What do people expect from a Labour government?

Much has been discussed already about the election results and how the Labour party has to recast itself as a credible alternative to the Nationalist government. Labour had embarked on a series of reforms in 1992 but apparently detaching itself from the old Labour years, failed to come out with concrete "socialist" environmental and social proposals that would appeal to a broad swathe of youths and floating voters. In my humble opinion, a considerable number of people do not vote Labour because they cannot see any difference between the parties. At the same time the party sank low in the polls with Labour's hard-hitting campaign against European Union membership. The Nationalist Party had one sole mission: to scare potential Labour voters into believing that Alfred Sant was not credible. To add insult to injury some of Labour's proposals reminded the electorate of the 22 months of Labour government.

Labour's election proposals to halve the surcharge on fuel and to exempt overtime earnings from income tax proved to be extremely controversial. Ironically, the Socialist Group in the European Parliament (in which the Malta Labour Party sits) is pressing hard for overtime to be capped at a maximum of eight hours per week. And instead of halving the surcharge many would have preferred more subsidies and incentives for solar panels and photovoltaic panels which provide clean energy and help people save on energy bills.

The reception class proposal was interesting and far from being the repeater class it was depicted as.

However, there is no need for 17 years of compulsory schooling, which would still not be enough to make our students employable in good jobs. Those who seek to be professionals or even get a job in ICT or similar areas surely require a further two to six years of university or Mcast.

International politics is a major arena on which Labour has been almost silent over the past years. It could have done much more to join the universal struggle against global warming. It was also silent when the US attacked Iraq.

Labour has also hardly criticised the unbridled land speculation. In these last years we have seen the pulling down of houses and village cores and the erection of apartment blocks that get higher and higher, and are now beginning to spawn high-rises. It is not acceptable that houses built less than 10 years ago are being pulled down and developed into maisonettes and apartments. What is happening is certainly due to the perception that investing in property is the surest way to maximise one's finances.

In the end, the opinion of the public is a must for a healthy democracy.