Pope John Paul II had said in 1993 that Europe needed Malta’s witness and that it could “contribute to the old continent by offering her treasured Christian faith and values”.Pope John Paul II had said in 1993 that Europe needed Malta’s witness and that it could “contribute to the old continent by offering her treasured Christian faith and values”.

Our gay-friendly Civil Liberties Minister Helena Dalli got herself in a tangle last week when she disastrously stomped into that absolute-taboo issue abortion. It is obvious she didn’t mean it the way it came out, but there is no blaming the newspaper that slammed her. It was a legitimate question.

What does this Labour government with its self-declared, ultra-liberal agenda intend to do about abortion? It tops the liberal agenda in the western world, so why not Malta? The pro-choice lobby, for which read pro-abortion, is bound to raise its head even here. Once you start pandering to gay marriage, to the legalisation of drugs, this is the next logical step. But evidently not for Labour, they think they can pick and choose. For Labour it is all about votes, and the last election proved them so right about that. There are not many votes to be gained from legalising abortion. Even the local Catholic Church might speak up, which would make a change.

So, abortion apart, Dalli made an incredible statement on surrogacy. It wasn’t really what she intended to speak about when she staged a press conference; she just wanted to milk the gay marriage Act for partisan ends, and got a pie in her face. That is what happens when a political party lacks values, even liberal values, bad as those are. Without any focus and armed only with spin, you are bound to stumble.

Dalli was asked if the government would consider legalising surrogacy so gay couples can have biological children too, now that they’ll be able to adopt as a married couple. She said no, but added that following a constitutional amendment, no person can be discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation. They could go to the European Court of Human Rights, she said, and if they win the case, the government would have to comply.

The fallacy of this line of thinking is astounding. Firstly, that a gay couple cannot have kids naturally is not discrimination but a fact of life. It is also not discrimination because it is illegal for everyone in Malta. There is no such thing as gay rights; there are only human rights.

The problem is that once you have given ‘marriage equality’, it is logical that it is followed up by ‘reproductive equality’, and Dalli couldn’t wriggle herself out of that one. Trying to pass the buck on to the human rights court was ridiculous because conceiving children is not a human right.

An extensive 2013 European Parliament report that looked into regime of surrogacy across EU member states examined the immense ethical and legal issues involved but made no mention of human rights. The competency to decide on what moral grounds to act and what policy decisions to make, said the report, lies with individual states. Where surrogacy is illegal, it would be inappropriate to impose on it a European structure.

So, what is our Civil Rights Minister going to tell the married gays now? That they’ve made fools of themselves dancing around Palace Square?

Adding a touch of humour last week, and with summer approaching, our local nudist movement thought to ride the liberal wave and said we should all be allowed to go skinny-dipping. They do have a point, because naturism is more natural than, dare I say it, gay marriage.

Many are beginning to ask where will it all end. The question is, really, how did it all start and why?

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is boasting on the campaign trail that he wants to make Malta the best in Europe. That would be a welcome idea, and he should start with fixing those roads and pull us out of the Third World instead of “backwater conservatism”, as Muscat calls Maltese society.

Not all European ‘values’ are good, and some of the liberal ones are disgusting, so why did our Prime Minister have to choose the worst

He said: “Europe is not a flag, or a map, but a belief in a set of values.” It is nice to see that he is finally prepared to embrace Western values he campaigned against so hard only a few years ago. But not all European ‘values’ are good, and some of the liberal ones are disgusting, so why did our Prime Minister have to choose the worst?

The answer is simple; that is what got him where he is today.

It is barely a decade since Malta joined the EU, and it feels like a lifetime. As the debate was still raging, there were three main issues of concern, the economic impact of membership, the political impact, especially with regard to foreign policy and sovereignty, and the social impact.

On the economic side, Malta has thrived well, opening up to and embracing the free market economy, creating new niche markets, and generally succeeding, but not enough to stop the PN from being kicked out of office so ingloriously.

On a political level, success has been relative to the size of the country, a reality that cannot be changed. The PN handled the situation well and it is Labour now that is creating waves by continuing to foment the isolationist ‘us and them’ idea. That was to be expected, they are the product of Dom Mintoff after all.

It appears that it was on a social level that the country has failed terribly. In 1993, during a visit to Malta, Pope (now saint) John Paul II had said that Europe needed Malta’s witness and that Malta could “contribute to the spiritual unity of the old continent by offering her treasured Christian faith and values”.

Malta did nothing of the sort, and the local Catholic Church hasn’t exactly been leading the charge either, as it has been reduced to a whimper.

The radical change in society in recent years cannot be attributed to EU membership alone, of course. Increased travelling, the foreign influx into Malta, the booming communications media and especially the social media have all contributed to laying out the fertile ground that Muscat exploited so wonderfully.

Muscat had won the election already way back when the divorce referendum went through. Former Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, who jumped so happily into bed with Labour on the introduction of divorce, epitomised exactly where Muscat found his new electoral base: the Maltese middle class that knew the horrors of Labour of old, but are now going through their midlife crisis.

There are many out there bragging about their newfound liberalism on the social media; some of them were, like me, actually in Pullicino Orlando’s class at school. People coming from failed marriages, people coming out to finally declare what everyone knew, that they were gay, people who for some reason think they have failed in life. They blamed the PN for their frustrations, because the PN had been there ‘forever’, and they embraced Labour willingly.

Muscat’s liberal distractions and confused statements like those by Dalli have one danger: they are holding us back from keeping our eye on the ball, and that’s Labour domestic policy. Labour in government is becoming more and more overbearing each day. The micro management of the country is a danger to true human rights. We witnessed this last week when a lawyer alleged an underhand deal by the government in a murder case currently in front of the courts.

Many voted for EU membership because they were afraid of a return of Labour with its atrocious human rights record. EU membership made Labour electable once again. Now that they are there, they have embraced the dark side of the European stars and not the true European values people once voted for.

The only antidote to this is a new politically-conservative policy that would push back the State, and for people my age to finally grow up.

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