Politicians in Malta could do better if occasionally reminded of Christ’s parable on how best to behave as a wedding guest.

On realising that the government inherited a budget deficit for 2012 equivalent to 3.3 per cent of GDP, that is, 43 per cent higher than the 2.3 per cent forecast by its predecessor, the European Commission swiftly allowed us two years, not one, to bring it down to the three per cent ceiling. It wouldn’t, or couldn’t, however spare us the excessive deficit procedure, the third in less than a decade.

Instead of heeding Christ’s clear message, we trumpeted our determination to achieve it in just one year, not two.  Courageous, but possibly a little impudent, the Prime Minister harps on 2.7 per cent by end 2013, defying the IMF’s insistence on its unattainability. Wisely, the Finance Minister, a prominent economist in his own right, prefers to stick to three per cent.

Wouldn’t it have been safer to aim, say, at 3.2 per cent for 2013, three per cent for 2014 and 2.7 per cent for 2015?  Everyone would have been satisfied, including the Opposition, which doubts whether the Government would still be able to create sufficient jobs in the process of securing economic growth and whose leader had previously predicted that the Labour Party in government would drive us to a bail-out predicament similar to that of Cyprus.

More kudos for the Government if it eventually manages better than its commitments. Pity that politicians appear to thrive more on public perception than on reality.