In her article in The Times of April 4, Patricia Graham addresses an issue that has been bothering me and some of my friends for quite some time. It concerns a more or less systematic trend within Maltese society that became apparent in the first part of the previous decade. This trend, that must have been stimulated or at least condoned by the previous government, can be summarised as “making life difficult for foreigners”.

Two aspects of this development are: (1) pushing back the use of English for communication between the Administration and non-Maltese speaking citizens and (2) introducing measures that no sensible Maltese politician would dare to impose on Maltese citizens.

Since we became permanent residents in 1990 we have seen a steady decline in the use of English on local council level. The written communication in English around the opening of the new Mater Dei Hospital was very poor and even three weeks ago no English version of the appointment sheets was available from the central reception.

Court summons distributed by the police are only in Maltese. The introduction of new traffic signs exclusively in Maltese is another case in point. The PN showed its true colours by not taking the trouble of publishing an English version of its election programme, in contrast to Labour.

The ill-fated new residence scheme for high net worth individuals was a clear showcase of how far the previous Administration was willing to prostitute itself, while at the same time alienating its permanent residents through additional bureaucratic and discriminatory demands. The two-tier tariff systems and the new e-card residence scheme appear to have their origin too in the same climate created by the previous Administration.

I join Ms Graham in inviting the new Labour government to bring about a fundamental change. Maybe installing a small interdepartmental working group with a Non-Maltese Residents Sounding Board might be a good idea.