Policy on the hoof

A political party in opposition is supposed to dedicate a lot of its time developing a programme of how to run the country. It should serve to show that the party in opposition is not only a credible alternative to the party in government but a desirable one. 

Like most other Maltese, apart from what happens in this country, I also like to follow what goes on in the UK. There, the Conservative Party, currently in opposition, has appointed leading experts on various committees whose task it is to formulate policy documents, which will be implemented when (if) the conservatives are elected at the next general elections in the UK.  

Sometimes it takes these committees years to produce proposals that are then adopted by the party. Here, in Malta, it seems as though policy documents and initiatives proposed by the opposition materialise overnight if not on the spur of the moment.  

Alfred Sant's proposal, directed at students' parents on Bondi+ last week, to remove VAT on the building of schools, seems to me to be a case in point. This nonsensical Labour policy proposal simply materialised out of the blue when the leader of the opposition was cornered on national television.

He had just slipped up, a few minutes before, promising to remove VAT on education services when VAT does not exist on the provision of education services in Malta.

On the spur of the moment, he also promised to exempt first home owners from paying VAT. This exemption already exists in our fiscal system. This was improvisation at its worst. Remember how the abolition of VAT (and cash registers) was decided upon prior to the 1996 election? Have you read Lino Spiteri's foreboding comment "Adesso viene il bello!" once Labour's victory was assured? The consequences were naturally paid for by the Maltese public.

What an alternative PM!