The Sunday Times' excellent interview with Dominic Fenech showed that he has lost none of his incisive, intelligent thinking.
His advice - that the Labour Party must not lose its soul - will go down well with those Labour supporters who form part of the party's traditional base.
On the other hand, a political party can best achieve its aims if it gains power. It cannot implement laws in opposition. Labour, under Dom Mintoff, could only implement its social revolution because it was in power for 16 years. Granted, even in opposition, Dom Mintoff often forced the Nationalist Party and the British government to change course.
What strikes me, as a person who has been in the political scene for 40 years, is that, while under the Mintoff government, the PN had to adapt and move to the centre to win over Labour supporters, today's Labour seems to react to electoral defeats by shifting to the centre to attract disgruntled PN voters.
I do not think Labour leader Joseph Muscat is selling the party's soul. Labour has been in opposition for virtually 22 years. That the party's new leadership is adapting itself to new times may, on occasion, confuse Labourites like me who come from the old stock of democratic socialism.
Nevertheless, Dr Muscat's strategy seems to be working. He is not only attracting new blood to the party but bringing back those who seemed bewildered by the misunderstood coldness of Alfred Sant.
Make no mistake. Today's PN is an excellent, well-oiled machine that will be a formidable opponent in the coming elections. As the opposition, we must not act like a toothless old lion, making loud noises without showing we are a credible alternative.
Labour between the 1950s and 1970s not only achieved a social, political and economic revolution, it also brought about a revolution in the way people thought. In 1962, when Malta was seen to be living in the Middle Ages, under a conservative Church, Labour committed itself to introduce the right to civil marriage, the right to refuse religion lessons in schools, and the right to a decent burial.
It also resolved that the police should have the right to enter a church to stop the ringing of bells or any other actions that disrupt public meetings; that public morality in Malta should to be based on Western values; and that every Maltese citizen should have the right to vote without fear of the imposition of mortal sin.
For those days, these were revolutionary ideas that excited and brought progressive people into Labour's fold.
If the Labour Party wants to win the next election, it must not be afraid of coalitions and compromise. But it must be against dangerous, unprincipled compromise.
Lawrence Gonzi is a decent man. I have the greatest respect for him as a person. He deserves credit for speaking as he did on immigration and on the issues of single mothers and underprivileged people in his reply to Dr Muscat's brilliant speech on the Budget.
However, he is surrounded by right-wingers who want to dismantle the welfare state and are determined to destroy what Labour achieved when it was in government. That is why Labour must regain power soon.