Times do change. The Sunday press made not a single reference to the week's developments on Maltese bread. The papers continued with their running commentary on the goings on in the MLP leadership race. Further grist was provided to that mill by the way Alfred Sant snatched at the opportunity given to him by the Nationalists to speak one more time as leader of the opposition. The environment attracted its usual share of attention. A probing finger was poked at the lingering cloud over MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando pending the predictable outcome of a police investigation over the Mistra supposedly unconsummated affair.

But, there was no comment about the fact that the market in traditional Maltese bread has been liberalised and that as from today the price of the loaf is to jump up once again. That silence is a reflection of a socio-economic reality: The Malta loaf is no longer a widespread part of the staple diet of the Maltese people. Some families do not even know what the traditional ħobża looks or tastes like. Even working class consumers appear to use fewer bread loaves nowadays. Certainly, one does not see individuals buying bread by the sackful anymore.

That is not to say that bread has lost all of its importance. There remain many thousands of families to whom it is a basic part of their daily intake. Liberalising the market and again lifting control on the price of bread may have seemed inevitable to the government. There will be many who do not quite see it that way. To them the rise in that input to the daily cost of living will be far more significant than to others who go for fancy bread or no bread at all. Those so affected will wait with interest to see how the government will fulfil its undertaking to assist lower income families who will be affected by the rise in the price of bread. Others, whose cost of living is rising in other areas under the remorseless pressure of soaring global food prices, will also wait to see whether the authorities will extend assistance in that regard as well.

On a broader basis, employees and employers will wonder whether the anticipated €2.33 per week statutory increase given from January 1 will be ignored when the next increase is reckoned on the basis of the September cost-of-living data. Incomes and personal circumstances aside, higher bread prices - which could accelerate - raise another question: Will the traditional ħobża die out before we know it?

The threat is there, in the form of changing eating habits and in the impact of higher cost on those with lower incomes. It is a threat to an interesting part of our identity. The government, in announcing the liberalisation of the bread market through the Finance Minister, indicated its awareness of the threat. Better be alert now than to allow the death knell to toll, and then try to take belated remedial action. The French have been through such an experience with their baguette.

We should not go down that road with our ħobża. It may not be as important as who will be the next leader of the MLP, continuing threats to the environment, Mistra discos and what not. That is not to say it does not remain very important. The ħobża may no longer be the daily bread of all of Malta. It does and should remain a key part of Malta.