It’s funny how Moody’s are loved and hated at the same time depending on what they’ve just said, isn’t it? Had they upgraded Malta’s rating, they’d have been top of the pops with GonziPN and Joseph Muscat’s bunch would have sneered that they were running dog lackeys of the imperialist establishment.
… Moody’s, S&P and all the rest of them are OK as far as they go, which, in fact, isn’t all that far at all- I.M. Beck
As it is, the government is markedly teed off at them and Dr Muscat is lauding them to high heavens while doing his damnedest not to snigger too loudly.
The fact is, Moody’s, S&P and all the rest of them are OK as far as they go, which, in fact, isn’t all that far at all. When the global economic crisis was looming, and for “looming” read “bearing down on us like a flipping locomotive with a bennied-up driver”, they managed not to see a thing until it was way, way too late. Their excuse, flown just after Iceland went belly up and laughed out of court since then, was: “Hey, why are you blaming us, it’s only our opinion, after all?”
Like they needed to be rocket-scientists to figure out that “sub-prime” meant a disaster waiting to happen?
The recent downgrade of Malta’s credit-rating isn’t good news, of course. In an ideal world, we’d be graded AAA and everyone, except, of course, the people for whom bad news for the government is good news for them, would be as happy as Larry – or Lorry, if you want to use the Maltese shortener of Lawrence.
But it’s not news that’s worthy of stopping the presses for, actually, because, as the Minister of Finance pointed out, most of Malta’s debt is home-owed and the investors concerned seem to have a healthy disregard for the pundits and their penchant for lumping everyone into the same rating boat.
This didn’t stop Labour’s economics experts from coming over all faint at the thought that, shock horror, there’s a chance that the economy is going down the tubes.
If it does, it will probably mean that they’re going to get elected whenever the elections are held, even if the legislature runs its course, and, hey, what’s the problem if the country is shot to hell, as long as they get their turn at power?
It makes you wonder why, given all these problems, they actually want to get elected. You’d think they’d prefer to sit in the bleachers, sniping and chuckling, while the oligarchic GonziPN ploughs on trying to get through mess after mess created by their own fault.
I mean, the world financial situation, the price of oil, global warming, the Japanese earthquake, Fanny Mae and her brother getting raped and Francesco Schettino’s ineptness are all GonziPN’s fault, so why shouldn’t Labour get their jollies from making snide remarks all the time?
What’s more worrying, given that they seem to be going to contest the elections, is that they’re still asking us to give them our votes based on the sum total of naff-all when it comes to knowing what they’re going to do when they get in.
Like those irritating mongrels that run after cars, as far as I can see they have no idea what they’re going to do if they catch one.
And that’s only one of the major problems Dr Muscat is going to have if he becomes Prime Minister.
Before his Cabinet sits around that nice table in Castille, wondering what the devil they’re going to do now to feed all those chickens that are coming home to roost, he’s going to have to have chosen its members.
On the basis of the people who Dr Muscat has gathered around him, like sheep to the fold, he’s going to have to appoint two ministers for Gozo, three for justice, at least two (more likely three) for economic and financial affairs, one (thankfully) for the south, heaven knows how many for foreign and EU affairs (even assuming that the latter will still be needed) and a whole shed-load for youth, culture, education and tourism.
He won’t lack for candidates to take care of farmers and cobblers (switch them to Maltese to get an idea of my lousy bilingual pun) either and, given the number of experts on public transport that fetched up when Arriva was a convenient whipping-boy, he’s going to have to have a minister for every route they run, unless they’re asked to take a hike and the system reverted to the paradise it used to be.
One has to assume that he’ll be keeping one task for himself, of course; actually, two.
The first one will be to reverse everything that he’s said will be reversed, such as the country’s ratification of Acta or our Frontex obligations, or our obligation to stick to the rules of proscribing state aid to little outfits such as Enemalta or Air Malta.
The other will be to roll back all the misconceptions, prestidigitations, smoke-and-mirrors dodges and sundry other sound bites and Facebook status dictums that have served to make him look electable in the face of the pretty obvious fact that, as of today, there’s not a policy in sight to justify this. And that’s to say nothing about the gargantuan task of remaining credible that he will face when the electorate, having done a 1996, wishes it was 1998 all over again.
imbocca@gmail.com
www.timesofmalta.com/articles/author/20