They say that some people never change.

In this case, it’s one political party that has never turned over a new leaf. From the very first, they were determined to empty the contents of Malta’s piggy bank.

They were like that in the 1930s. They remained the same in the 1950s. They were precisely what Shirley Maclaine sang about in Hey, big spender.

During the 1960s they solved the problem of unemployment by “sending” thousands of people into exile in Australia and Canada. Even though “housing” was at its peak, still they didn’t manage to safeguard Malta’s interests by filling the insides of Malta’s piggy bank.

In 1971, a Labour government found such a disastrous situation money-wise that Dom Mintoff did not have the means to hand out wages to government employees.

Back in those Nationalist days, the latter could not sell the family jewels, nor the treasures this island possessed in order for them to keep spending money on trivial things.

Back in those days, there was no Air Malta, Sea Malta, Mid-Med Bank, Bank of Valletta and an assortment of parastatal agencies that a Labour government gave birth to and nurtured.

Where these jewels were concerned, in parliament the Nationalist politicians acted as though what Dom Mintoff was proposing was double-Dutch to them, so they actually voted against these valid proposals.

It was these cash-producing diamonds that actually brought in money, money, money. Lots of good was done with the money that came in. Dom Mintoff helped the Maltese by handing out equal pay for women and men, children’s allowances, maternity grants and pensions.

Alas, however, that all came to an end when the Nationalists came to power in 1987. All that was left in 1996, when it was Dr Alfred Sant’s turn to govern, was a dying cockroach in Malta’s money box, when in 1987 the Nationalists had found Lm440 million.

Of course, when the Nationalists returned to power in 1998, they feigned surprise at the empty

money box. The PN had the gall to make out that between 1996 and 1998 Dr Alfred Sant had spent all of Lm440 million. Not only did the Nationalists not fill the hole that they themselves had created, but we were landed with a deficit of nearly Lm1.5 billion. As the story goes, debt goes hand in hand with the Nationalist Party.

The year 2008 will be a turning point in the history of Malta’s politics. What will the Labour government find in the money box, if they are elected? I am sure that not only will it be empty, but there will also be a lot of debt.

Will these people be voted into power again?

VALERIE BORG

MLP Councillor

valletta