This Englishman, now in his 80s, spent many years of his childhood and RAF service in Malta and was bitterly disappointed at the failure of Integration. But half a century on he wonders if Integration was indeed feasible and if it would have been in the ultimate interest of Malta. Would the union have survived?

That it would have been in Britain's interest I have no doubt, and at the risk of over-simplifying I would say that the UK was agreeable providing that the Maltese response was clearly  affirmative. But Malta was ambivalent and the project simply fizzled out.

Personally politically pinkish, I was surprised to read of a far-right Maltese demagogue (with an English-sounding name) saying how Malta had missed an excellent opportunity to better itself.

Thomas Carlyle opined that history was but the biography of famous men, and Charles J. Buttigieg (January 2) cited many names, both Maltese and British, who took part in that fiasco.

It is my humble opinion that the PN simply squashed an MLP proposal just as the latter negated the PN's decision to join the EU. No more, no less - as is always the way in Malta.

Napoleon's definition of history was that it is fable believed, and the Maltese islands are indeed fabled.