Labour is apparently feeling increasingly uncomfortable by the flak the Government is getting so soon after its landslide win on March 9.

All governments, new and old, are bound to stumble into pitfalls or make gaffes now and then and Joseph Muscat’s government is no exception. Like individuals, most political parties learn from their mistakes. Those that fail to do so are bound to pay a heavy price.

Generally speaking, politicians do not take kindly to criticism and the moment a situation becomes too hot to handle, they start firing at their obvious target: the media.

Some Labour-leaning commentators and analysts are already feeling the heat of the searing criticism levelled at the Government by the independent media. In such circumstances, it is not unusual for the independent media to be accused of spinning and of being unfair. Columnists seen, or even perceived, as toeing party lines end up being prime targets too.

The first clear signs of Labour uneasiness was the unmindful attack that Dr Muscat made recently in Parliament on former Finance Minister Tonio Fenech. The former minister was accused of undermining the country and of having resorted to incitement at a meeting he had with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund.

Dr Muscat was censured by the Speaker for the words used and that story ended there.

As the Government faces the glaring heat of the spotlight, the first indications suggest it is finding it a little difficult to get used to it.

So long as criticism on both sides of a political divide remains well grounded, it is all to the good. It is when it oversteps such boundary that it can become unwelcome. It has not done so up to now, except in the case of the inappropriate words used by Dr Muscat in Parliament against Mr Fenech.

One irony is that this coincides with the apparent pledge made a few days ago by the leaders of the two main political parties to encourage their respective media to do all they can to tone down their excessive political partisanship.

It does not look as if such effort has begun or, if it has, it is hardly noticeable. The party media were waywardly partisan before the election and they still are. And if the public broadcasting set-up was too sympathetic to the Nationalist Party before the election, which it was, it often looks as if it has again been turned into a ministers’ diary of events.

However well-meaning Dr Muscat might have been when he used to declare before the election that his party in government would do things differently if elected, the people are now getting a different impression.

Labour apologists would say the PL in government is living up to its promises in that, unlike the Nationalists, it has not packed all the available posts with its own people.

This may be so but what has gone sharply against the grain is the appointment of certain people to key posts, such as, for instance, Mario Cutajar as head of the public service, Franco Debono as coordinator of the constitutional convention, and John Bencini as president of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development.

In the eyes of many, these and other appointments, were seen as having been made purely out of spite.

It is the Government, not the independent media, that has given cause for the general disappointment expressed over such appointments.