So said the Prime Minister, but with respect, I do not agree. I hope that I am wrong and he is right, but I doubt it.

Investments have dried up and this has been like this for two, three or four years; unemployment is on the increase, the balance of payments gap is becoming wider, we have more imports than exports, deficit is still very high in spite of the efforts. In spite of this gloomy picture, the PM said there is no crisis but his Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech recently said the government needs more revenue.

If the country is in no crisis, why is the government trying to find other means of income, as Mr Fenech was reported to have said? If this is no crisis, then the country is mismanaged. I think it is both.

If it is both, we are very unlucky because I very much doubt that there is an alternative government. As I see it, the opposition is only there to use these problems to its own advantage. Take the vote for the EU Constitution: it just stood on the fence and abstained. Do you call this a serious alternative government?

Now the opposition is taking the people to the streets like the General Workers Union. Perhaps this will be the first step to return to the times of Mintoff and his prodigy Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici. Is this the way to bring Malta on its feet?

The way is for everybody to reason. Can we afford the luxury of having five national holidays? Can we afford to ask for increases in collective agreements, even when the entity is not making a big profit or losing money? Can we afford to demand overtime even when it is not required? The unions should work in the national interest. By taking people in the streets things will get worse.

Since we are on this subject, I cannot leave out the fact that the MUT joined the GWU in their so-called protest march in Republic Street, Valletta. It is amazing how things and times change.

I remember the time when the MUT could not express itself, when the front door of its headquarters was smashed. I still remember the hundreds of teachers who were transferred from their school where they were working to another, from north to south, east to west of the island. Where was Mr Bencini in those days?

Joseph Muscat

MOSTA