The Lone Ranger

He was one of my childhood heroes, fighting a lone battle against the forces of evil. He would face incredible odds but through a mix of skill, perseverance and miraculous good fortune, he would always triumph.

Unfortunately, he too has fallen to the eternal enemy - time. The Lone Ranger has been replaced by more sophisticated heroes, possessing a wider array of gadgets all necessary to fight increasingly ruthless villains.

The Lone Ranger is no longer on our screens but the memory of him riding out into the setting sun remains vivid in my mind.

Is Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici our local equivalent to the Lone Ranger? Just like the Lone Ranger, Dr Mifsud Bonnici is fighting a lone battle. Just like him, he is facing incredible odds and just like him he is destined to be overtaken by time.

However, unlike the Lone Ranger, I do not have fond memories of Dr Mifsud Bonnici. Unfortunately, his short stint as prime minister will always be remembered for his efforts to close down our Church schools and meddle with our futures.

Not having contributed enough to the dark ages of this country, more recently he has once again saddled his horse to attempt to deny us the right to form part of mainstream Europe.

He has brought forward all kinds of arguments, most of which verge on the incredible. Unfortunately (for him) all his arguments betrayed the fact that he is somehow still caught in a time warp where to him the world stopped in the 1970s. Hence his arguments that Malta should erect barriers against everything - foreign goods, peoples and ideas. Hence his argument that Malta is needed for strategic and military reasons, in an age where planes and missiles can be launched from thousands of miles away, not to mention the fact that Sicily with its Nato base is just 96 kilometres away.

Having had all his arguments decisively thrown into the bin by the electorate, one would have thought he would have given up his almost feverish quest. But just like the producers of most bad films, he seems intent on launching an equally poor sequel. His quest has now become even more desperate as he is also taking on his own party. He expects the MLP to commit his very same error - that of not recognising the sign of the times.

That the electorate wants to join the EU is now unequivocal. That Malta will join the EU is now beyond any doubt. The MLP, despite its previous staunch anti-membership position, has recognised these facts and is adapting accordingly.

But Dr Mifsud Bonnici cannot see this. To him, it is still us against them. To him, we are still in the cold war era. But fortunately for us, those times are behind us. Since then the world has changed, in some instances dramatically, and it is according to these changed circumstances that we must act.

I very much suspect that this will be Dr Mifsud Bonnici's last hurrah and just like the Lone Ranger he will very soon ride out into the sunset .

However, unlike with the Lone Ranger, it will be with a sense of relief that many of us will see him ride away to spend what one hopes will be long years of reflection about deeds done and undone, as a citizen of the European Union of course.