We might by now know who will be holding the reins for the next five years. Phew, am I glad all the palaver will soon be over. It was nauseating to see all the political bumph every time you clicked on anything on the Internet.

Politics is a serious business, but come on guys and gals we do carry it well over the top here, don’t we? I mean, did we really need to be harassed non-stop on Facebook and any other site you happened to click on. It would have been a little less off-putting to see one of the political leaders scowl, or at least frown, now and again rather than the constant Cheshire cat grin.

And it was not just the leaders; I was amazed by the way Simon Busuttil managed to attack the Opposition while looking like a male Mother Teresa throughout the campaign. It is not that I am picking on him, but he is the only other candidate who was sharing centre stage with his leader.

What about all those discussions on TV and no serious objective analysis. As to the mass meetings, all that loud music, face painting, flag waving and ensuing bad blood really turns me off. Talk about overkill.

I have come to regret my comment, “I am more and more convinced that we need an election every three instead of five years” in my column on 27 January, “So much activity, is there an election on?”

That remark had come about as I ploughed through all the action in hand by the Nationalist Party in government (PN) and promises made by both it and the Labour Party (PL). Yes, it was great to see so much being done in so little time, but what a price to pay.

Now forgive me for the cliché, but we shall have to wait and see whether the pudding is going to prove sweet or bitter. Despite all the gloom elsewhere, we seem to be living in a buoyant bubble. According to media reports, Malta has had the second highest economic growth in the euro area and property prices have risen here while, on average, they fell in other EU countries.

But are we going to sail above the global troubled waters? Shall we see growth in investment and employment? Will our health services improve long term? We heard so much about a better quality of life, but will the elected government finally bite the bullet on noise other pollution and the environment generally? Shall we see any change at Mepa?

Will the PN have learnt its lesson and try eating some humble pie? Will the PL succumb to the same level of arrogance once in power? Would the latter keep its word regarding meritocracy and lifting the time-bar on corruption cases involving politicians? Shall we see a code of ethics for chairpersons of public entities? Will the Auditor General get more power and resources? Will our national TV station become non-partisan?

We did at least get some light-hearted, satirical banter online, which was entertaining and welcome. But even the humour sometimes went haywire. I really did not like the recent sketch doing the rounds on FB, which depicted a supposedly Labour family at home. The obese father in a vest was at loggerheads with the daughter who was going to vote for the Nationalist Party. It showed them as shouting and swearing non-stop.

I am sure it was meant to counter the sketch on a supposedly Nationalist family. The latter showed a middleclass family with the daughter (who couldn’t decide whether English or Maltese was her preferred language and not managing to master either) shocking her mother by saying she intended to vote for the Labour Party.

That sketch, while hitting the nail on the head, in depicting some of our middle classes was not offensive, whereas I found the other sketch distasteful since it was implied that those kind of loudmouth, vulgar, bottom of the social class people could only be found among Labour voters. As Jane Austen’s Mr Knightley would say when scolding Emma, “badly done, badly done indeed”.

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