The temptation is always there. But maybe public policy should not be run on knee-jerks, inspired by an event, distasteful though it may be.
The hunting issue is a very emotional issue in Malta and it is getting worse, not any better.
It has happened before, in other times, and under a different administration, and now it has happened again.
That plays to the hard core or those irresponsible among the hunters for first they break the law with seeming impunity and then they hide and say that hunters are being penalised for the actions of the few.
We have been around this rigmarole many times and yet we fall for it, time and again.
It is perhaps worse to take decisions in hot blood, in reaction to the irresponsible march in Valletta on Sunday, although the police must feel free to take corrective action once they prudently did not intervene during the so-called protest.
Public policy must be thought out and studied. It cannot be knee-jerk.
Besides, we are slowly but surely moving towards the referendum on hunting which should be held, as long as it does not follow the local council election and gets postponed indefinitely, sometime next year.
This will be a key moment of tension for the whole country, but then we have had experience of tense referenda before. We have no doubt that our people will once again rise to the occasion and manage the issue in a way that befits a real democracy.
As long as the referendum is not postponed, as long as it is a clear issue, the attention and the focus must be on it. Let the die be cast and then let the people decide. Our country has learnt that the power of the poll solves many difficult problems and after the result people will come to accept the decision whatever it will be.
The most crucial decisions that must be taken regard how the question is put and removing any ambiguity so that the issue is finally decided and settled.
But any other decision that may be taken, such as postponing or even not holding the referendum, taking other legislative steps instead of going to the people, playing politics with the issue (as we have been doing for many years now), will just exacerbate the issue.
Besides, the authorities cannot and should not allow a situation where a handful of hunters find it easy to flock to Valletta and scare the daylights out of people, as they did on Sunday not just with their march, but also waving a gun, and throwing bottles. Malta, 50 years old if one factors in Independence, is no longer the Malta that could be ruled by mob rule. This is not the 1970s anymore.
We have purposely kept away in this leader from partisan politics. Even so, the issue of hunting and Labour supporters is best discussed and decided by the grass roots of the party rather than by decisions taken at the top in response to whatever stimuli. Again, this takes time and will inevitably come to the fore in the run-up to the referendum. All the more reason to move steadily to the referendum.