The past weeks have not been easy on the government, what with Maroni’s invective, the deficit figures and possible repercussions from the EU, a hardened and embittered Opposition opposing at every twist, and a slew of bad results impinging not only on the companies directly involved but equally on the government’s revenue figures.

Through all this, miraculously, perhaps dementedly, the government sticks to its multiple daily personal and futile appearances at conferences duly reported by the media, making speeches that interest nobody and, more importantly, keeping up appearances that everything is hunky-dory, all is under control, we have not been impacted much by the recession and we will soon be out of it anyway.

Public opinion is not helped by a strident Opposition, which seems to relish screaming at the top of its voice all the time, spouting all the negative angles it can find in its news bulletins, making everything so unbelievably negative that can only show that they themselves do not believe half of it.

Meanwhile, the population at large, which has long understood this is all a political game in view of the 6 June elections, which, although everybody accepts as not important at all yet treats it is a re-run of the general election, has to put up with atrocious roads that are never done, and get on with its life. People fight over barbecue sets at 6.30am, restaurants with quite pricey menus are still filled, the tourists are still coming, and somehow everybody gets by. And everybody grumbles at the mess and worse in the electricity rates.

People in general are no longer ready to excuse the government. It is no use for the government to say (as the Prime Minister said on Bondiplus) that building proper roads costs a lot of money. Or that electricity rates will come down in the near future. People voted for accession to the EU precisely to have an improved quality of life, and maybe they were led to expect the improvements to take place painlessly. But surely they are right to have expected rather more than what is on offer now.

Over the past months we had been led to believe that public finances were on the mend. Now we find they have slipped so far that maybe they were not even that bad in Alfred Sant’s time. It is true that the worldwide recession has cut down government revenue as companies find they have generated less profit and thus will give less to the government. But it is also true that the government has saddled itself, and its successor, with a huge bill on a back-ended collective agreement regardless of the economic situation of the country. And there is still no sign of any real decision by the government to curb its burgeoning expenditure bill.

The government is still focused on its own programmes but nobody seems to be focusing on the general economic situation of the country. The government is helping those manufacturing enterprises that are in deep trouble, but the hotel industry, which clamoured for the same treatment only got hikes in electricity rates. The Opposition has reiterated its plea for the government to cut taxes but that, as we see it, is the height of folly. More than being the last drink given to a dying man, it means making government finances even worse than they already are and making private industry even more uncompetitive than it already is.

A saner government would be searching for the drivers that can better the economy in times of crisis. Such as, for instance, what can attract more tourists to Malta in a crisis year? Such as helping the industry seek new markets and retain what it has. Such as attracting to Malta people and companies that have fallen off in countries made more fragile by the recession. Such as tackling the energy bill with a more far-sighted approach than has been the rule so far. Such as going out of its way to make government costs and regulation less ham-fisted and onerous than they are now (maybe in many areas we are world-beaters).

Then, there is more that people expect their government to be and do. The government, for all its bluster, has so far not tackled the problems at the hospital and of healthcare. And it has not tackled the widespread blight of social fraud, which has become a national lottery where everybody wins.

It is also a question of not living any more in a different world from the people. But can this government stop doing that? It got itself returned to power by dint of the power of incumbency, spreading the client network by providing employment in the various ministries and authorities, the same that are now so weighty on the country (and mainly so unnecessary). If all this is now an albatross round its neck and that of the country, there is a certain sweet tang of justice to it all.