Of all the arguments made in parliament during the debate on the referendum question, the most “fundamentalist” and inane arguments were made by the Nationalist MP, Edwin Vassallo. He sounded as he was living in a time-warp – the kind of speeches which used to be made by certain members of lay Catholic organisations in order to scare the faithful attending gatherings or meetings “ta’ taħt l-umbrella”, in the early 1960s, when civil marriage was purported to be the devil’s weapon which would bring about the destruction of the institution of marriage. To Edwin Vassallo and those of his ilk, nothing has changed since then, only the word, from “civil marriage” to “divorce”!

To scare the pants off those who were following his speech – as I did – the honourable Edwin Vassallo did the dishonourable thing of confusing divorce with abortion! This is why I consider the following quote of Prof. Kenneth Wain, to be most appropriate and fits the Hon. Member from Mosta like a glove:

“Dogmatists who pronounce themselves deaf to the persuasion of the argument, have their proper place among the ayatollahs, not in a democratic parliament or forum.”

■ Eddy Privitera

Mosta