The Nationalist Party’s slogan of Labour Won’t Work, depicted on one of the billboards, has two sides to it. The queue, borrowed from Thatcher days (no problem to go back some 30 years when Labour showed its true tarnished colours) records the irrefutable historical fact that Labour for decades held the absolute record for unemployment in this country of ours.

Whatever Muscat pledges, he cannot but be haunted by Labour’s past- Austin Sammut

The late Dom Mintoff (whom, incidentally, was the first statesman since the death of George Borg Olivier whose state funeral I did not attend, not being a hypocrite by nature) introduced the most nonsensical and useless so-called military corps reminiscent of both Nazi and Communist days.

I learnt during my university student days in history studies that there was a time when Louis Napoleon III of France – centuries ago created such labour corps. Their task was for one gang to dig up trenches and another to fill them up without anything being put into them. That must surely have been Mintoff’s inspiration. Why did he do that? Simply because he and his government were not capable of creating productive employment.

Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici (true to his doctrine of “the end justifies the means” – more than Mintoff) went one better. He employed some 8,000 unnecessary workers with the government on the eve of the 1987 general election

Little did he, and his toothless Labour acolytes it seems, care about the consequences which the next government would have to face. It could possibly have been his own, of course.

So Labour Won’t Work in terms of employment is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

The second side is that Labour has nothing to work with. I would fear if I were them that the achievements of successive Nationalist governments cannot be ignored, particularly with the backdrop of Labour failures.

I would not say, as some do, that Joseph Muscat cannot run a government because he is inexperienced. This reasoning would lead us to believe that the leadership of a government, or a political party for that matter, must remain unchanged until the incumbent passes away or for some reason is physically or mentally incapable of managing affairs. This would be nonsense. I believe that Labour cannot govern well simply because it has no apparent, transparent ideas or policies.

We know nothing – reminds me of the hapless Manuel in Fawlty Towers and his famous phrase “I know nothing”!

So when one knows nothing (and springing some sort of electoral programme within the last year of a legislature is not convincing at all), one must perforce resort to a track record.

What is that track record and why won’t Labour work? That track record is 1996-1998 and 1971-1987. I will not go back to the 1950s. I was a mere two-years-old in 1955.

What were the hallmarks of Labour governments? Violence and more violence, of course. Yes, the consolidation of a welfare state. I have no space to address all the twisting and turning of history to portray Mintoff and “his” Labour as the only one to introduce social services and social rights to this country – but granted.

Otherwise, just to mention: restriction on imports, be they of the most basic nature. Not computers and colour televisions, which Mintoff deemed his servient people did not deserve, them being used to the dictates of their colonial masters, a role which he took over. But also chocolate, toothpaste, pasta and God knows what else. Unbelievable in this day and age.

Rationale? That we must restrict imports, so as to boost our economy. Reason? Labour was not capable of building, expanding and sustaining a strong economy, such as we have today.

Labour was not capable of creating jobs. So Labour Won’t Work in terms of economic performance and development is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I haven’t even mentioned education, health, communications and many other areas.

Whatever Muscat pledges, promises, woos and kisses about, he cannot but be haunted by Labour’s past. By continuing to feed some of Labour’s old dinasaurs and attempting to wean a number of young pups, he has a fascinating mix of incompetence.

When Labour portrays no future, we can only look at the past. One must pose the question: “What can Labour do better”, both in terms of its past and that of the performance of a Nationalist government over the last 25 years?