A bird-brained parliamentary secretary

Daphne Caruana Galizia Sunday, 12 May 2013, 09:32 Last update: about 11 years ago

Environment groups have called for the renaming of Roderick Galdes’s portfolio, given that he appears to be so keen on protecting the interests of shooters and trappers. He has been made responsible for their issues because he is parliamentary secretary for animal welfare, this government having missed the point that the shooting and trapping of migratory birds is an environmental issue and not one of animal rights or animal welfare.

Galdes made a bit of a mess for himself when he gave an interview to a newspaper claiming that his people are exploring a “loophole” or “technical gap” in the law which would allow shooters and trappers more scope for pursuing their activities. When asked whether this could include the trapping of finches, he responded, “Possibly.” In the ensuing storm, in which he was accused of undermining the spirit of the law, he then tried to patch things up with a fence-sitting statement. But it didn’t work.

The EU Commission reacted by saying that it does not know of any such deficiency in the law which would allow bird-trapping, which is banned under the Birds Directive, with only limited derogation under tightly restricted conditions. Malta was allowed to phase out the trapping of song-birds and finches by the end of 2008. The four-year phasing out period was presumably thought necessary so that addicts would not have to go cold turkey and suffer fatal withdrawal symptoms.

Malta’s derogation allowed the autumn trapping of turtle doves, quail, golden plovers and song thrushes. But three years ago, the European Commission began infringement procedures and accused Malta of not using properly the leeway it was given. Then trapping was scaled down, but not stopped completely. So procedures against Malta remain open, with the next stage being “we’ll see you in court”, the European Court of Justice.

But this government came to power partly on the (unpublicised) promise that it would do what it could to help trappers and shooters have the sort of free rein they had before we joined the dastardly EU. It was an empty promise, because there is nothing any government can do to twist or break EU rules, which is precisely why some of us are so happy to be part of the bloc. Yet the desperate clutch at straws, and hunters and trappers appear to be pretty desperate chaps who must also have assumed that Labour and Joseph Muscat personally, having led the campaign against EU membership, would be prepared to take some pretty drastic steps. In their delirium they might have imagined, or been given to understand, that Labour would even take Malta out of the European Union so that Tony and Charlie could resume shooting and trapping to their heart’s delight.

Nobody takes kindly to a broken promise, especially not to a big promise on which much hope has hinged, for which payment (the vote) has been given, and which is then not delivered. People would rather you said ‘no’ than said ‘yes’ and then don’t give them what they asked for after they have given you what you asked for. It makes them feel that they’ve been conned, and that in turn makes them feel stupid, and then that in turn translates into anger at the person or people who made them feel stupid.

So now the government is caught between that infamous rock and a hard place, with the unprepossessing Roderick Galdes left to take the flak. He hasn’t any room for manoeuvre but manoeuvre he must, because there are many thousands of men with guns and nets who are waiting for him to turn water into wine or one fish and a loaf into a picnic for a mass meeting.

I don’t think he fully understands that now he is a member of government, his words carry weight and import beyond our shores and will be picked up and dissected elsewhere. Our finance minister, on a much grander scale, has already discovered to Malta’s cost how this is so, when a couple of unguarded remarks he made after the agreement on the Cyprus bail-out led to extensive pan-European speculation about how Malta might be next. Brussels’ main English-language newspaper, European Voice, picked up on Galdes’s words with an article rejoicing in the splendid title, A Bird-Brained Idea. I suppose this was in the spirit of criticising the action rather than the person, which is why they didn’t actually call it A Bird-Brained Parliamentary Secretary, though this is clearly what is intimated here.

There is only one solution for the unfortunate Galdes – see earlier reference to the desperate clutching at straws – and this is for him to ring Alfred Sant for a quick consultation and some advice. Sant faced a similar problem, as I recall, when he tried to do the impossible in fulfilling an electoral promise, and we ended up with a square wheel called CET and a swing of around 20,000 votes.