From Mr J. Azzopardi

Over the past years I have been considering how slowly, slowly the Nationalist Party is turning the Labour Party into a clone of itself.

First we had the EU, despite the strenuous battle fought by Labour against it. No sooner had the people voted the PN into government that MLP forgot all it had said against joining the EU and decided that it is now in favour of the EU.

Then we had the European Constitution. Predictably, the PN immediately plumped for it but Labour held back. But when it seemed the whole issue would be taken out of our hands with a possible French “Non” and a probable Dutch “Niet”, the Labour leadership first refused to even appear on the same television programme as Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, as though he has the plague. Then, while saying the party conference will still have its say, the party’s MPs decided to support the Constitution.

The cherry on the cake will now be if the Labour Party decides to do what it has been asked to do by Tonio Borg, Deputy Prime Minister, ie. sign in favour of the law banning abortion being written into the Constitution. While this may make the PN more Catholic than the Pope, it will inevitably contribute to portray MLP in the eyes of its supporters as becoming more Catholic than the Pope too and therefore a clone of the PN.

John Azzopardi

GZIRA