This country is in a sorry state. On the one hand, you have the Nationalist Party frantically fighting to reclaim its lost voters and, on the other, you have the Labour Party attacking everything under the sun, provided it is connected with the government.
An election is all about credibility...- Austin Sammut
Meanwhile, we continue to see the polls registering strongly in Labour’s favour, albeit with a consistently reduced majority and an increase in non-committed voters.
There is no sign of an early election, although we are all holding our breath as the crucial Budget vote looms. The government has avoided votes (or rather divisions) in Parliament, no doubt fearing the worst. But this cannot go on indefinitely.
Franco Debono goes on with his criticism, although this has become less frequent since the famous vote of no confidence. Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando continues to express his disapproval of certain government decisions and policies.
It is all well and good for the PN to launch its “kitchen visits” campaign, but, one, why was this launched now and it was not an ongoing exercise throughout the years? (Politicians, or most of them, never seem to realise that they are elected to serve the people and they will only retain their seats at the people’s pleasure.) Did the PN have to wait for an internal revolt to egg it on?
And, two, is it not too late? Who knows!
Until a short time before the 2008 election, the polls favoured Labour but the PN crawled back and tipped the scales, though by a whisker. Unfortunately, it would seem, at least at this point in time, that the gap will not be closed sufficiently given the way things are being managed at party level.
I believe there might (and I stress “might”) be hope should the party leadership involve more of its lost sheep to carry out the so-called “kitchen visits”, as happened in 2008. It worked then.
And here is where I would tend to agree with Dr Debono regarding the famous clique. With due respect, I did not need to wait for Dr Debono to come out with it. I wrote as such years ago. But, then, having said all this, “hope beats eternal in the human breast”, or words to that effect.
The PL, on its part, imparts doom and gloom with its every word. There are justified statements, of course. But most is without substance.
Take just two cases: water and electricity bills and Mater Dei Hospital.
Labour leader Joseph Muscat persists in promising reduction in water and electricity tariffs without giving any plausible solution. Accordingly, he has no credibility.
True, the bills are hefty. I have just received an astronomical one. A Labour government promises further subsidies (and I say “further” because, in effect, a subsidy is already in place) on water and electricity consumption. Where will the subsidy come from? Obviously, from our pockets as taxpayers. So that leaves us basically in the same position.
The government has shouldered the political responsibility for the sharp increase in the price of fuel (including gas and petrol), which increase is certainly not attributable to it. Labour will shirk that responsibility.
Dr Muscat and Marie Louise Coleiro Preca (particularly the latter) have embarked on a crusade against Mater Dei, which former Labour leader Alfred Sant had described as “state of the art”.
We started off with the issue of beds in corridors in the Emergency Department. True enough, but the care and attention is certainly not lacking. I have experienced it first-hand.
If one were to find fault with the new hospital it is that it is perhaps too small. Had it been larger Labour would have howled about increasingly excessive costs. One never wins with these people.
But what takes the cake is the pillow affair. We have been told that there is a lack of pillows and that all sorts of materials are being used to prop up patients only to discover that there are stores full of pillows. Now how’s that for further credibility?
Labour has also been very busy recruiting progressives and moderates as electoral candidates, some crossing over from the Nationalist camp. Unfortunately, most of the latter are just disgruntled, having expected some favour or post as of right from the government and not getting it. That does not say much for them.
But the star of all these new candidates, who did not cross over from anywhere because she was not here, was the trump card, no other than the House of Commons’ dung thrower, Yana Mintoff Bland. Dr Muscat got her to his conference, got her to speak reasonably well in Maltese and got her to stand as one of his candidates.
But I would warn Labour that just as much as Dr Mintoff Bland could be a trump card she could be a loser given that her father was loved, yes, but also loathed by many in the socialist fold. And for her to state that she does not know the facts about her father’s breach of human rights in the 1970s and 1980s bestows the lowest form of credibility on her and her party.
An election is all about credibility at the end of the day. And track record, of course! The PN does not have a perfect track record, of course, but a strongly credible one.