Lost in the noise generated by the amendment including Malta in a list of four EU tax havens, that was proposed to the final report by the Panama papers committee of the European Parliament, was the fact that the report itself was approved (less the amendment which was not adopted).

Now, the report included proposals that Maltese governments had always fought against. Like for instance, that taxation questions within the EU should no longer be settled following unanimous approval by member states. Or that there should be one way by which to calculate profits. Or that bilateral tax agreements should cease.

Those who voted in favour of the report as a whole, were in faact voting in favour of such proposals. And that’s what PN MEPs did. I imagine this means the end of the political consensus that used to exist up to not so long ago concerning tax issues that have a real impact on the national interest.

I waited to see whether there would be a correction of vote on the part of the same MEPs, as someone told me there would be. But there was not, at least up to when I was writing this.

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Drugs

I might sound old-fashioned but honestly, I don’t care. It seems to me that we are getting too soft on the use of drugs. A disquieting looseness has been allowed to creep in political discourse about drug use, as well as in the implementation of existing laws that cover it.

Among kids aged 13 – 15 and young people who may be two to three years older, expectations have been raised that drugs will soon be legal. So there should be no problem if they start sampling them as of now. 

Worse, no matter what is publicly declared, the truth is that children/“young people” aged between 14 to sixteen easily find what to smoke (not cigarettes) and to swallow, even close to their school. All this in addition to the ease with which they get access to alcohol and tobacco.

Those who told me about what is going on know things at first hand. They do not have to depend on questionnaires for their data. Perhaps the research that needs to be done in order to assess the real situation should not rely on some academic procedure but on the methodology of an undercover police operation.

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Aznavour

You should have mentioned not Johnnie Halliday, but Charles Aznavour. So I was told by a friend with reference to a previous blog.

He was making a valid point. Aznavour too in recent weeks was getting enormous attention in France. At age 93, he gave a full concert at one of the largest Parisian theatres to an enthusiatic full house. He then left to give a nationwide series of concerts.

Funnily enough, while most of the songs he delivered date from years long past, Aznavour left people with the impression they were witnessing a contemporary artistic performance. His very old age could hardly have been a matter of doubt. Yet the aura of the show gave witness to the present. Or could it be that the themes he highlights have a quality which automatically adjusts them to the popular tastes of different moments in time?

Could it also be for this reason that in addition to having remained so active, Aznavour has retained such a strong and genuine popularity?