One seat is enough

Recent contributions to these columns, including editorials, seemed to claim that Lawrence Gonzi's new Cabinet has no clear mandate to govern and to introduce necessary reforms, because of a majority of only 1,500 popular votes and one parliamentary seat. I beg to differ.

Although some in the past have likened democracy to "parliamentary dictatorship", whether we like or not, a one vote majority is as good as any for a democratic government. Let me give two examples how this has worked in the past, locally and overseas.

We elected a Labour government in 1971 with only a one parliamentary seat majority.

Within the first 100 days of this government, Malta's foreign policy was transformed from a pro-Western to an anti-Western one, with our "friends" being suddenly translocated to the southern Mediterranean shores, and with our new "enemies" bearing down on us from Europe and north America.

I'm not going to argue whether or not this was our finest hour in the last 200 years of Maltese history - the point I'm making is that all this radical change, and its consequences, were perfectly democratically possible with only a one seat majority gained with the slimmest of popular vote majority (about five votes) in one district.

Margaret Thatcher came to power in late 1979, after a disastrous period of "old" Labour administration, which reduced post-Empire Britain to a strike-ridden bankrupt economy, whose Chancellor of the Exchequer (Dennis Healey) had to borrow from, and to submit to, conditions laid down by the International Monetary Fund. Ms Thatcher's legacy, carried on by John Major and Tony Blair's "new" Labour, transformed Britain to one of the most prosperous countries in the world.

Her bloodless revolution amended legislation controlling unions, permitting privatisation of public services monopolies, permitting employers to shed redundant workers, and laid down rules for the ending of taxpayers' subsidies to state industries and universities. These had to cover all their costs from the money they earned for their services.

Thus the cost of public transport shot up and universities had to start charging tuition fees, but Ms Thatcher brought down the highest level of income tax from 96 per cent to 40 per cent, to reverse the brain-drain and to make working in Britain worthwhile again. Albeit Eurosceptic, her legacy is enshrined in fundamental EU rules, particularly those relating to achieving and maintaining a free market economy with a level-playing-field scenario, where taxpayer subsidies to inefficient industries (which won't reform their employment or work practices) are not permissible.

Ms Thatcher achieved all this with only one third of the British popular vote, because the British "first-past-the post" electoral system is intended to produce strong governments and no need for coalitions (in contrast to, say, Italy where the resulting difference between, say Alitalia and British Airways, couldn't be starker).

Dr Gonzi and his team have all the credentials to govern and to push our country forward. Our "new" Labour need to study how they might convince us, in five years' time, that they have the potential to improve on the gonzipn team's performance.

Editor's note:
The Times never spoke on the lines the correspondent refers to in the first paragraph.