The year 2007 has started off with the Labour Party stirring up a controversy over the reliability or otherwise of national statistics - a subject that is hardly likely to enthuse grassroots supporters unless the matter is translated to the masses in crude terms.

Back to work after the festive season, rounded off with Notte Magica in Valletta, most would still be bleary eyed, as it were, to care much about gross domestic product figures or, for that matter, other subjects that would appear to be a bit heavy for the start of the year.

Yet, the matter is far too important to be dismissed lightly, now or at any other time of the year. Of course, Labour would now need to substantiate its claims as otherwise it would be its own credibility that will be at stake.

And Labour does not have much credibility left to be careless about losing any that it may still hold up to now, at least not at a time when they are steadily gearing up for the next general election.

However, even while they are lambasting the National Statistics Office, and particularly its head, over the revision of certain figures, the Labour leader himself appears to be jumping the gun as he is already accusing the NSO of tampering with figures before the report the party has commissioned is published. Shooting from the hip, as the Labour member of the European Parliament, Joseph Muscat, has also done, is most unwise, unless, of course, both Dr Sant and Mr Muscat already know what is in the report that has yet to be drawn up!

The NSO has already explained that the revision had to be made due to a new system of data collection and the Parliamentary Secretary at the Finance Ministry, Tonio Fenech, has lost no time in rubbishing Labour's claims.

Mr Fenech's view is that Dr Sant's claims were simply an attempt to undermine the credibility of the NSO, something that has been done before by politicians. Much now rests on the credibility of the authors of the report commissioned by the MLP.

Meanwhile, as the first days of the year go by, and as some of the expectations either fall completely flat or start to wear off, life in the country is this year expected to be somewhat livelier as the political parties step up their electoral campaigns. Parliament is meeting again, but as political expectations among the candidates build up, there will be fewer members in the House as house visits will take precedence over attendance.

There will be more, not fewer, political controversies, and the political environment will become keener as the parties fight for the support they believe they merit.

Hopefully, their campaigns will not unduly disturb the work that has to be done for Malta to keep on the right track as this will not be in the interest of either the party which gets elected or the country as a whole.

As it is, there is much that has yet to be put right. True, the Nationalists have been in government for a long time now.

Mistakes have been made and weaknesses and shortcomings at times slowed down progress, but it looks as if the economy is picking up again. Is it time for a change of government? Have Labour shown consistency in their policies? Have they given enough evidence that they can do better than the Nationalists? It will be up to the electorate to decide, but Labour's record so far does not inspire much confidence.