The country shook with laughter when one of Minister Joe Mizzi's underlings said that our traffic problems were just a perception. The sardonic "I've been stuck in a Joe Mizzi perception for an hour now" made the rounds, it being better to make a lousy joke than to bang your head against the wall. 

We're becoming a bit like the poor sods who used to live in communist democracies (as oxymoronic as Mizzi's traffic perceptions, that phrase) making jokes about the powers that hold sway over us, just to make life bearable.

Shaking is also the order of the day when driving along the highways and byways of this fair land, the roads having to take on the aspect of tank-proving grounds, except where Local Council elections are to be held. Here roadworks are proceeding as if someone was doing the work for free, presumably in an effort to make sure that Premier Joseph Muscat doesn't lose the upcoming polls.

Of course, given that the majority of councils are Labour dominated anyway, the chances of Labour losing the elections are as remote as anyone actually giving a moment's credence to Premier Muscat's witty sally that Labour are the underdogs. About as believable, that, as Giovanni Kessler's chracterisation of Mr Silvio Zammit as having traded in influence.... no, wait... anyway, leave that aside, lest John Dalli issues yet another press release.

Language, especially (but not only) when traffic is involved, seems to have lost its meaning under Labour.

For instance, we've now been told by Premier Muscat (or someone on his behalf, but he's the Man, so we blame him) that the pre-electoral promise of a bridge over the Mriehel Bypass, a road across which I've seen virtually no-one ever cross and I use it every day, might be delivered by means of a public/private partnership.

Forgive me, but aren't PPPs meant to be enterprises wherein an operator in the private sector contributes some resources and then takes his return in the form of operational revenue? And no, Cafe' Premier doesn't qualify.

How will a pedestrian bridge render revenue to the entrepreneur who gets involved? Are the couple of pedestrians a day, if that, going to pay a toll? Or is the form of words just a pre-emptive excuse for Premier Muscat to be able to tell us that there was no interest by the private sector and therefore the bridge can't be built after all?

Getting someone to build a bridge for you, Premier Muscat, is not a PPPs, it's simple tender proces.

Likewise, we've been told that there's no intention to set up toll-roads but in the future, the private sector will be involved in road maintenance. I've got news for you, Premier Muscat, the private sector is already involved in road maintenance, who do you think carries it out today, against a fee from our taxes?

Or is it that you can't see out of the windows of your rented-to-yourself Alfa?