope Facility (CEF). The €400 million pipe- line to Sicily would enable Malta to procure natural gas from the European mainland. Currently, its supply of gas to the De- limara power station is procured by a floating liq- uefied natural gas (LNG) vessel. But although having been a candidate project for the €23 billion CEF funds, the latest round of grants skipped the Mal- tese pipeline project. mt survey F.A.I.T.H. You'd better believe it PG 6