Deal, no deal actually

It turns out that Opposition Leader Adrian Delia’s Christmas Tax Deal is no deal at all. It is just an application form waiting to be processed by the Inland Revenue Department.

Delia announced the “agreement” in comments to Malta Today published on 27 December. It took just three days for Delia to get called out, after The Times worked the phone to find out that there is no deal after all, just an application for a settlement.

If you need to know what Delia thinks of you, look no further than this: Delia thinks you are a gullible idiot. He thinks he can feed you whatever falsehood he invents, and that you will believe him.

On the cusp of 2018, we still have politicians who lie to us so brazenly it is quite simply astonishing.

Delia is in good company. The likes of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, his Chief of Staff Keith Schembri and his Minister Konrad Mizzi also think that they can feed us lies and half-truths and get away with it.

These people think we have no self-respect. They think they can do whatever they want because we will carry on voting them in whatever happens.

The problem is they are right. We really are idiots.

We can put these people out of a job if we want to. But we don’t. Instead, we keep hoping these people change and miraculously become better. We carry on waiting for the day when Muscat and Delia will become honest and transparent. Or we do not, because the lack of honesty and transparency suits us at times.

How long will it take us to notice we are so much better than these people? How long will it take us to understand that we can and should demand better of our elected officials?

Delia’s lie caps a year of falsehoods and murder. 2017 was the year where we continued giving up on our self-respect.

We are letting a tyranny of lies lord over us. Our political system is crammed with lying and conniving tin-pot dictators that we enable because we think they control our lives.

Politicians and their staff serve us, not the other way round.

Let’s stand up to bullies. Let’s make 2018 the year of self-respect.