Whingeing about the building industry, property developers and the accelerating chasm that exists between the affluent and the poor achieves little, if anything.

According to The Economist, France is the only developed country where the gap between rich and poor has not increased since the financial crash of 2008. If Malta copied France’s wealth taxes they would dampen somewhat our building frenzy and empty buildings would not be left vacant for long.

Furthermore, a welfare state worthy of that nomenclature would be expected to provide adequate affordable social housing, remove the waiting list for accommodation at government homes for the elderly and pay out adequate pensions.

French civil servants retire on 75 per cent of best pay after 40 years’ service. In contrast, the Maltese state (of ‘top of the European class’ fame) has been defrauding service pensioners (including thousands of former civil servants) of their contributory social security pension for over 30 years, aided in this ‘conspiracy’ by our Court of Appeal’s judgment (I refer to the Police Pensioners’ Association’s case).