That fateful 1981 parliamentary debate

Recent comments on the parliamentary debate way back in 1981, when Dom Mintoff intervened to persuade reluctant Labour MPs to negotiate with the opposition to ensure that another perverse electoral result would not deny the party which obtained an absolute majority of votes in a general election the democratic right to form a government, prompts me to reveal a version of that event which I learned from a very reliable source.

This sheds a new light on what really went on at a crucial moment in our history, when democracy was in the balance. Dom Mintoff went to that sitting with a determination to halt the blind undemocratic, stubbornness of most of his colleagues to retain power at all costs.

To do so, he needed more time than would normally have been allotted to him and in the tense atmosphere then prevailing there was no chance that the opposition would be accommodating.

So he made his intention known to the right quarters. He also warned that he needed to warm up the other Labour MPs to a frenzy of support before he launched his appeal for a sense of realism. This would require that he had to start by strongly attacking the opposition and he hoped that there would not be too strong a reaction which would scuttle his plans.

Perusing what went on during that fateful evening in Parliament, I tend to believe that this version is true. If so, it is encouraging to know that even in the darkest of moments, a sense of justice and statesmanship can prevail.