Keep the government (1)

I utterly disagree with Alfred Grech's gratuitous comments directed at our Prime Minister, Lawrence Gonzi, in his letter Change The Government (May 5).

Mr Grech does not even acknowledge that this administration is selflessly squaring up to the difficulties the whole world is going through, without a thought of dressing for the gallery. When the Labour Party was in office, Alfred Sant wanted to raise the tariffs for water and electricity, even beyond what they are now. That was at a time when the price of oil was a fraction of what now prevails. They would have been even lower if the madcap Labour Party had not burnt its hands at five-star gambling on the futures exchange. As it was, very predictably, we lost heavily by hedging. Yet apparently Mr Grech and the Labour Party have still not learnt the lesson; they would have us recklessly gambling again.

They try to sustain their argument by pointing to the few who come up trumps. One could make a similar case for investing heavily in any lottery because there are always some winners while obviously the majority, like the MLP, are going to be losers. If this was not so, these hedging companies would simply go bankrupt. Dr Sant and his merry men contradict themselves repeatedly. After years bleating that businesses and families are suffering because money has become scarce, now they are telling us that, because there is too much money sloshing around in our economy, we will be penalised by the European Central Bank to the tune of some Lm10 million when we join the eurozone. Can Dr Sant please make up his mind and tell us whether he agrees that there is too much money or not enough?

The Labour Party have been preaching doom and damnation throughout their history. Yet we have witnessed the transformation of an oppressive system, where governance was obscenely carried out by communist-like diktat, to a free, open and liberal economy.

I strongly believe that the euphoria of winning three consecutive council elections is causing the MLP to lose sight of the fact that, when the chips are down, too many people will be comparing our standard of living under this administration to the lawless persecution they put us through and ,to the chagrin of Mr Grech, vote accordingly.