“Sadly, almost half the EU member countries have far higher unemployment levels than we do, so EU membership alone can’t possibly keep us out of trouble.”

This line, taken from a PN election campaign advertisement (“No. 1” we are told – so presumably there will be more) made me stop in my tracks and smack my forehead with my palm.

What a silly billy I am! Here I was thinking that joining the EU was going to solve all our problems – isn’t that what the PN promised us?

What a difference a few years make.

Without the EU membership hysteria to latch on to, the Nationalists are grasping at straws to drum up some kind of scary spectre to prevent Labour from winning the next election. First they tried to resort to that old favourite… ridiculing Alfred Sant because he wears a hairpiece. But whereas the first time this ploy was used it sort of worked (probably because people thought it was terribly daring to even mention it), this time around the reaction has been very different. Even fervent Nationalist supporters were appalled at the article written two weeks ago by Daphne, concluding that it was in very bad taste.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock lately, you will not have failed to realise that the election campaign has well and truly started. The two main parties might make a big show of announcing it officially some time next week (probably on or after Independence Day), but don’t be fooled folks, it’s already here.

The discussion programme Reporter has pre-empted Bondiplus by already getting the first interviews with Alfred Sant and Lawrence Gonzi. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is visiting everyone from schoolchildren to Dubai businessmen, while projects are being “launched” at breakneck speed: the regeneration of Grand Harbour, SmartCity, a visitor’s centre at Ggantija, a national pandemic plan against influenza. The announcements are whizzing by faster than speeding bullets.

This sudden spurt of activity before an election really annoys me…why do we always have to be in “let’s appease the voter” mode before things start to get done? Of course, this is assuming all those projects adhere to the timeline we have been given, which, going by the record of this administration so far, is hardly likely. Sticking to deadlines is not exactly its strong point.

For, despite trying to rouse itself out of its coma, this administration is still hampered by daily gaffes, the latest one being (at the time of going to print!), that two officials at the Malta Tourism Authority missed the EU deadline for submitting an application for funds. The money would have gone towards its marketing and branding campaign overseas, and the amount involved was not be sneezed at: 10 million euros to be exact. The two officials being held responsible (who are on forced leave pending an inquiry) missed the deadline by (wait for this) 40 minutes.

Should we bang our heads and wail, or just throw our hands up in the air in despair? Maybe it’s our Maltese penchant for never being punctual, but this habit of being late for everything has now gone beyond a joke. Does anyone at the various departments, ministries and authorities understand what the term deadline actually means? It’s one thing to turn up an hour late for a dinner party (because no one wants to be the ‘loser’ who turns up first), but official documents involving that kind of money should have been submitted yesterday, and not at the last minute.

In a way this latest blunder encapsulates the reason why this country stubbornly refuses to move forward: deadlines are fixed but no one really takes them seriously, promises are made which no one has any intention of keeping, and grandiose projects are “launched” with alarming regularity because the fact that they have been launched gives the appearance that something is actually being done.

So ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts, we are about to encounter some turbulence… the election campaign is well and truly on its way.