I am sure that my memory is much better than Daphne Caruana Galizia’s. Why do I say so? Because I remember her clearly telling Joe (Peppi) Azzopardi on a live TV programme, many years ago, that she remembers nothing good that Mintoff and his government did in the 1970s because she was still very young. Yet she keeps blaming all Malta’s woes from those years to this day on Mintoff.

She even blames Mintoff for the lack of education and respect shown to customers by salesgirls most of whom, I am sure, were not even born when Mintoff was in power. When she mentions Mintoff you can feel the hatred she has for him and his colleagues who governed Malta so many years ago.

In her last article she stated that people in the 1970s did not buy property because they had no money. This infers that people who buy property today have the money, but everyone knows they will have to “sell” their next 35 years to acquire a place to live in as it is the banks that lend them the money.

Which brings me to the point that it was Mintoff and his government who put the infrastructure in place where people who were not lucky enough, perhaps like Daphne, to be born with a silver spoon in their mouths, could go to the bank and ask for a loan.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, most people in Malta did not even have a bank account let alone enough money to buy property. In the summer of 1971, after many years of colonial and Nationalist administrations, Malta was bankrupt and there was not even enough money to pay Civil Service employees. It was Libya’s Gaddafi who came to our rescue then. Things changed very much for the better during the first Labour government of the 1970s.

It is also pertinent to note that during those years, the government put at the disposal of hundreds of low-income workers flats and houses at a subsidised rent. Most of these were bought later on by the occupants at, again, subsidised prices. These are now selling at 10 times their original price.

It is a pity that Daphne, who I consider one of the best columnists in Malta with perfect English, keeps blaming everything on Mintoff when Labour has been practically out of power for 20 years. Her hatred of the man comes through very strongly. If blaming somebody for our problems is what she wants, she should put this blame on the doorstep of those who for 20 years have had the power to force us to pay taxes through our noses and then wasting the lot on grandiose schemes and projects and lining the pockets of friends of friends.

George Busuttil

MARSASCALA