The popular following that Labour is currently enjoying is a clear indication of the hard work we have carried out in order to arrive at this point, where people are eager to contribute to their own future and in the same process, recognising and understanding what needs to be done. One and all are now identifying the need of cooperative politics, in order to show both what is needed and the way to get it done.

The Maltese are clearly fed up of the Nationalist way of doing politics; the politics by the few, for the relatively few. Whatever wealth and prosperity this administration might have generated was clearly not intended for general consumption and is not being enjoyed by the Maltese people in general. That our economy is on the decline is known by one and all; a situation our statistics’ mechanism is calling anything but a recession. On the other hand, inflation on essential commodities is high, albeit it is cleverly margined out by other statistics that have no significant effect in real life.

The support that we are popularly gathering knows its origins to the fact that we have been a party close to the people; those same people who are becoming ever more aware of this government’s inability to create prosperity in order to maintain an acceptable standard of living. On the contrary, despite the government’s propaganda, economic activity is on the decline, this being in turn insufficient to support the standard of living we have been accustomed to. The recent IMF report is here a case in point. It shows clearly that our economy is if anything “recuperating”, meaning that it was not well, and that it is neither as yet well, but on the way towards getting well (hopefully).

Even the Prime Minister made it clear some time ago that one of his administration’s aims was not only to increase economic activity, but that there was also the need to improve the quality of work, clearly admitting that what is presently created is of a low quality.

People are also fed up of the ever-rising instances of conflicts of interest, such as the recent case involving the chairman of the Water Services Corporation. All of us are aware now and feel let down by the abuses, taxation and incompetence, that this ailing administration is continuously dishing out.

The Manwel Dimech Bridge is clearly another example of bad management, to say the very least. It is badly out of schedule and budget. The mismanagement of the Merchants’ Street project, which has been delayed considerably due to a blunder in the tendering process, is also causing hardship to the shopkeepers there, and to whoever needs to use the area. The list of delayed and out-of-budget government projects is indeed a long one.

All these things, among others, are causing people to cry out for a change in administration.

In this respect, undoubtedly, a new Labour government will represent not just an alternative government; but rather a government that delivers not only what the people want, but also what they need. After the next general election, it will be much more than a simple change of faces at the top of Malta’s political spectrum, but rather a fundamental shift in the way politics are done. From a failed administration, to a positive, humane and caring administration.

A change to a Labour government will mean much more than a change of faces, it would mean a complete change of the way politics are done in Malta, and it would mean a change in the way Malta looks.

It will mean a change for the better for all and sundry.

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Dr Michael Falzon is the MLP Deputy Leader for Party Affairs