If we pretended - even for a mad moment - that politicians (generally, collectively, or individually) kept their promises, then, yes, one day we will get a channel tunnel, whether Gozo wants one or not.

They have promised one, so it will happen. We believe them... don’t we?

But a tunnel is long and dark and deep, and they have other promises to keep. After all, a tunnel is hardly a priority and there are still matters that need to be explored and examined.

In any case, it will take a long time to build, given that the terminal at Mġarr took nine years - and that’s above ground. The one at Ċirkewwa took 15, and still looks unfinished.

So, while they shuffle their feet of (blue) clay and ponder about the tunnelling effects on the environment and the rest, might I remind them of a few other projects that the people of Gozo think they have been promised?

Let’s start with the fast ferry, which for reasons unknown, is “tied up in the courts” - when it should be tied up in Grand Harbour or Sliema and ready to make a speedy journey to Mġarr. Or the fourth, ordinary, all-weather ship that would simply enable a more frequent service.

While we’re at Mġarr, what about the extended marina for maybe 500 boats, and a cruise liner terminal? And the piazza beside the pumping station which they instead allowed to become a long-term parking space for big old boats. What about that secondary access to the port, possibly around the back of Chambray?

Then completion of the coast road (considered to be “not a priority”) linking Qala with Għajnsielem.

It has just been promises, promises...

Or the only road from Nadur to the port that needs huge rocks, instead of sand and clay, to stop it falling down the hillside. It does not need international experts to tell them that.

All those political proposals are, when you think about it, channel-related.

Have they been put on the back burner, pending decisions about a tunnel?

(Oh, may they not be needed, once the tunnel is operating!)

Or are they simply promises not kept?

Then there is the Marsalforn breakwater for which, in a nation nowadays almost totally occupied by construction workers, the government apparently can’t find any builders to create it. Inland, there is a problem with our capital (and only) city which is usually either clogged with traffic or close to it. We were promised a ring road, decades ago, and work even started - just before election day. And stopped, just after it.

For years, politicians have been promising to direct more industry (more jobs, of any kind) for Gozo. Perhaps some kindly reader could remind me of one that has come, as a result. If the island had a viable internet link - another promise - Gozo might be able to attract something, if only online gaming businesses.

Talking of which, there was going to be an internet link with the University so that students could join in lectures on-line, without having to make their daily trek to Malta.

In fairness, I should say that the government has made no promises to improve the Gozo General Hospital to a level where daily channel crossing to the already overworked Mater Dei might then become unnecessary.

But, otherwise, it has been just promises, promises...

And Gozitans wait patiently, very patiently, and usually quietly, for the politicians’ promises to be kept.

As I wrote recently on this website: If patience is a virtue, Gozitans must be saints.

Revel Barker is a semi-retired English newspaperman and long-time resident of Gozo. 

This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece

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