HOW TYPICALLY LABOUR

In my 'Beck' column, I take a look at various aspects of the question of having a tunnel between Gozo and Malta. I've no doubt I left out a few of these aspects, and that many more will be highlighted by others.

I had no idea, though, that one of these would be an appeal to the insular egoism that some, quite mistakenly, think is inherent to Gozitans. That this is a generalisation of insulting proportions goes without saying and over the years, I've found Gozitans to be more outward-looking and enterprising than their Maltese counterparts, probably because of the relative isolation imposed by the channel.

Not so their primary representative in Gozo, however, Labour's spokesman on Gozo affairs, for whom the idea of a tunnel is not a bad one, provided - wait for it - it doesn't mean that Gozo's hospital does not become an asset to be shared by the people of Mellieha. It is not entirely clear if Dr Anton Refalo also wants Gozo's restaurants and hotels to be closed to denizens of Malta, an idea I am pretty sure is not shared by anyone.

He was speaking at Labour's AGM, where no doubt many other pearls were cast.

Typically Labour, as well, was the importation of foreign worthies to tell us just how much of an excellent bod Joseph Muscat is and how well-respected he is in Europe. Presumably they've got over his (now conveniently swept under the carpet) antipathy towards them, just as the Labour Party itself has got over its aversion to foreign interference, an activity rendered criminal by Mintoff and KMB, though I forget which of these two was actually PM at the time, the catalogue of horrors being so vast that it blurs into one amorphous, horrific whole.

The latest Eurostar to laud Muscat breathlessly to the heavens was the Bulgarian Stanishev, who also told them we need more Socialists in Europe, which tells us where he's coming from.