My credentials as an economist, having done my A-Level in 1973 or some such antediluvian year, are not stellar. The thing is, given that down there at the bottom line, “it’s the economy, stupid” that should be the underpinning of any commentary on elections, a nod needs to be given in the general direction of economics.

Whether this bottom line applies this time around might be a touch debatable, of course. The Ladies Who Lunch and their businessmen husbands, to the extent that the former think and the latter care beyond where to park their SUVs, seem to have had a collective primeval urge to consider voting for Joseph Muscat, because “u eeeva, it’s a change, aay, what can happen, marelli?”

Well, if they don’t know, they shouldn’t really be trusted with a vote but that’s the way of democracy, so we can leave that aside for today. Suffice it to say that the closer the date gets, the more people are beginning to have themselves a reality check, so, perhaps, Muscat’s breathless admirers should rein in their awestruck adulation. If a week is a long time in politics, a month is a sight longer.

But if it really is the economy, stupid, as it really is, what are we apostates to make of Muscat’s credentials in this regard? Not his own personally, he has a doctorate in some related area, though I’m not entirely sure what, but all he seems to do is go around telling us what a cutting-edge bunch of folk he’s attracted to His Movement or DotCom or whatever latest snatch of jargon is being employed to obscure “Labour” in polite use. Even Super One News seems to have been banned from using the word “Labour”, which must get a bit confusing to its watchers.

The Big Beast in Muscat’s economics seminar, the one which used to be trundled out as an “independent” authority before he blew his own cover (we all knew anyway) by contesting and getting elected as a Labour MEP, is Edward Scicluna.

This great intellect, however, puts Malta into the category of “worse off than Spain”.

You know the country I mean, the one where youth unemployment stands at 60 per cent. The one from which a substantial number of young people have come to Malta and found work, because there’s none back home. In Madrid, people are not above having a look into the garbage to see if they can snaffle something valuable. But according to Scicluna, Malta is worse off than Spain.

It makes me wonder if he was the economics whizz-kid (sorry about “kid” but “whiz-doddery old codger” doesn’t quite fit) who had coaxed Muscat into telling us that we should aspire to be more like Cyprus. That’s the Cyprus whose President only recently lamented the fact that his country wasn’t more like, you’ve guessed it, Malta.

You’ll forgive me, then, if even I am less than over-awed by Scicluna.

Moving on, the other guru that Muscat offers up for our delectation on occasion is the architect of his electoral programme, which, no doubt, is poised to see the light of day any time now (remember I write this on Wednesday night) Karmenu Vella.

Here I have an even greater problem when it comes to being impressed: Vella was, and from all accounts, remains, an adherent to Mintoffian ideals, having been a good buddy of the Great Man’s. I capitalise not out of my own respect for him, the extent of which is well know, but to remind you that Muscat holds Dom Mintoff in very, very high regard, even if for the moment we’re being asked, pretty please, to forget this.

This alone, then, puts Vella firmly into the category of “next, please”, were we to be reviewing a line-up of potential navigators through the economic shoals and reefs that face whichever government takes office next month.

The sorry fact is that on Muscat’s cutting-edge team there really is no “next, please”.

If you don’t agree, feel free to comment online but the people on Muscat’s side all seem to have swallowed, hook, line and proverbial, the fantasy that some kindly entrepreneur is going to roll up, dig his hand into his back pocket and take out €600 million and hand it over along with a promise to bring down – and keep down - electricity tariffs. Seriously, guys, you think that this is going to be the case?

I’m not talking about the equally fantasmagorical fantasy that the shiny new, FAA-ignored, utterly unnecessary power-station cum mega-storage facility cum tanker terminal that will embellish the South can be brought on stream in 24 months, even flying in the face of planning and environmental rules and public procurement laws.

I’m talking about the basic financials, the simple, down to earth numbers: €600 million, to be forked over - at least according to “supremely confident” Muscat - by the private sector in return for keeping prices down.

If you really, truly, believe this, then you need to have a good long look at yourselves in the mirror and ask if, in a couple of years, you are ready to face the people who trusted you with the economic well-being of this country.

In the meantime, forgive me for feeling that I am more than justified in feeling distinctly underwhelmed by the calibre of Muscat's economists. Perhaps this is what he meant when he said recently that he is most excited by the fact that an economy grows from nothing - this bunch are going to be just that.

Remember, in the meantime, it's the economy, stupid.

imbocca@gmail.com

www.timesofmalta.com/articles/author/20