An alien called “Common Sense” landed on Malta last week. He was watching the news and was terribly impressed by the fact that in a space of two years the ruling regime of the country appeared to have thought of, devised, started, conducted and concluded negotiations with Italy and was now inaugurating an interconnector between Italy and Malta enabling the country to purchase electricity from the European grid.
Common Sense was an intelligent alien, not a stupid one, so he started to nose around and carry out a spot of research.
He discovered that in fact the interconnector was a project thought of, negotiated by and started by the Nationalist party when it was in government prior to the general election of 2013. He found television footage of the Nationalist government then, explaining how its interconnector project would enable the country to benefit from cheaper rates of electricity available through the grid.
He then came across other television footage of a man he recognised as the current Prime Minister then the leader of the opposition, ridiculing this plan, telling his party faithful and not so party faithful, that if the Nationalists are re-elected Maltese housewives would have to wake up in the middle of the night to put their washing machines on.
And yet, now that it is ready, the same labour leader now Prime Minister appears to be very happy and chuffed about it all especially at the fact that Malta can use the interconnector to buy electricity at 5c per KW. He has even invited the Italian Prime Minister to inaugurate it. Common Sense wondered whether the PM will tell Mr Renzi that it was not his project after all but the project of those dreadful Nationalists - you know those who did not have an energy plan for Malta!
Common Sense was rather perplexed when he found more footage of the leader of the opposition prior to the elections, who at the same time as ridiculing the benefits of the interconnector ,was declaring that labour’s plan to reduce electricity tariff would through a brand new gas fired power station, which on pain of his resignation, would be completed and producing by March 2015. Common Sense trotted off to Delimara to see the new powerstation but found nothing. He was very disappointed!
By now he was totally intrigued and continued with his research and found more footage of the same labour leader informing people who live in the south of Malta that the BWSC power plant, very much part and parcel of the Nationalist government’s non-existent energy plan capable of saving millions in the generation of electricity in Malta, was the cause of the increase of cancer in the south, which is why he promised the people of the south that as soon as he was elected he would convert the BWSC plant from HFO to diesel!
The intelligent alien gasped: “Gosh – that is a serious allegation”. He soon found however that Malta’s top cancer specialists had stated publically that what the labour leader was saying about the “cancer factory” was a whole load of boloney – it was not true. In fact it was so not true that when the labour leader became Prime Minister over two years ago, he did not convert the BWSC plant into diesel, and to this day it still runs on HFO. He learnt that the BWSC power generation plant, officially now not a cancer factory after all, was saving Enemalta millions per annum to run and guess what, labour in government had also negotiated the sale of the BWSC plant for the princely sum of €150 million – quite a sum of money for that Nationalist built cancer churning heap of junk! Common Sense then stumbled on another piece of news, the labour government has bound the country to buy power from a company called Electrogas, for a period of 18 years at a minimum price of 9.59 cents! “Golly isn’t that much more than the price of power through the interconnector?” he asked himself.
By this stage Common Sense felt he was on a very weird planet and reported back to his boss and says: “Hi Boss, fell on a place called Malta. They have a Prime Minister who is very pleased with himself in having brought the electricity tariffs down but it is quite clear to me that if this is indeed the case, he could only have done so because of projects implemented and projected by the Nationalist party in Government. He’s still using the BWSC plant on HFO saving millions, he is now selling it off for €150 million and will be using the interconnector enabling the purchase of cheap electricity from the European grid. The brand new power station he promised and which he said he would need to bring prices down is nowhere to be seen. So either the reduction is coming from the Nationalist Party projects or they are coming off the tax payer.Funny how a number of the local inhabitants haven’t quite noticed yet. See you soon, nice place but the politics here is enough to drive you nuts...”
Ann Fenech is President of the Executive Committee of the Nationalist Party.