My conclusion is totally and absolutely anti-Labour, without any reservations whatsoever. I have really and sincerely tried to grasp Labour over the many weeks of a very tiring campaign. I am exhausted after my TV appearances and interviews, let alone our candidates. The PL people have very little new to offer. I fear unemployment and a stagnant economy under Labour. Why? Because they just don’t have the people to manage the country or, at least very few of them, let alone the knowhow.

...They just don’t have the people to manage the country or, at least very few of them- Austin Sammut

Who are these people after all? I will give it to Joseph Muscat that he has run a very slick campaign, but will he deliver after all? Is it worth the risk changing from a successful Government with a proven track record to the unknown? Do you really think this guy can run the country efficiently and effectively?

Obviously it is the electorate that decides. We have an electorate which is normally very much blind folded: Labour always, Nationalist always. Fair enough. And then we have the suddenly enlightened, such as Kenneth Zammit Tabona, enamoured by Dr Joseph (don’t you dare call him Joe), whose column is placed above mine in this newspaper on a regular basis and who does not seem to stop pontificating about Labour nonsense; and Raymond Pitre’ and a number of others on PL boards, many unknown. Are these people going to run the country?

The truth is that all issues have basically dried out. The Big Debate organised by The Times drew the two main leaders to agree on, shall I say, 80 per cent of the issues. So what’s the problem?

You have a government with a tremendous track record and results to show. And then you have a party with many empty and unsustainable promises. I mean the greatest promise was the energy one. But where has Konrad Mizzi disappeared?

The political parties have totally exhausted their policies and we are now looking at mud-slinging. In this respect I was horrified to hear Emmanuel (since we all know him as Manuel) Mallia declaring that he wants to send Paul Borg Olivier to jail. Totally unbecoming of him, I would have thought. Is this refinement and new Labour standards?

I have been taking part in a number of debates on the media – and particularly on One Television. And I have been criticised by my family and many of my friends. “Why do you go there?” they ask. My reply: “Why not? Someone has to go.”

And here I have to say a thing or two about the Broadcasting Authority. There are two dinosaurs who have been occupying the Labour seats for well over a decade and have also filed a libel suit against one of their colleagues. That’s for taking criticism gracefully!

But I am very disappointed with a chairman for whom I have always had respect but who, I believe, is not recognising a good cause from a wrong one, and this in view of the authority’s attempt to stifle PBS. The other stations, meanwhile, have largely been given a free hand.

Mr Chairman, please get the right perspective. Otherwise the BA will go to the dogs. We cannot have a passive chairman. I was a member of the Broadcasting Authority decades ago and I, together with my colleagues from both sides of the boardroom table, as well as our chairman, had the guts to take reasoned decisions in the interest of public broadcasting. I, for one, refused to take directions from any political animal. So, what’s gone wrong?!

Finally, I have a rallying call today. You must vote Nationalist; and please no abstaining, because if you do so you will be seriously harming yourself, your children and your grandchildren. Abstaining is a vote for Labour. Just look at the PN’s track record.

It is a party which was born in 1880 (no mean feat and the first political party on the island) and it has worked successfully for the benefit of this beautiful country of ours ever since.

This is the party that has delivered. As our Spanish colleague from the EPP declared: “Why change a winning team?”

I say to the young and first-time voters: You are intelligent and you enjoy tremendous benefits from the Nationalist Party. Do not throw out your aspirations for the smoky proposals that Labour is offering.

I also say this to those who are undecided: Do not throw your aspirations, your well-being and your good quality of life into the Labour bin. This is probably the last opportunity I have. Young men and women, grip the situation and vote for your clear future – not for the murky past. Vote Nationalist.

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