So the Prime Minister is suggesting that we should spend more time daydreaming on how our country will be blooming in 2015. He no doubt believes the Maltese saying that ‘min jorqod bil-guh johlom bil-ftajjar.’ (He who sleeps hungry will dream of tasty bread).

But what is the reality being faced by the majority of our families today? My constant contact with families in my district convinces me that our people are in no mood to dream. They would rather have something done here and now to improve their quality of life that has been so badly eroded in the years of Nationalist administration.

The hefty increases in the cost of living has meant that even middle class families, who could usually cope with what life threw at them, are now finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Young families with children struggle to pay their school fees and the other costs associated with raising a family.

Pensioners find that the cost of living a simple life is also much more burdensome than it used to be, especially when one takes into account the spiralling costs of medicine and private medical treatment. They of course feel cheated by the government, which has allowed the public medical service to deteriorate to such an extent that you now have to wait sometimes for years to receive certain specialised treatment.

Inflation may have slowed down, but we still have a situation where we have a high cost base that makes it difficult for our families to look forward to improving the quality of their lives. Of course, the worse hit are families who depend on one breadwinner earning a moderate or low wage. The cost of securing basic services like water and electricity has been the major factor contributing to ever increasing hardships being faced by our families.

The Prime Minister seems to be combating the more than justifiable criticism about his government’s poor performance in education by promising that by 2015 Malta will be among the most advanced countries in IT. What a sweet dream!

Today’s reality is that the Eurostat has ranked Malta in the lowest place in the league of EU countries for young people who leave school without a sufficient level of education to make them employable. With 42 per cent of our youngsters between 15 and 25 leaving school without at least a secondary level of education, the Prime Minister should have announced an urgent plan to tackle this crisis that is threatening to undermine Malta’s competitiveness even further.

The present administration has run out of ideas, energy, and political will to bring about change that is so badly needed in most sectors of our economy. Having been in power for most of the last 20 years they hope to play the usual card by claiming that they are the natural party of government and that despite all the difficulties the country is facing Labour can never be an alternative government.

But the Maltese families who are experiencing “nationalist fatigue” are not gullible and they feel the need of change more than ever before. They realise that the present Cabinet is made of “dead men and women walking”. They are hanging on until they are pushed out of office, because they do not have the courage to jump.

Labour is prepared to deal with the great difficulties being faced by our families. We will not alienate the people by telling them to dream, but we will ask anyone who wants to work with us to roll up their sleeves and take up the challenges that are facing us here and now with determination to put the smile back on the face of our people.

[email protected]

Dr Mangion is deputy leader of the Opposition