PL ‘will set us back 30 years’
The Nationalist Party’s new billboard mirrors that of Britain’s Conservatives in 1979.
The Nationalist Party has borrowed a billboard used in the UK 30 years ago to depict the situation Malta would be in if the Labour Party is elected to power.
Finance Minister Tonio Fenech insisted this was not the beginning of an electoral campaign but simply the party ’s way of getting its message across.
The billboard depicts a long line of people queuing behind a stand saying Register of the Unemployed and words in red reading: “Labour won’t work”.
Launching the billboard, PN president Marthese Portelli said this had been used during an electoral campaign in the UK 30 years ago and the PN had opted to use it to show that a Labour government would send the country 30 years back.
Mr Fenech and Justice Minister Chris Said, who addressed the media event at the PN headquarters, explained the billboard reflected how the Nationalist government had created 20,000 jobs in the past four years.
The PN had one of the lowest levels of unemployment while the Labour Party had a track record in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as between 1996 and 1998, of creating unemployment.
Labour’s policies, the ministers said, were not conducive to creating jobs but rather the opposite.
They mentioned a long list of achievements by various PN governments, especially those of the current legislature, despite the difficult economic scenario, saying these contrasted with the track record of the Labour Party.
Asked why the PN had chosen to attack Labour over its performance back in the 1970s and 1980s and whether this was going to be the party’s electoral strategy, Mr Fenech said the electorate would be voting on important issues such as unemployment. Dr Said added that the PN was “duty-bound” to make these comparisons.
“While everybody knows where the PN stands on employment, Labour’s policies remain unknown and when Labour was in government its failed policies ran the country into a wall. Why don’t you ask Labour what their proposals are?” Mr Fenech said when it was pointed out that people wanted to look forward.
Dr Said added: “We are obliged to make these comparisons because the future of the country is at stake. The ones who implemented wrong policies in the past are the same people leading the Labour Party, with former industry minister Karmenu Vella responsible for writing Labour’s manifesto. Until recently (Labour leader) Joseph Muscat was giving wrong advice about Malta following the example of Cyprus.”
Labour reacted saying the PN was “stuck in the past” and had itself gone back 33 years by launching a billboard used back then.
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28 Comments
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Brian Farrugia
Aug 28th 2012, 17:51
I advise Mr Said to try a bit of gerrymandering as it can get things `unstuck.`
R Zammit
Aug 4th 2012, 16:25
Why adopt a billboard which was used by the British 33 years ago? and does it really apply to Malta? Very uncreative indeed.
Stephen Grech
Aug 4th 2012, 14:12
Jokes apart, are these billboards properly placed so as no to be of an hazard to motorists?
Mr leo attard
Aug 4th 2012, 14:07
Is that the reasion you are using a 30 year old poster, Ms Marthese Portelli -- to show that Labour will throw us back 30 years? Or are you saying that now because you discovered that the 'cuc Malti' is not such a 'cuc' after all? You didn't think anyone would notice? Didn't you learn from a similar incident when the PN copied a poster depicting Sarkhozy?
Peter Simpson
Aug 4th 2012, 12:58
Kieku tajjeb, ghax nigu bla dejn!
Victor Vella
Aug 4th 2012, 12:05
In my case GonzPN of bluff and incompetency put me and about 10,000 good jobs created during Mintoff 36 years back.
pat muscat
Aug 4th 2012, 11:21
My friend voted GonziPN in the last election and all he got was a lousy precarious job!.....and the title on the banner should read ETC given that unemployed are already 7000!
NB. Malta's 50% export plus are produced by a single electronics company that the MLP enticed to Malta 25 years ago....nothing to compare with the cemetery of factories at Marsa, Mosta, Mriehel and Xewkija Gozo under GonziPN!
Mariano Camilleri
Aug 4th 2012, 11:20
when i left 7 years ago to go live and work in uk the wages were very similair and not far from what they are now while prices of everything is more expensive then they were 7 years ago and on the same level of the uk and some of the stuff is 2 times even 3 times more expensive then uk. i would like to come back to malta but it seems its not worth it. i wont leave my vote in the closet and its like given it to labour but i will go and vote and i will vote labour because pn needs a lesson and someone needs to sort this imbalance
Stephen Grech
Aug 4th 2012, 11:08
May I ask you all democratically bred PN supporters in what state was Malta in prior 1971?. By the looks of it, it was heaven on earth!
All the assets PN sold during its 25 years plus democratic rule, did they fall from the sky?
Thank you for calling me a masochist.
Ramon Casha
Aug 4th 2012, 10:47
"Finance Minister Tonio Fenech insisted this was not the beginning of an electoral campaign..."
OF COURSE it isn't. My my, how could I ever have gotten the idea that an election is right around the corner.
"... the PN had opted to use it to show that a Labour government would send the country 30 years back."
Oh so you expected everyone to see that billboard and instantly recognise it as a UK billboard from 30 years ago and conclude that it is intended to portray PL as the party that will send the country back 30 years.
Sounds legit.
"the Nationalist government had created 20,000 jobs in the past four years."
If you count people who lose their jobs but find new ones as "new jobs", sure. In the real world however those are not counted as new jobs.
"Labour’s policies remain unknown ..."
