The local council elections to be held on 12 March are one of the most popular subjects at the moment. Local councils were introduced and brought to life by the Nationalist Party, while the Malta Labour Party initially opposed their introduction.

Today, and after a large u-turn, the same MLP officials are now saying that only Labour makes the difference, and only Labour-led councils are successful ones. It took some years to convince Labour that our Nationalist policies and visions are the right ones – years that sometimes cost Malta and its citizens dear. The introduction of local councils was just one of them.

Local councils are now 11 years old and, like many other innovative things that the PN in government has done, have become second nature to us, taken for granted as if they have existed for a hundred years, integrated into our lifestyle, and used as a platform for consultations, dissent and, at times, even protest-voting. They are, however, very useful to their locality. A point of reference to many residents, they have taken on a social role – for example, the day centres for the elderly or lonely.

They are and must always remain a focal point for the resident. The resident always has to feel safeguarded. My own mayorship was based on this.

The ultimate voting pattern serves to gauge the pulse of the people in different areas, encompassing different local issues. There are issues that are huge items for the people of the place and are part of their life. There are indications and messages in these voting patterns for all to see, although most of the time party views are diametrically opposite. Have we thought of what it would be like if these councils did not exist or ceased to exist? What if the PN was not in power to do these things? Would we have to go back to the days of asking the local MP or the minister for the street-light bulb to be changed, for the street-sweeper to clean the street?

An interesting point of note is the one made with regard to the Marsa and Zejtun elections. Did you know that in the past few years voting has not taken place in no fewer than 12 local elections?

There are so many small items in one’s life that only the PN implemented. One does, however, need to be reminded – and we must tell our youngsters, lest we forget the horrific times of old, under Labour in the 1970s and early 1980s. Remember the toothpaste, the chocolates, the televisions? Frankly speaking, I sometimes see it remerge under the sheepskin of this new Labour.

A New Labour that has wholeheartedly supported the General Workers in their crusade, once again, against the government, denying agreement on the much-needed social pact, that took six months of discussions. The same Labour, whose propositions, so far, to increase the competitive edge of Malta’s industry are to devaluate the Maltese lira and to wipe out the bonus system accorded to everyone. This has apparently surfaced from the internal propositions of the Labour camp. This time this document had a signature, unlike the previous document on proposals that remained unsigned. Another lesson learnt, I suppose.

We carried out a whole marketing exercise on the reduction of vacation leave days, a proposition that does not take your money, as the cancelling of cash bonuses would, but just makes you more productive. When the General Workers Union sees that there is work in our dockyards, that ships are being lured in, notwithstanding fierce competition from other yards near us, then it starts to order industrial action, damaging the very concept of work, and the right to work for its members.

This was an action that goes against the very protests which tend to increase lately – rain-permitting – in frequency, but hardly in the number of participants. Workers should warn the GWU that if they want to work, then they should ask their own union which, after all, gets their fees, to stop these actions and concentrate on safeguarding their jobs.

It is shameful to stop work or work to rule in the yards, after we, the Maltese people, have had to bail out these same yards, to the tune of many millions of liri. My Spartan calculation on losses announced by the yard conclude the following. The yard’s net loss was around Lm4,500 per employee. All 400,000 of us living here contributed Lm22 on average to this loss. Imagine when the losses were double or triple. These were translated, unfortunately, into some form of taxation, and again they abused their moral right. Why should we continue to bail them out, pay from our taxes, and still get workers who, at the time when they have work, cripple this industry?

Don’t they know that ship owners monitor us closely? Don’t they realise that investors see through them? And this new Labour – what kind of alternatives does it hold for work and investment, if it consistently continues to bite the hand that feeds us all? Let us not be fooled into thinking that a change of government will bring us paradise. It will drive us all downhill, fast, in no uncertain manner.

In the month dedicated to carnival, we had more organised street protests by the tandem GWU/MLP. They probably did more damage, with these protests, to the very workers who were there. The people who seem to be interviewed in the market walkabouts, and in these protests, are the same ones who at least once a week go to the coffee mornings organised by the same party.

Money is available for the coffee morning outings but they grumble that their money does not last.

Any serious person would realise the comic-tragic circumstances of these actions. Labour’s actions hit the middle classes hard, and negatively affect their lifestyle.

You would rightly ask: but if things are going to change, will they get better? Yes, of course they will. Gone are the days of one-year planning. Today, government plans for five years with goals to be achieved, results that must be produced, reforms in mind and progress for all to be achieved. Just see the amount of money coming in, over a span of years, into our road infrastructure. Had it been up to the no vote in the EU referendum, then we would have kissed goodbye to all this and more.

Ultimately each component will be put into the basket for a better standard of living for all of us.

Sticking to the PN is your best investment, and a vote in the forthcoming local council elections would clarify such a statement.

Robert Arrigo is a Nationalist MP