The first day of the new year came with a stark reminder of the pitiful state that some public service providers in Malta actually do provide.

With the intention of spending the weekend in Gozo, we arrived at Ċirkewwa at 12.25 p.m. into what seemed – and was – a deserted place.

No boats anywhere, no cars queuing, no staff from Gozo Channel Co. Ltd to enquire to, until I came across someone who, most casually, informed me that there will be no service before 4 p.m. “because it is New Year’s Day”. Unbelievable!

I nearly blew a fuse but held back from abusing the poor sod who was left behind to face the wrath of similarly affected people.

Tourists were arriving by car, buses and coaches to stare at this deserted place and to wonder – some of them loudly – in which Third World country they had landed. Utterly shameful.

Being Gozo Channel Co. Ltd, enjoying a total monopoly on the ferry service, does not entitle them to disrupt a very vital service just for their staff to go and party with their families. Were this acceptable, then why don’t doctors, nurses, policemen, hotel staff, waiters, etc. also stop for four hours, which they would be entitled to under the same reasoning, but thankfully don’t?

No doubt the PRO of Gozo Channel will come up with a lot of platitudes about workers’ rights and such blah-blah, which will miserably fail to convince me that a service for which the consumer has no alternative should ever be disrupted for such banal reasons. Weren’t we promised an alternative service supplier?