"Labour’s policies, the ministers said, were not conducive to creating jobs but rather the opposite."
Am I the only one to detect a slight contradiction in the above statements?
"They mentioned a long list of achievements by various PN governments, especially those of the current legislature..."
Like ARMS, Arriva, Biometric invisible ID cards, City Gap project, roofless theatre project, obstacle course roads project, fuel price inflation project, opposition to divorce project ...
Mark Vella
Aug 4th 2012, 11:36
Couldn't say it better!
Robert Agius
Aug 4th 2012, 13:06
You nailed it m8!
Karl Consiglio
Aug 4th 2012, 10:30
Labour don't know the meaning of investment.
pat muscat
Aug 4th 2012, 11:25
SGS Thomson electronics was enticed to invest in Malta 25 years ago...by Labour; its still exports 50%+ of all our exports; anything to compare by GonziPN for investments?.... Smart City,surplus Parliament, heavy fuel and obsolete power station at Delimara?
Mark Vella
Aug 4th 2012, 11:33
And PN know it??? Have you seen of deficit recently???
Robert Agius
Aug 4th 2012, 13:07
...But of course, you Karl are, right?
G Tonna
Aug 4th 2012, 10:29
Labour won't work but the Nationalist's policies have. Just compare the past 25 years with Mintoff's catastrophic era which lasted 16. The overall economic as well as political, human rights and freedom of expression and movement concepts have all outperformed Labour's by far.
The Maltese have come to realise all this and proof of this is the fact that Labour have lost seven out of eigth elections in the past 25 years. Only a masochist will vote labour in power again.
Ramon Casha
Aug 4th 2012, 10:57
When you shoot yourselves in the foot you take aim at both legs don't you? Here's PN trying to convince us that PL is stuck in the past, and you're still obsessing about Mintoff. Just in case you didn't notice, Mintoff was Labour's leader, 3 leaders ago. By comparison, Eddie was still attending executive meetings and influencing matters right up to that infamous recent one. From where I'm standing it's not Labour that's stuck in the past.
Mark Vella
Aug 4th 2012, 11:33
the ignorance of certain PN voters is incredible.
Mr J Xerri
Aug 4th 2012, 10:25
.. and would PN work?
Carmel (Nenu) Aquilina
Aug 4th 2012, 09:48
@ Poplu Malti u Għawdxi,
Il-PN mhux imwaħħal mal-passat, imma meta qed jara lill partit Lejburista imwaħħal mal-passat meta qed jiftaħar bis-sebgħinijiet u t-tmeninijiet tal-gvernijiet Lejburisti, qed iwissi u jgħallem lill poplu biex ma jiżbaljax, għax dawn għadhom ma inbidlux!
Anzi jiena ngħid li mhux tletin sena lura jitfana gvern Lejburista, iżda seklu lura, bin nies li għandu mdawra miegħu Joseph Muscat!
Huwa kieku verament jried ikun proggressive iqqabaghd ex Ministru ta' l- għar gvernijiet Lejburisti li kellha f Malta biex jagħmillu il-programm elettorali!
Allura x'tistenna?
Mhux li ser immorru lura għal żmien is-swar!
Mela sewwa qed jgħid dak li hemm fuq dak il-famuż billbourd tal-PN!
Mela ħsiebek hemm poplu Malti u Għawdxi, u lill tal-Lejber tafdahom qatt u qatt iżjed!
Mark Vella
Aug 4th 2012, 11:32
Keep dreaming in your old past dear......... and let the youngsters adopt what they think is right for them. We need a change of goverment.
Joe Busuttil
Aug 4th 2012, 13:38
"Ya talkin' to me? Ya talkin' to me?" as De Niro might ask you, seeing as you always seem to be addressing the "Poplu Malti etc etc. Change your tune and be reasonable, and wake up to the fact that we are in the 21st Century. The fact remains that yes,the PN is still stuck in the past.
Mark Vella
Aug 4th 2012, 09:46
PN only knows the old ways - scaremongering - like the the church. Better a step in the dark than you Gonzi!
Ramon Casha
Aug 4th 2012, 10:51
Very true. Remember the election where they were saying "If you vote for AD you invalidate your vote", or "A vote for AD is a vote for Labour"?
Robert Agius
Aug 4th 2012, 13:12
...just wait for that to happen all over again Ramon, but to to be honest that was true for both parties. Wish I could say that the vast majority of the Maltese voters are wiser now though. However, i am convinced that many did learn their lesson.
J. ZERAFA
Aug 4th 2012, 09:43
Marthese Portelli, do you really think that the workers are better off now, than they used to be when the Labour party was in Government. You must be joking. No wonder when the pn says that they created 20,000 jobs, as most jobs are now insecure and workers keep on changing their jobs to seek a better pay to make up for the ever increasing cost of living. Before the word redundancies was never heard, workers rights were safeguarded and the working conditions were much better, unlike now!
Joseph Cauchi Senior
Aug 4th 2012, 09:42
It’s not if the billboard is original or not but whether it does it CONVEY THE MESSAGE!
I can see RED all over and some comments are FURIOUS at this message.
Why?
Is there some truth in this message?
Labour Won’t Work!
JC.
Please choose the reason of your report below: