Robert Hornyold-Strickland who is Mabel Strickland’s nephew has continued to make serious allegations regarding how the Times of Malta set-up has been organized in the years following his aunt’s death. For decades, he has been alleging that he was deprived of the usufruct of media companies established and run by Mabel Strickland as the result of obscure, less than legal manoeuvres.

I was accustomed to give scant attention to his allegations. Recently I had to revise my opinion. There have been too many obscure developments that do not cohere together in how “The Times” has been run. And it does seem as if those in charge of “The Times” both in the media way and as a commercial entity, are doing their best to skirt having to give a serious account of what has happened or failed to happen.

The latest statements of Strickland’s heir put a different light on how responsibilities got to be staked out in the Progress Press “clan”. Strangely or otherwise, one notes again how the decisional networks that go to the heart of the Progress Press and Strickland Foundation establishments are tied to some of the PN’s deeply set roots.

It is strange that the statements made by Mabel Stricklandd’s heir have had so little resonance. Yet then we do still deny that in this country, friends of friends predominate...

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MONEY LAUNDERING

Money laundering did not take off from Malta, nor is it only here that it has been practised. It is a very good thing that the fight against this financial crime has been stepped up recently, something that should have been done a long time ago.

However, the fact that this is happening should not be used by outside sources in Europe and others from Malta, to spread the lie that Malta by itself serves as some extraordinary centre for the traffic of funds that are being illegally made and hidden.

Money laundering is a financial epidemic that needs to be given strict and continuous attention everywhere, away from partisan political games.

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GODFREY GRIMA

For Malta, the death of Godfrey Grima is another black mark in the history of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is difficult to understand how Godfrey’s boisterous and teasing ways have been stilled for now and for the future.  It is difficult to accept that one will no longer have to face during social meetings at which he was present, Godfrey’s contradictory arguments that still made a lot of sense the way he laid them out.

I got to know him at a much later date than I did his brother Joe who had his own good qualities but with whom I did not mix well – let me put it this way.

I thought the same would happen with Godfrey. We met for the first time during a TVM progamme he hosted a long time ago, when I had just become leader of the Opposition. He was tough with me according to the methods of those days (the first half of the 1990s) but the give and take between us was open and yet with no holds barred.

We remained friends since then.

My deep condolences to his family.