A phrase often used in Maltese, xejn mhu xejn, doesn’t translate too well and certainly not the way I’ve put it in the headline. You need to adopt a slightly sarcastic, mocking tone, implying that the person who would have just said, probably with a small shrug, that “it’s nothing”, as in whatever it is he’s referring to, is not important in the greater scheme of things.
There’s no more shock horror when somebody in power does something not approved by the Fourth Estate
It’s a phrase, or, more precisely, a frame of mind conveyed by the phrase, that was much loved by certain elements of the media, even if they didn’t spell it out in so many words, when GonziPN was at the helm. Now that josephmuscat.con is running things, you don’t seem to see it used all that much, there’s no more shock horror every time somebody with the reins of power in his hot little hands does something that does not meet the approval of the Fourth Estate.
We recently had the news, for instance, that the Prime Minister is using his Alfa, a nice vehicle to be sure, and probably great fun to drive, instead of the 7-Series Beemer in which his predecessor used to tootle around. Fair enough, to my mind a Beemer is the better car but there’s no accounting for taste and I know plenty of petrol-heads who love their Alfas.
The thing is, Joseph Muscat is getting reimbursed to the tune of seven grand a year for using his own car instead of the company car. Again, fair enough, you shouldn’t expect anyone to use his own assets for work purposes without recompense but that’s usually the case when we’re talking about travelling salesmen and such like, not premiers of sovereign States.
And there’s another thing: when you use a vehicle supplied by your employer, there’s a small thing called fringe benefit tax, a perfidious concoction, but there nonetheless, while when you’re receiving reimbursement of expenses, it’s not taxable.
I’ve no idea whether this is what is happening in Muscat’s case, and if it is, more power to him, I have no truck with these whiners who bitch and moan about people using tax law to their advantage, given that the revenue has no compunctions about trying to relieve you of as much as it can, but surely we should be told. As we should be told about the effect of depreciation (a particularly horrendous phenomenon where Alfas are concerned) and the advantages or disadvantages to the Prime Minister inherent in the choice of using his own car instead of the one that’s available: is he better off or worse? And what about the opportunity cost involved in leaving a ruddy big BMW idle, how is that being accounted for?
So, you see, while, frankly, I don’t really see why anyone should care what car the PrimeMinister is driven around in (though, perhaps, a limo-sized chariot might be a tad more impressive), all these questions make it something about which the media might perhaps find itself interested, were it not for the fact that some of them are still on their honeymoon.
By the time you read this, it may have happened but I’m not betting the farm on it. Minister Konrad Mizzi resigning, I mean, which surely is the obvious corollary to his reversal on the matter of fixed-price contracts for energy supplies. You will recall, it having been the main issue of the campaign, at least for the first few weeks, that young Mizzi had put his hand on his heart, figuratively if not literally, and solemnly said that a fixed-price contract for 10 years was not only possible, it would be done.
He also promised to get utility bills down within however many months it was he said but he hasn’t broken that promise, yet.
On the other hand, you can’t really say: “what’s five years between friends”, can you? The usual response to that sort of remark is: “if you think five years isn’t a long time, try doing them standing on your head.”
There’s more, of course, such as the furore that’s still making Franco Mercieca regret ever making silly remarks about storms in teacups.
That he’s an excellent physician is obvious and his patients probably rue the day he ever became a parliamentary secretary, but he’s going to have to make his mind up and pretty darn soon: can you imagine what will happen if some crisis blows up unexpectedly, as crises have a wont to do, and he has to put off his operating list to another day? And then to another day, and then to yet another?
These things happen, which is why ministers of State are expected to be at the beck and call of fate, rather than the other way round.
But still, nothing is nothing, as they say, when you win with such a thumping majority.
A quick recommendation as to where to scoff some nosh when in town of an evening: Str.eat in Strait Street, near the fancy bog.
We went for a late dinner after a marvellous concert at the Manoel Theatre (a half-empty Manoel, what price roofed theatres now, ay?) and it was really rather good. As was Tad-Dutch in Qala last Friday, incidentally, but I’ve sung their praises before, haven’t I?
imbocca@gmail.com
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/author/20