It was a wonderful feeling when we realised Labour would bend it like Beckham in Mqabba and manage to swing the majority of seats in its favour in the traditionally pro-PN stronghold.

The outcome in Mqabba was only one of a string of positive results in the various localities.

In Santa Venera, Labour managed to win the majority too while in nearly all the other localities (including Mellieha, Xewkija and Zebbug), the gap between Labour and Nationalists widened considerably.

Labour, under the leadership of a man who according to the Nationalists would never be capable of winning again, managed to increase its share of votes in this round from 48 per cent to over 53 per cent.

The gap would have been definitely larger had the Zejtun and Marsa constituents been allowed to submit their vote.

The Prime Minister, who in these last nine months has suffered three consecutive and important defeats, and the Nationalist Party, which is radiating intelligent strategies from the pores of every brick of the Pieta’ Headquarters, are playing down the defeat.

I wonder whether the Prime Minister knows of the scores of people – Nationalists and Labourites alike – who woke up on Sunday happy to hear of the 12 March result and genuinely wishing the government would change the course of action which it has so stubbornly undertaken.

In the meantime, more and more citizens are realising that the Nationalist government has repeatedly fooled them and that, day after day, our social and economic cohesion is going haywire.

These citizens are now turning to the Labour Party and it is our duty to make our utmost to convince the electorate that it should choose us, not merely on a balance of lesser among two evils but rather because we are a better government.

Let us all work hard with our feet firmly on the ground in order to consolidate the three consecutive electoral victories which we have had in the last nine months.

* * *

The issue of the proposed productive enlargement of the recycling plant in Marsascala made the headlines again these days.

A genuine effort made by the Labour-led council in Zejtun to air the concerns of its residents on the proposed plan with the European Commission and the Environmental Committee within the European Parliament was twisted and torpedoed by EPP-ED MEP David Casa.

The honourable gentleman in the EP tried to lead people and general opinion to believe that the Zejtun Council wanted to play foul and, by its purportedly irresponsible action, lead Malta to forfeit substantial sums of assistance from Brussels.

This is definitely an untruth. What my friends of the Zejtun council tried to do was to communicate to the EU the sincere concerns of hundreds of residents living on either side of the plant in Marsascala and Zejtun.

It is both unfair and undemocratic to expect the people of Zejtun and Marsascala to keep mum and not speak with the EU about the monstrosity planned to be (re-) built only a stone’s throw away from a substantially dense residential area.

Threatening the people that by voicing their legitimate concerns they could lead the country to lose funds does not sound exactly democratic to my ears.

In the meantime, the Marsascala council has worked overtime and actually managed to set up an association of local governments from nearly all localities in the second, third, fourth and fifth electoral districts according to the Local Councils Act.

This association, which will start to meet in the coming days, represents a strong and united force against the unreasonable plans which are being carried forward by the government and WasteServ on the recycling plant issue.

Concurrently, the Marsascala Action Committee, incorporating most civil and business entities in Marsascala irrespective of their political affiliations, kept collecting thousands of signatures from these localities against the proposed plans and increasing awareness on the issue.

In the coming days both the association and the Marsascala Action Committee will use every means allowed in a democracy to step up pressure on the government to rethink its plans.

* * *

For all my sins, I happen to be madly in love with one of the least successful soccer clubs this season in the English Championship, Southampton FC.

In the last couple of months I was invited by two Southampton fanatics, Victor and Gilbert, to join forces with them and slowly form a local Southampton FC Supporters’ Club.

Gradually the number of people interested in this project increased and we have taken it upon ourselves to meet at least twice a month to watch our team in action.

Unfortunately, Manchester United (who have basically lost everything this season) gave their best in the FA Cup quarter-final and scored four.

We were disappointed by the outcome but – like the brave sailors of the Ottoman ships commanded by the great Dragut Rais in the 16th century – we will keep believing in the team through thick and thin.

Now our only aim is to avoid relegation ... Nothing to be ashamed of, given the Saints are specialists in the subject!

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Dr Bonnici is an elected member of the Executive Committee of the Malta Labour Party and a Councillor for Marsascala.