From today’s timesofmalt.com, hot off the virtual presses, as it were:

“Chief executive Ralph Roberts said the company took the decision because of lack of openness by the Maltese government.  He also said McGill's had a "gut feeling" that excessive state interference would prevent it running a profitable service.”

And there you have it, folks, local operators seem to be giving the cold-shoulder to the idea of running the bus-service, and now the primary foreign bidder has extended the time-honoured salute in the Government’s general direction, materially because of the way the Government acted, both in unceremoniously kicking Arriva out and in failing to be transparent (I wonder why) in dealing with the potential bidders to take over from Arriva.

Of course, Labour’s Little Weasels will come up with all manner of excuses as to why this happened and how it’s all the Nationalists’ fault, but the stark fact remains that it is Muscat’s government and its methods that caused McGill’s to say, “thanks but no thanks” and no-one else’s.  It was Muscat’s government that effectively nationalised the bus service, a phenomenon that is not un-associated with Labour governments of the past, and this particular chicken has come home to roost with a vengeance, because in 2014, in Europe, nationalisation is a dirty word, and when governments utter it, they become pariahs.

Oh well, Joseph Muscat can always turn to Grace Borg for her business acumen and ask her to get her claws into McGills for backing out.  She’s pretty good at taking eighteen-year olds to Court about song contests or whatever, so perhaps she might try her luck, and have a tilt at someone a bit bigger.

What a way to run a country.