Since the St John's Co-Cathedral project had to be shelved, against the wishes of the Prime Minister and his government, the word "mob" has found its way into the political dictionary yet again, and anyone who seems to take a stand against the establishment is immediately looked down on, snubbed and branded with being a mobster!

There are various columnists who have taken it upon themselves to continually do this, conveniently, it seems, forgetting that a full-page article on a newspaper or the odd blog or their framed university degree makes them no better or none the more politically enlightened than anyone else. All it does is that it makes their agenda, as subtly and intelligently buried as it may be, very accessible to the "voter in the street".

Moreover, in a democracy these high-class, intellectual wannabes will only be in possession of a single voting document come election day, pretty much like those people they take eternal pride in bashing. But the columnists are not my worry as in a country where freedom of expression is sacred these, like the undersigned, can write whatever takes their fancy as long as it's not libellous. What deeply disturbs me is how these virulent attacks are all of a sudden ending up in ministerial statements and uttered by the higher echelons of the Nationalist Party.

One only needs to compare Minister Austin Gatt's reaction to Astrid Vella's article about the City Gate project on Maltatoday to similar comments passed by two columnists about Ms Vella herself to realise that this "I am better than you cause you're a low-life mobster" attitude is slowly and surprisingly not so subtly becoming the PN's attitude towards those who criticise it.

This is the same party that before 1987 took the people to the streets banging on pots and pans and organised weekly mass meetings, of which each PN club has so many pictures; the same party that used to pride itself with being the party of the people! Well, I guess what goes around must eventually come around and here we are with a party that is doing precisely what it had accused others of doing, naturally in a much nicer and more subtle way!

So I've written this correspondence to remind the big heads in Pietà that, yes, the "people" or "voters" or "mob" or whatever derogatory remarks they decide to call them, rule this country because they are the ones who have to put up with desperate politicians begging for their votes on the eve of an election, promising everything under the sun.

They are the ones who put their trust in a Prime Minister who betrays that trust and they are the ones who have to bear the brunt of an incompetent government through their taxes and, ultimately, they are the ones who will give the final verdict whether the chosen "élite" likes it or not.

Until dictatorship becomes fashionable again, the establishment and those who delight in belittling anyone who does not support it will have to deal with the angry "mob" they used so wisely to regain power not so many months ago!