Lost in their interminable and so stultifying battle for every last vote, the parties in Malta, at least the two main ones, are becoming more and more like mirror images of each other, offering much the same solutions, both eager for one thing only: power, one to get it, the other not to lose it.

One would think that with so many issues at stake and in play, there is ample space for the two parties to differentiate, rather to enhance their difference, to come up with something new, to propose changes.

Instead, and so predictably, they have chosen to dig a hole right in the middle of our society and to spend their time and ours fighting for this one hole, thus making our national politics resemble a muddy pig trough where the mud and the huddle makes everything indistinguishable and interchangeable.

The only remaining difference is the clash of personalities; this group versus that group, which is only making things far worse, for, shorn of a programme that differentiates, it is a straight fight for the one and only prize that awaits us. This will be a race, an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation, blue versus red, a village festa feud writ large, so large.

It could have been otherwise, should have been otherwise. There are so many concerns that are simply not being recorded, not being faced, simply avoided.

On the one hand the government seems totally, completely, insensible to the real needs of the people. For the simple truth is that, for all the government’s emphasis on macroeconomic figures, the entry to the eurozone, the big deficit figures, the truth is the improvements in the national economy have not filtered down to the levels not just of the Ds and the C2s but even the upper middle class.

People are battered down by bank loans, the rising prices of property, the electricity surcharge, and the rising prices of just about everything. If Prime Minister Gonzi has any sense, he should come back from his holiday and hold an election in autumn before the current wave of inflation becomes a deluge with euro-accession and with the inflationary prices of wheat, oil and cereals in the near future.

No party, other than spouting shibboleths and panaceas, has come up with a clear strategy so far to help the population cope with this inflationary spiral. There have been very sporadic voices raised to point out that the COLA increases have kept the minimum wage and those linked to it under the rise in inflation, not even from the unions, who seem interested only in their internal squabbles.

Nor has this government given anything to help the poor and the not so poor cope. The only thing this government has given for free is the Park and Ride, which, even when crammed and one trips over people’s bags and legs, is a boon but a small one at that.

At the same time, at the other end of the scale, there is widespread social benefit fraud, which goes on at every level, whether at social assistance level, unemployment benefit level, medical help, being boarded out and what have you. The whole country, barring the few innocents, if they’re still around and the even fewer people of principle, is on the take and not only this government seems unable to tackle the rot, but a Labour government will actually be worse for then it will be “their people” and “their government”.

Equally, there is simply no pride left in the country, no one seems to be responsible to see that a job is done and done well: roads are still being built and dug up again, and once rebuilt, they are then neglected and road markings fade and are not repainted. And, for all the protests that have been made, the wardens are still a largely punitive force rather than an educational one, out to get those who so much as step over one inch of barely distinguishable road markings.

There is neglect all over the place, beginning at City Gate and ending anywhere you want. There could be a constituency waiting out there for a no nonsense government that brings law and order back, and which brings back some pride to a downtrodden country and people.

And then there are two hot issues the two main parties shamefully shy away from: the illegal immigration issue and the marriage issue. On the illegal immigration issue the government is weak, too weak, and this goes against its very DNA as a nationalist party. Labour makes stronger noises but it too is afraid of doing a Mintoff 1976 at Helsinki once again with its anti-EU precedents.

As regards the marriage issue, the two parties are simply stuck in the middle, refusing to admit there is a problem, afraid of antagonising the church and the church-goers, hence treading down on people already downtrodden by life and seeking help.

In the end, it could well be the election outcome is decided not by those who go and vote but by those who simply refuse to be bothered or by those who, now they are European citizens and can go anywhere, will vote with their feet.