I wonder why GRTU director general Vincent Farrugia has never decided to take up politics as a career. From what we read, hear and see, Mr Farrugia would definitely make a good politician. He seems to have a solution to all the problems, local and international, which are hitting the Maltese nation hard.

Primarily, Mr Farrugia and the GRTU – the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – seem to disagree with every initiative, reform or restructuring proposed by the government. They are always lamenting and, worse still, finding fault with these initiatives and hardly ever coming up with better alternatives.

Mr Farrugia seems to have forgotten the days when, as an economist, he used to announce the great benefits bestowed on the nation by the Socialist government when the latter reduced the price of tuna cans by a cent in its budget! Aren’t these better times that we’re living?

And what about the various surveys carried out by the GRTU? After every festivity his chamber comes out moaning that sales were worse than the previous year.

This year they have just come out saying that it was a “sluggish” Easter (TMID, 18 April). If GRTU president of the hospitality and leisure sector Philip Fenech went round various hotels and restaurants, he would have surely noticed that most of them were fully booked, even though prices were pretty high.

Recently, Mr Farrugia stated that the government’s tourism incentives were not enough. What else does he expect – that the government itself becomes a tourist agency in order to increase tourism in Malta?

For once, even the opposition is agreeing with the government that low-cost airlines are not the solution to our tourism problems. Tourists are not stupid and they compare the prices they are made to pay in Malta and Gozo. Overcharging and not giving value for money are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs!

A final word to Mr Farrugia and, why not, Mr Fenech too. They should seriously consider taking up politics and resolve all of Malta’s problems. We would then live happily ever after.

Henry Calleja

St Julian’s