If you are planning to spend next month in Gozo, please accept this as a friendly, well-intentioned, warning: the island is already full. It has, in fact, been full for most of the year. There are limits (not officially, of course, although there should be) and these have been exceeded.

(I am old enough to remember when only agricultural vehicles were allowed on Comino. I thought it was a law. If it was, it probably still is.)

Happily I have a solution. And that is to keep the current prices for Gozitans and hire cars, but to double the price for all other private vehicles on the ferries. Gozo Channel is a Gozitan company, it can do that. If the Maltese (I use that term here as a distinction) want to ‘cheat’, as they surely will, they can hire a car for a month. Or two, or three cars, because nowadays every member of the family brings his own transport. And that is proof, if any were needed, that the car pricing is too low.

Incidentally, there should also be some sensible check about the number of Maltese pretending to be Gozitan only to get a subsidised rate on the ferry. Like: on which island is their phone, their computer, their TV, their income tax, their postal address. It is not as if the government is short of bureaucrats and nit-pickers.​

If nothing else, my suggestion should reduce the time wasted by genuine Gozitans queuing for the ferries. And the mad rush of Maltese for the 6 o’clock on Sunday (and now on Monday) from Mġarr which means some people crossing around 9pm.

Compared to Malta, Gozo has an efficient bus service. It could be twice as good if it ran twice as many coaches, half the size, but twice as often. But it is already far, far better than Malta’s.

If the Maltese seriously believe that Gozo cannot survive without them, well, it surely can during the high season. And if the Maltese believe that they support Gozo during the winter months (which they don’t, because they are scared of crossing the Channel when it’s windy) okay, the ferry price can be lowered when the winter timetable is in force. But if they want to assist this island’s economy in winter, of course they will be made welcome, as always.

And that happy band that always claims that, anyway, Sicily is cheaper and better than Gozo, can put their money where their mouth is.

Easy, is it not? So let’s get on with it. Because most of the driving in Gozo right now is by people looking for somewhere to park.