Any political leader can dream and then make any kind of electoral promises hoping that such promises may result in attracting votes to his party. When the electoral pledges, when costed, run into hundreds of millions of euros, for such promises to be kept will depend on one thing: the economy.

If the party promising such costly pledges is unable to steer the economy in the right way to enable it to grow at a good enough rate which can sustain the electoral pledges made, then those promises made in the heat of an electoral campaign will remain paper promises. We have seen this happen under previous PN administrations.

The PN is renowned for making such promises. In 1971 the PN had pledged to abolish income tax, but still lost the election because the majority of voters had not believed them. In 1976 they had promised to give Lm2.50 per week to housewives. Again they were not believed. In 2008, GonziPN had promised to cut the income tax rate from 35 per cent to 25 per cent in the first year. They only included that promise in the last budget of the legislature when they knew that their time in government was over 100.

Simon Busuttil is trying to play the same card when promising to cut the tax rate for SMEs by 10 per cent. He said that this pledge would cost the country €85 million. It now results that there will only be a tax credit. As for the “retailers” (and not all the self-employed as had been said by some) they would have to satisfy very stringent conditions. To be taken seriously, the leader of the Opposition has to convince the majority of Maltese and Gozitan voters, that he and his motley crew can manage the economy at least as good as the present government is doing. What we have all seen up to now from the Opposition indicates the opposite.