The government received a bloodied nose in yesterday’s elections – and if it didn’t, it should have.

For there is a rage eating up our people and, in a democracy, it is only fair that such rage finds expression at election time, whether the government feels this is fair or not, whether it is working its guts out or not, whether its work is delivering results or not, or whether the alternative is any better or not.

One can easily sense the rage at almost every level of society: it is road rage without the road, an attitude to life, a time where people are more self-centred and ready to push others out of their way, a time when people are more prepared to be outspoken and critical without being afraid.

We have seen, over the past days, vociferous protests in this government’s most traditional fortress, Sliema, over the proposed car park and the demolition of a very old house. We hear more and more people complaining about the damage being done to the environment and afraid of the more signal proposals, be it the Sant’Antnin Waste Facility or the golf course (because this is a government that tries to go different ways at the same time, without realising the inconsistency).

Time and again, we have seen that anxiety over jobs and the cost of living come out on top in any survey done. Similar surveys, which strangely enough are not done, could show that the take home pay of the average Maltese has declined over the past years as the government tried to tackle the deficit through cutbacks in overtime and allowances, through increased taxation and better tax enforcement.

As a result, the average Maltese today has to make do with a reduced salary and with increased expenditure all over. People are stretched, and any slight incident or accident becomes a major trauma, hence the road rage and the rage without the road.

And the cost of everything keeps going up, as are the expectations of most Maltese. True, the Maltese have cut down on foreign travel, but they are going to Gozo more and more often, they are eating out more even though the prices of most restaurants are substantially higher than one could find abroad.

Take the television broadcasting of Champions League and the World Cup, for instance. Most Maltese do not mind paying a little bit more if they can see the games they want to watch. But others complain that what they used to get free should not be something they have to pay for now – wrong, because in this case for it is the nature of sports broadcasting that has changed, not government or television policy. But then again, you get the feeling that while some would not mind paying a little bit more to see what they want, for others even a small payment could mean a big trauma.

A government worth its marbles, a real father of the nation, would be concerned that a sizeable portion of the country is suffering such constraint. A government that has lost it, however, boasts that the economy is doing well because the IMF, or the EU, or some other anagram tells it so.

On the other hand, when one speaks to people living abroad, which may sound so glamorous, it is really very stressful and difficult when seen at ground level over there. Here we have a bus strike and life goes on, and our tickets are a piddling 20c each, while over there tickets cost £1 or more and obviously one spends far more time travelling to and from work than anyone (except the Gozitans who work in Malta) does here. Then there are the rates, high gas rates (and one uses more gas in colder climates). And regards employing someone to carry out maintenance of any sort on the house, forget it! The cost is prohibitive.

Yet people abroad do not riot in frustration, you do not see any overt signs of rage on a nationwide basis. People just get on with their lives and make the most of it. Here in Malta, however, the situation is still rather novel; people were not prepared for the shock (on the contrary, they were led to believe the good times were round the corner at no cost and no pain) and today the take home pay barely covers expenses, as expenditure is catching up with the wages . Nevertheless, expectations are still high and have still not adjusted. People in Luxembourg, for instance, receive a salary of e3,700 and pay e700 rent for just one room. Yet they still have e3,000 in their pockets and things are cheaper there than they are here. On the contrary, people here still believe in buying houses, a trend that bucks any trend in any other country.

In a way there is not much a government can do in a time of globalised economies and shifting centres of production. These are very different times from those when a nanny-State could order three unsustainable wage hikes in a row and force employers to give increases over and above cost of living increases. And considering the government still employs just under half the workforce, it would be suicidal if it were to make itself pay more in salaries.

Yet the government can, and should, use its powers of persuasion to tell employers that while they may complain about the energy surcharge and the fuel prices, they pay them in the end, so they too must not forget that the human factor of production is not one they can choose to pay attention to or ignore as they see fit. And that any company worth its salt takes proper care of its workforce.

All things considered, this government does work hard but in a vacuum. Unless it addresses the worries and anxieties of the people, it will continue to be seen as irrelevant at best, and as a hindrance, at worst. And it will continue to feed the hopes being nurtured by its opponents that a change in administration can change the situation of the average Maltese – when it is obvious that no possible government has any alternative policy to the one being followed.

The bloody nose the government received – or should have received – yesterday is a merited one, for the people are mostly right in believing that the government is intent on following its ideals and riding its hobby horses, and not really tackling what irks the people here and now. Whether it serves to wake the government up to do its prime duty is another thing.