Just when you think that the Labour Party has learned from its mistakes when it comes to handling the media, it goes ahead and makes another blunder. Even though it was immediately lifted, the “silenzio stampa” imposed on the contenders for the Labour leadership post by the vigilance and discipline board makes you want to smack your forehead with the palm of your hand.

Hasn’t Labour realised by now that its lack of media savvy was one of its major stumbling blocks? Someone should drum it into the guys at the Mile End headquarters the basic tenet that in politics you don’t alienate the media; you court it.

If ordinary people can see the implications of these kinds of mistakes at a glance, surely it should not be too strenuous for those who have been calling the shots. If anybody is listening that is. If not, I suggest they had better start listening. Otherwise, all this talk about Labour wanting to make itself appealing to the freethinking voter is so much hot air.

On a more positive note, they have redeemed themselves slightly by confirming what it says in the statute, that anyone who is a paid up member can contest the leadership election (so George Abela really never had anything to worry about). Now all the Labour Party administration has to do is open up the voting to party members and not just delegates.

Go on, be brave. You can do it.

Curiouser and curiouser

On learning of the media ban, George Abela’s reaction was to scoot over to Radio 101 to voice his protest. He was right to protest, but it’s his choice of medium that is bizarre. Why not somewhere neutral like PBS, XFM, Bay Radio or even RTK? Why a radio station owned by the rival party he intends to campaign against in the next election?

Is he having some kind of identity crisis? Maybe someone should slip him a note and remind him that he intends to run for leader of the Labour Party.

Meanwhile, if I were the Labour Party I would start pushing George Abela myself purely to see if the PN changes tack in its current support of good old George. It would be one way of gauging whether Abela is really the red-hot favourite he is being made out to be.

If nothing else, it will mess with some heads.

Interestingly enough, Alfred Mifsud’s recent telephone survey of 400 people seems to confirm that Abela is the favourite with PN supporters – but honestly, let’s get real, when it comes to the crunch will a true blue PN supporter ever vote Labour? When I speak to a traditional PN voter who is eagerly waving the flag for George Abela, that is the one question I ask them: “so with Abela at the helm, you would actually vote MLP next time?” I tell you, never have I seen people splutter and backtrack so fast, “No, of course not!” But then they hasten to add that at least with Abela as leader “they wouldn’t mind” having a Labour government. Hmm, but that doesn’t actually translate into votes does it?

While the survey indicates that self-declared floaters too seem to prefer Abela to Joseph Muscat, the large percentage of those who did not wish to state their political allegiance is substantial – and most of these prefer Muscat. Alfred Mifsud concludes that this latter group are probably pro-Labour, but how can one make such a sweeping assumption?

The one group Mifsud did not factor into the equation are those Labour voters who stayed at home in protest in this election because they were not convinced by Alfred Sant or his policies (but could never bring themselves to vote PN or AD).

Let us not forget that these people (who are clearly not diehards) also greatly affected the incredibly close result.

Speak your mind

Ann Coulter is a fervently right-wing American political author and columnist who has become famous for her rabid anti-liberal invectives. She enjoys pushing people’s buttons by shocking them with outrageous claims, both in print and on TV, against Democrats as well as the people who vote for them. To put you in the picture her latest best-selling book is called, If Democrats had any brains, they’d be Republicans.

Some think she is the greatest thing since sliced bread because she “dares” to say what other people only think. Others find her downright cuckoo and seriously in need of medication, particularly when she spouts hate speech against (among other things) Islam, the 9/11 widows, Jews, gays, blacks and, of course, liberals. She repeatedly refers to Obama by his middle name: B. Hussein Obama, and recently said: “It’s shocking that ... he’s probably going to be our next president…President Hussein.”

(And, in case you are wondering how she gets away with it, free speech is protected in the United States’ Constitution by the First Amendment).

Always guaranteed to do what is least expected, Coulter made headline news when she said that if John McCain (whom she considers too soft on illegal immigrants and other issues) becomes the Republican nominee for President she would actually campaign and vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton, whom she claims is “the real conservative” in this race. Well, McCain is the nominee, and so here she is, true to her word, endorsing “my spunky little Hillary”, as she mockingly calls her.

When she is not going off the rails against a particular group of people, however, she does sometimes make insightful remarks.

Look at what Ann Coulter had to say when the Republican nominee still hadn’t been decided:

“One clue that Mitt Romney is our strongest candidate is the fact that Democrats keep viciously attacking him while expressing their deep respect for Mike Huckabee and John McCain.

“Never take advice from your political enemies.

“Turn on any cable news show right now, and you will see Democratic pundits attacking Romney, calling him a ‘flip-flopper’, and heaping praise on McCain and Huckleberry – almost as if they were reading some sort of ‘talking points’.

“Doesn’t that raise the tiniest suspicions in any of you?”

You don’t need me to tell you why I found this extremely significant, in the light of the local Labour leadership race.

In Malta, however, the suspicion harboured by Labour whenever the PN endorses someone has even more layers.

The latest conspiracy theory is that the PN are endorsing George Abela because they know Labour won’t choose him for this very reason, and precisely because the PN secretly think that he is the best candidate!

Can you follow the logic? It’s kind of like double reverse psychology.

Frankly, it’s all a bit too much for me; I like things to be straightforward, which is why I would make a terrible politician.

Hocus-pocus Opus

Does the fact that Michael Asciak has been sidelined have anything to do with his Opus Dei connection? Has his image suddenly become too “holy, holy” for the PN in its quest to shake itself free from its outdated conservative roots? Dr Asciak only had a chance of getting a seat through a casual election from the eighth district, but with that option closed to him because no one vacated his/her seat, his goose was cooked.

At least he has not tried to camouflage the fact that he was disappointed, unlike some other PN politicians who are so afraid to criticise their Great Leader that they meekly bow their heads in submission even though they may be seething inside. But this is the Nationalist Party after all, where everyone marches obediently along like mechanical soldiers and toes the party line.

But be honest – wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall at a party where Robert Arrigo, Jesmond Mugliett, Ninu Zammit and Louis Deguara get together to vent just a little bit of their frustration?

Sounds of silence

Dr Gonzi has gone unusually silent.

On visiting Mepa for the first time since taking office, he made a speech about reform, but refused to take questions from the press.

When they ask him about the future of spring hunting, the media is being met with… more silence.

Last week, on asking what’s happening with the Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando case, the press was informed that this is an “internal PN matter”. (Apparently we are all supposed to shut up about it, but we’re not going to. So there.)

And in his first week of office, he thrusts us back into the Partnership for Peace without even a casual “would you mind?”

What’s going on? Is Labour opening up its heart and soul and the PN becoming stubbornly insular? Good heavens. Everything is being turned upside down. What will become of the world as we know it?

There’s more… even Gonzi’s megawatt smile, guaranteed to light up all four corners of the Fosos with a flick of a thumb, seems to have dimmed since the election.

Maybe he needs some energy-saving light bulbs.

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