Your regular contributor Marisa Micallef often castigates the government because, according to her, it is alienating the middle class.

I agree to a certain extent that the government is neglecting the middle class while giving more attention to the lower income group which is traditionally Labour. In doing so, it is losing its traditional support but at the same time it is not gaining any from the other.

But what would the electorate say if the government gave less priority to the lower income group? Would they not be accused of being indifferent to the needs of the underprivileged?

A typical example of how the government is losing ground among its supporters can be ascribed to the Housing Department. Here is a story of how a nationalist middle class family is no longer interested in their party.

This family applied for a government apartment for one of their children. Their application was refused as government apartments were available for those less fortunate than this particular family. The family could not understand this. They could not understand the fact that government flats were allocated to others, many of them die-hard Labourites.

Other Nationalist middle class people maintain that the government is concentrating too much of its energy in the south, which is again traditionally Labour, while giving less priority to their localities. Again, they ask if the party is gaining anything from this? Recent local elections have clearly shown that the answer is in the negative. Now the question is this. Is Marisa Micallef, as the Housing Authority chairperson who has been hammering about the middle class for so long, ready to agree to a change in the Housing Authority’s policy and allocate flats to middle class people instead of to those less fortunate such as single mothers (?) in order not to lose votes?

There are other similarities which run on the same line. Would she agree not to build any more apartments for those in need and with the money saved reduce the tax burden on the middle class? Would she agree not to build homes for the elderly and, again, benefit the middle class with the money saved? We must remember that middle class people are the most vulnerable and whatever government does will affect them.

Charles Camilleri

Paola