Rushing to print

Dr Licari was evidently taken in by Labour's boasting of its 'huge' victories in the MEP and local elections. Of course, Dr Licari behaved as the Labour apologist he is and not as the academic he should be. He did not question Labour's boasting nor did he skim through some arguments there were in the press at the time showing that votes for Labour actually dropped from the 2003 general election to the MEP and local elections.
The "percentage victories" happened only because PN voters stayed at home in larger numbers and not because there was any perceptible swing towards Labour. Now that Dr Licari has had his predictions refuted by the PN victory at the polls, he does not admit he was wrong, as a good academic would, but persists in arrogance attacking Albert Gauci-Cunningham who simply pointed out what Dr Licari had put in print before the elections.

I wonder why all this base sarcasm. There must be something wrong with Dr. Licari's way of thinking, perhaps. In other days, may be about 12 years back, Dr. Licari liked the Nationalists so well. Of course, for goodness sake, everybody has a right to change his/her opinion but to think that the same Dr. Licari loathed the MLP so much and then U-turned for some strange reason. Doesn't this remind us of an identical incident? Another then very staunch Nationalist, Sandro Schembri Adami, changed guard for a personal motive. He was a university companion who then kept harping on the ills of the MLP so, reading his articles and hearing his arguments against the NP became a sort of a joke for all us, even for Dr. Licari at that time, I am sure. Dr. Licari, it was YOU who wrote in "Solitaire" that the NP would obtain less than 40% or was that a misprint? No one is being contradictory here. They are just quoting your statistics taken, most probably, from other statistics provided by sources who did not control well their sources. Ah, yes, ye mere lesser mortals all know where the level of credibility of individuals who play around with words lies.

Dr Licari has been so sure of a Labour victory for so long that he went to the basest level of sarcasm particularly against Lawrence Gonzi and Joe Saliba in many of his Saturday articles. Like many a Labour writer, he believed Labour's own propaganda about 'bidla' and 'bidu gdid'. The chickens are coming home to roost now, and Mr Gauci Cunningham is well entitled to point out verbatim Dr Licari's predictions of a Labour victory as he did so well in the letter pages of the Times on the 27th March. Dr Licari, on the other hand, might start to consider writing some serious stuff about his own party's predicament being in the political wilderness for a generation.

By writing typical patronising language like "is not going to work with me" (ok dad!) and "you don't make the rules here" (yes sir, three bags full), Mr Cunningham continues with the patronising, rightist attitude he has been using for a long time. I guess that he is the one who "makes rules here" i.e. in The Times. Mr Editor, could you please tell us if you have given Mr Cunningham permission to "make the rules here"? Or does Mr Cunningham, as a rare, drilling teacher, bureaucratically believe that he can be a harsh pedagogue also in an inclusive newspaper? Also Mr Cunningham conveniently refuses to discuss the issue of minority rights here and seems embarrassed at the fact that he belongs to a contradiction i.e. speaking like an ultra-conservative in strict, thundering language, while occasionally promoting gay rights in the media. Mr Cunningham, I am sorry about your conflict between right and left but gay rights are defended in leftist structures while the right continuously castigates gays. Many rightists even believe that gays should not be teachers. I challenge Mr Cunningham to quote any sarcastic remarks I have made about gays. Indeed I have defended them more than many of them defend themselves! Ignoring the truth will not make it go away. As to my right to use political sarcasm, Mr Cunningham or anybody else will not stop me expressing myself -especially since the Times editor is as hostile to fascist censure as most of his readers. Human rights will not be silenced, whether they are social or political.

"....I hope that people like Anthony Licari.....learn not to count the chicks before they hatch......." this is what I wrote and this according to Dr.Licari is tantamount to shutting people up!!...........making yourself out to be a victim Dr.Licari is not going to work with me!! You can't write inches of sarcasm and then when yo're proved wrong cry foul!! Sorry you don't make the rules here Dr.Licari!! .....By the way Happy Defeat!!! wishing you all the best for more sarcastic articles to come!!!