Life’s tough being a politician and even tougher being a Prime Minister. You say one thing which is wrong—very wrong—and you get shoved into a wringer for a few eternities. People have shoved enough dirt, fun and stuff about Gonzi’s close shave with a Brazilian. So enough said about that.

But there was another gem which I just loved lately from a dear politico. He’s still not a seasoned one but I’m afraid he sounds even more political than the rest of them put together. It’s Manuel Delia, the guy who actually ran or devised or mapped or whatever was done by government to award us Arriva.

It seems Mr Delia said, amongst other gems and thought-provokers, that he won’t apologise for Arriva. Ok let me be honest—I’m not fully against Arriva. I use them quite regularly and although I do have some worries and serious gripes on the whole they get my thumbs up. At least if nothing else we can breathe when a bus passes by.

But let’s be honest and admit when a near-debacle is a debacle. Let’s be as forthright as we can and admit that Arriva from the outset was a problem which needed a lot of tweaking. so much tweaking that after all this time they still have huge teething problems—and in some aspects they should have their teeth knocked in or sack most of their personnel and see to getting their act right from top to bottom.

If Mr Delia is not the man responsible for all Arriva’s ills still let him apologise—for  being part of the team that appointed Arriva. And for not managing to get the company to solve the big and silly problems and for not managing to force them to fix these problems. Fines, hefty or not, do not solve anything.

Is this a political issue? Not at all. I repeat it was a great decision to take hold of the bully drivers of old and rid us of them and their lung-choking buses. But I hardly believe the bus service deserves no apology. I know apologies and politicians are like Tom and Jerry—they can’t stand each other and no proper true politician worth his salt would ever say a true and proper sorry.

The day Mr Delia admits it and says how sorry he is for causing so much stress to us the commuters, the car drivers and whoever comes in contact with a mammoth bus he will surely gain my respect. And I will declare there is a man who deserves our vote for he cares not about politics but about humanity.

 

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.