Historical fact and fiction from 1996

Salvu Felice Pace (July 10) should check his facts - as should editors - before committing myth to print in preference of easily-documented fact.

Mr Felice Pace's claim that Dom Mintoff ran in the 1996 general election for Labour "on a personal manifesto" is pure fiction. Nothing of the sort ever happened.

Mr Felice Pace should not resort to rewriting history, however much his passion for unadulterated propaganda drives his relentless writing in newspapers. I was, in the run-up to the 1996 election, the person trusted by both the Labour leadership and Mr Mintoff with settling the issue of whether Mr Mintoff should run or call it a day. By then, the young energetic Alfred Sant was already whipping up gratifying results.

In the event, he went on to win back 20,000 votes from the then ruling Nationalist Party. On the whole issue of Mr Mintoff's candidature, Dr Sant was in the main non-committal.

I saw and had talks with Mr Mintoff several times. He never produced a "manifesto". All he wanted was to have free access, something he was never denied. He also wished to hold his own "corner meetings". That was all.

To call this a "personal manifesto" in order to tarnish the image of Dr Sant, Mr Mintoff and the Labour Party is as wacky as slippery merchants of political myths get.

If Mr Felice Pace is half the man he claims to be, he should apologise at least to readers for misleading them so awfully on what remains a historical fact.