The Nationalist Party group report on why the party lost the March 9 election contains no surprises. In fact, it might as well have not been commissioned at all, thereby sparing the defeated Nationalists leader further blushes. The reasons listed, irrespective of those left out, have been on everybody’s lips practically since the PN was elected in 2008, even before then.

Everything the Government had done or proposed has been criticised and opposed by the Nationalist group

Summarised in one word, the party had become too arrogant. The leadership had detached itself from its followers.

It had turned itself into an ivory tower, believing that whatever it said was right. Very clearly it detached itself from popular appeal by the day, almost by the hour.

Any open-minded Nationalist activist could have told the party that. Some did. And they included sound names, like that of Jean Pierre Farrugia.

For all his antics, Franco Debono too was right in his criticism of his party. He was written off by the grandees as a self-delusioned ambitious, young man, who wanted office too soon and above all, in his leader’s words, was not to be trusted.

The defeat report proves him right. It isn’t as frank as Debono and Farrugia were. Nor as frank as other Nationalists who spoke freely of the parlous state of their party on condition that they were to remain anonymous, such was the state of democracy in the crumbling Nationalist Party. But the report is clear enough.

It lists shortcomings by the party, including its negative campaign and grim silence while hate bloggers did its dirty work for it.

Albatrosses on the party’s back, like Austin Gatt, are referred to diplomatically, even as it were with lingering respect. But no doubt is left that albatrosses they were.

The main criticism, though, is for the party leadership. The half-hearted attempt to whitewash Lawrence Gonzi fails miserably.

An American President had won an election almost with one phrase – “It’s the economy, stupid”. That used to be Gonzi’s line and the defeat group grant him that. They are as wrong as he was.

For one thing, only parts of the economy performed well. For another, with the government’s economic initiatives, there were too few who benefitted. Overall common voters felt more of a pinch than a paunch. Stomachs rumbled while champagne glass clicked.

The report also offends the bulk of the Nationalist parliamentary group and candidates who nurtured electors day in day out.

There were only three dissidents within the group. The rest were silent with grim faithfulness, while they went about their duties. When one or two spoke out, like Robert Arrigo, they were right though nobody paid attention to them.

So, as a report of this nature goes, the murky water has already passed under the bridge. The why, the what and the how have been answered. What is left to be resolved is what the party will do.

For the past couple of weeks the party has been almost in a state of euphoria, celebrating the fact that they have a new team at the helm. The silly GonziPN brand has been replaced by TeamNazzjonalista.

Which is all to the good. But what will happen next? The doors, the new leaders say, are wide open to anybody who wants to walk in. There are five full years for the trek to run its course.

Many will walk in to repeat the old grievances – they were not accommodated by the Nationalist government. What do they expect?

Others who may feel they are being unfairly treated by the Labour administration will walk in and ask for protection. They will be an important group to listen to, though not everything they say will correspond with the facts.

Much will count on the performance of the parliamentary group. I opined early on that I expect Simon Busuttil to be even more negative than Lawrence Gonzi used to be in regard to Labour.

So far I have been proven more than right. I am not referring to the charge that Busuttil has used or will use his contacts in the European Parliament to try to embarrass the Labour government. That is to be expected. Oppositions are there to oppose. It was Gonzi who expected the Labour opposition to sing to his government’s music.

Politics does not work like that and Joseph Muscat will gain no mileage by harping on the theme. Negative is the fact that so far everything the Government had done or proposed has been criticised and opposed by the Nationalist group.

Busuttil is even blaming Labour for the excessive deficit run up by the Nationalist government in 2012, thereby insulting the professionals at the National Office of Statistics who drew up the details of revenue, expenditure and the resulting deficit on the basis of data given to them by the Treasury.

In that regard, the report of the defeat group wasted its breath. The official policy will continue to be one of effective negativity, no matter how camouflaged.

In so far as the report looks ahead, linking to why Labour won, it simply confirms that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The Labour strategy and tactics are not faulted. By clear implication, the Nationalists are invited to follow the same blueprint in the coming five years.

Euphoria will pass. Day after day new issues will arise. The biggest value of the defeat group report is to the Labour Party in the first part, which deals with why the Nationalists lost. Labour strategists should read it carefully and say with due humility that there, but for the grace of God, go we. The issue for Labour is not just making sure that it implements its electoral programme. It has to do that by redeeming its promises one by one.

The issue will be the efficiency, commitment and humility with which it governs, and its readiness to acknowledge and correct mistakes, as they inevitably arise.

Only thereby can it achieve higher growth and have the resources both to rebalance the public sector and government contracts so that Malta truly belongs to all of us, and to achieve and be seen to achieve fairness and justice for all. In short, the opposite of what the Nationalist government did, as confirmed by the defeat group.