With due respect to correspondent Tony Zammit Cutajar, his Talking Point (September 4) refers to an old chestnut and not to a "new pastime". He took his cue from a press report saying that over 31,000 vehicles - or 11 per cent of all licensed vehicles in these islands - are "being driven on our roads without a valid road licence".

He laments that the country is plagued by inefficiencies "for which we all have to pay". For good measure, he pressed home the point by saying that we seem to have these inefficiencies at Enemelta, the Water Services Corporation and the VAT Department.

The resulting loss of state revenue amounts to a mockery of our supposedly civilised society.

All of this highlights the lack of enforcement of existing laws and regulations, and reinforces the complaint of law-abiding citizens who are coming round to lament that it doesn't pay to be honest.

This situation has not developed overnight. It is the result of weak government, which has wallowed in inertia for long years, and which has witnessed manifestations of corruption under its very nose, notwithstanding its declared intention to eliminate it "root and branch".

I personally raised this issue in Parliament years ago and questioned why lack of enforcement was allowed to fester in sensitive departments and public entities, and why the Courts were not strict in dealing with recidivist criminals.

Some more lone voices have since spoken in the same vein. Ours was like a voice in the wilderness.

In the same issue of The Times there was a report about a Sicilian who was jailed for 14 months for stealing €2,300 from a hotel room. According to the report, this person is a drug addict who had been offered by the courts "five opportunities to reform through four probation orders and a suspended sentence, all of which he ignored".

For long years, the government and its quangos as well as the courts have been performing in tandem. Without businesslike enforcement of the law, things can only get progressively worse.

That's why a new beginning is of the essence.