However much the Prime Minister and his Cabinet try to move away from the defensive mode they have been forced into by public opinion in the last several months, they will not succeed. They are in the proverbial hole, and yet they keep digging!

What the country needs is an honest appraisal of the present management of the country before it decides whom to trust in the coming five years to lead our islands. The government attempts to do this by diverting attention from the sleaze which has taken over in most ministries, and which has earned the Gonzi administration unprecedented criticism even from his own ranks.

Another way of glossing over the real pain suffered by thousand of families is frequent announcements on how we are about to enter an era of unprecedented prosperity following the strengthening of our economy. Little, if any, attempt is made to analyse objectively how the economic criteria to enable us to join the euro club have been achieved. What is going to happen in the near future when the government runs out of assets it can sell to the private sector to balance its books?

Even more serious is the lack of detail on how new major infrastructure projects are going to be financed, or how our educational system is going to be reformed to give our young people a better chance of employability.

The pre-budget document is no more than a soothing balm to dull the pain of thousands of Maltese families who for the past several years have been on the receiving end of tight fiscal measures. After making Malta one of the most heavily taxed countries in the EU, with an un-corresponding level of public services, the government is now promising the goodies to make us forget the bleak outlook most are seeing for their families. But decent hard-working people are fed up of being taken for granted only to be appeased when decision time approaches.

We are all in favour of any easing of pressure on Maltese families, even if it comes so late in the day and is not accompanied by any sound strategy for long term prosperity. But we go further than this. A future Labour government understands that our families need a boost in the short term to help them out of their difficulties caused by the tax burden imposed by the Nationalist administration.

We plan to do this, among other things, by reducing the surcharge on water and electricity bills. But we will do more than this. Our country needs new ideas to set the real economy moving at a faster rate to create new job opportunities. Together with the stakeholders in the private sector we will lay the foundations of new investment, both in existing and new economic activities.

We will promote the setting up of a maritime services industry to rival that of other Mediterranean countries like Greece, Cyprus, and increasingly Turkey. The more diversified our services sector becomes, the more immune we will be to recessions in any particular single sector of our economy. But to do this we need to shake off the lethargy that characterises this administration, which has lost the sparkle that comes with the ability to renew oneself.

We are ridden with a moribund administration whose only interest is to survive. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet indulge in a collective denial of the realities that are troubling our families. They think that by not facing the problems of corruption, incompetence, and underperformance, these problems will go away and will not be noticed by people who have to finance the mistakes of their government.

A new Labour government will continue to inform families on the things that are going in the wrong direction under this administration. We will not do this to discourage people about the future, because we sincerely believe that this country will have a bright future, if we only pluck up the courage to change for the better.

We need to turn a new leaf in the life of our country that now has new opportunities and challenges that are different from what they were two decades ago when the Nationalist administration took power.

A tired government in a sad state of denial will not get us the success we deserve. That is why it is time for Labour to instil new life in the management of the country.

Dr Mangion is deputy leader of the Opposition

www.mangioncharles.com

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