I, like many of my fellow Maltese and Gozitans, do not always follow all the Budget debate. But this year I was impressed by a different kind of opposition. Joseph Muscat skilfully and calmly listed all the promises from the last Budget the government has not even started. It seems staggering that as many as almost half of all Budget 2009 promises are still on the shelf.

More than that, when Dr Muscat rounded off his speech, he gave us all a sense of hope, a sense of vision and a sense that this man will lead this country out of this awful mediocrity that is the current GonziPN.