Former European Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello made a chilling statement about the state of our justice system last week. He said: “It is a miracle that justice can be served at all within such a flawed system of appointing judges.”

Malta’s judicial appointments system – which has seen this government appoint people with close ties to the Labour Party – does not exist in any other democratic country. It is a system, Bonello warned, that could lead to “disappointing or abhorrent results”.

The Justice Reform Commission, which Bonello chaired, has made 450 recommendations to the government that include proposals on judicial appointments. Labour ignores them and continues to churn out appointments to its heart’s delight.

Bonello says that it is practically impossible to fire or discipline the judiciary. He did not go into performance, or if we’re getting value for money in our hallowed halls of justice.

The focus of the debate at last week’s first formal sitting of a new judge was judges’ pension and wage. Meanwhile people wait on those depressive benches outside the courtrooms.

The onus of that reform is on smooth-talking Justice Minister Owen Bonnici but he’s got other priorities. As the government to which he belongs stumbles, splutters and gaffes every step of the way to the point of absurdity, Bonnici decides to don his culture hat to make a stunning announcement: sex shops are coming to Malta.

It’s not true, of course, because they are already here through discreet online shopping. Bonnici tried to make it sound like a bold liberal move but, in actual fact, it is regressive, degenerate, patronising and sadly, very immature. Sex shops in European cities are sleazy spots where people cross the street to avoid being seen next to them. They are often located in centres of vice.

On the optimistic side, Bonnici’s bold move may be this government’s first realistic pitch to attract foreign investment that’s not from Azerbaijan or China.

One area our Maltese compatriots in London excelled in was running Soho’s red light district, until they sold off to the Albanian mafia.

They must still have expertise to share, like how to run peep shows featuring east European ladies who come to Malta and can’t get a job as waitresses. Unfortunately, China may already have a head start with its massage parlours.

Bonnici linked sex shops to a series of reforms (still in draft stage, of course, because this was a diversionary stunt) affecting morality and censorship.

In Labour’s thwarted thinking, censoring porn and censoring art is one and the same thing. The minister was at a loss as to how to define art, so he referred to a 2009 controversy over a sex fantasy published in a university magazine called Realtà to explain his reform.

At the time, Labour shamelessly exploited the controversy and posed as a progressive party. It must have impressed some immature voters of which there are aplenty. But Labour was really just after the votes because, soon after coming into office, it offered Republic Day honours to the author of that pathetic piece. To his true honour, he turned it down.

Labour does not treat people as adults, it treats them as serfs who queue up in its customer care offices for handouts, favours and jobs

Bonnici said that “adults are to be treated as adults” and that his reform would encourage the “freedom of artistic expression”. That was an offensive, patronising statement because Labour and freedom are mutually exclusive. Their 2013 power grab has reduced this country to a State where everything is dependent on political patronage.

Labour does not treat people as adults, it treats them as submissive serfs who must queue up in its customer care offices for handouts, favours and public sector jobs.

The third pillar of Bonnici’s reform is that it will no longer be illegal to publicly vilify the Roman Catholic religion, although the real reason is probably because the law is redundant. This too is an attempt to pamper another immature portion of our population who still think Church-bashing is cool and progressive when, in actual fact, it is immensely retrograde and was last fashionable when Maltese Soho was in its heydays.

Permissiveness is Labour’s opium for the people, making them think that they are free because they can now buy porn in a shop (it’s free on the internet, for heaven’s sake).

Meanwhile, the government plunders this country to appease its cronies. There lies the scandal for which Labour must one day pay dearly.

In its sham clothing of progressive liberalism, this Labour government is undermining the very fabric of society to keep voters alienated. Labour is neither progressive nor liberal; it is oppressive and intolerant.

Ask those three men who were advising Nationalist MP Tonio Fenech on economic policy. They have been branded traitors of the country, China-style.

Their faces have been published and vilified for weeks on the newspapers of Labour’s consort, the General Workers’ Union. All that is left now is to call for their public execution for the unforgivable crime of being Nationalists.

To hold on to power, Labour resorts to populist policies that appeal to the uneducated, the ignorant and the prejudiced. It is society that is paying a terrible price to maintain Labour’s tight grip on power.

So far, in just two years, Labour has already undermined the institution of marriage, a major pillar of society, through the underhanded introduction of gay adoption. It has decriminalised drug possession, for personal use, of course, like drugs were a personal affair and have no impact on the abusers’ family, dependents and on the society that must put up with them.

Labour has made a mockery of sexual identity, enabling people to change their gender by a mere notarial deed, and now even wants minors to have access to gender-neutral lavatories and to wear opposite sex school uniforms if they feel it fits their perceived identity.

Naturally, Labour also wants to lower the age of consent and to decriminalise sexual activity between minors aged 13 to 15.

Labour is a party obsessed with sex. Maybe it was overwhelmed by the successful way it seduced some gays into voting for it.

Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli has continued to milk the gay cow to the point of ridicule through her incomprehensible vocabulary on LGBTIQ rights (how much longer is that title goingto get?) and through new perceivedrights already enjoyed by anyone with any self-respect.

If Labour wants to treat people as adults, it should itself start behaving like an adult and stop thinking that the country is made up of gullible sex-starved idiots who are prepared to put up with its excesses so long as they get their sex shops. It is impossible that this country is as shallow as the government it erroneously elected.

There is nothing new about sex, it’s been around since Eve took the bite. Labour thinks sex is some newly-discovered adult right that it now graciously bestows upon its serf population. It is retrograde thinking that harks back to the 1960s when bra-burning was in. It’s so passé and so very pathetic for Bonnici to speak like this today.

George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four’s Big Brother did not look kindly upon sex because it involved affection that could undermine commitment to the State. Labour works differently, using sex to divert attention away from the State.

Sex in Orwell’s world became a form of rebellion and if Labour hangs on long enough and pulls this national swindle called Malta Tagħna Lkoll through another election, marriage may become a form of rebellion because it involves fidelity and values that Labour does not have.

In the meantime, as we await Bonnici’s judicial reform, we may look forward to Soho coming to progressive Malta.

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