Throughout the past months, this paper and its sister papers have given space to those who were complaining about the losses in the Valletta Fund management investment they were led to make by mostly Bank of Valletta employees.

Time and again we outlined the saga’s developments that first met a complete wall of silence then slowly saw the bank surrender to popular pressure and come up with offers which at first, one must admit, were on the lean side, until in the most recent development the bank has now accepted to restore the investors’ position around as it was before they made the investment.

It has been, all along, a sad saga, and it was only because Paul Bonello spearheaded the protesting investors and time and again brought about public pressure to bear on the bank and also on MFSA about which he has been singularly critical.

All through this saga this paper, like others, has believed in straight reporting of the conflict and has reported, in great detail, both the bank’s statements as well as those by its critics.

There was a time when it seemed the discussion in the country was about to be smeared with politics when an Opposition front bench person, Evarist Bartolo, made even stronger claims and charges in Parliament. There he was covered by parliamentary immunity but many saw this as a harbinger of worse things to come. Politics and finance must not mix.

But now, what happened last Sunday, with Mr Bonello speaking at the Labour Party mass meeting in Zabbar takes the issue far beyond what is acceptable and in the interest of the financial services sector.

In short, all the complaints Mr Bonello and the short-changed investors in VFM have made do not warrant the issue becoming a political one.

It is not in the interest of the country and its financial services to see politics intruding in such a sensitive area.

It is not in the interest of the Bank of Valletta to be involved in the political battle of the election campaign. It was, after all, a Labour government which created BOV out of the debris of the National Bank. All through these years, the bank has become a household name with most Maltese and even if it, or some of its members, made mistakes in the VFM issue, that is no reason for the bank to become involved in the centre of the election campaign.

Nor is it in the interest of the investors themselves to find their case becoming part and parcel of the election campaign. Whatever the political affiliations of the investors, and they come from all shades of opinion, they were already getting what was their due. Being mentioned in the mass meeting did not add anything to their claims.

Nor is it, to be fair, in the interest of Mr Bonello’s own business that he becomes so openly involved with one political party and against the other.

The two parties claim that the financial services sector is bipartisan and profess their intention to keep it free from any political interference. And yet here we have a sore issue in financial services brought bang in the middle of the election campaign at a time when spirits are inflamed.

There was no call for an MP to get involved when the investors themselves (helped by Mr Bonello) were getting their due. There was no call either for Mr Bonello to become a speaker at an election mass meeting.

If he, as is his right, came to a definite conclusion about the present government, he should have decided on his future course of action as a person, as a leader in the financial services sector, as a voter. Of course, he was and is completely free to tell people his personal conclusions but he is not a politician and only politicians should speak at mass meetings.

To vary from this tried and tested template is to launch the country into uncharted waters and we would rather we do not go there.