The GRTU, Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises yesterday appealed to the Prime Minister to seriously ensure a clean up of the capital and call a halt “to the farce” which the city built by gentlemen for gentlemen has been turned into, making all visitors who go there wonder in amazement.

And the Prime Minister, the GRTU said in a searing statement, needs to use the whip – those who are responsible and were pulling the people’s leg should be removed.

As it happens, Valletta should be attracting the crowds in just a matter of days, for the Notte Bianca Lejl Imdawwal cultural activity.

If the GRTU’s biting comments are anything to go by, visitors who are supposed to “discover some interesting and unusual facts about Valletta” (as the publicity blurb for the activity has put it) should find a multitude of “interesting and unusual facts” of the wrong sort.

The GRTU said Valletta ridicules the government’s entire policy because it is a show of incompetence, carelessness and neglect.

Those going to the capital daily know what a farce the capital has been reduced to. It is a city of shame and it was as if no one was responsible, no one resigned, and no one was sacked, the GRTU said.

Republic Street, the country’s premier street, is dirty. “Apart from the clamminess and accumulated rubbish on the paving, there is now a film of dust blown from St John Square and Merchants Street; the paving will only become clean with heavy rainfall,” the GRTU charged.

Merchants Street, which was dug up weeks ago but is waiting for paving that has still to be imported, and the square in front of the European gem that is St John’s Co-Cathedral, “are a shame”. It is dusty everywhere and there seemed to be no hope for a quick solution. Those responsible were pulling people’s legs and it was as if nothing was happening.

The GRTU listed many other shortcomings, which hardly anyone except those responsible for the situation will find fault with. Such as the state of Palace Square, with old vans of all sorts, belonging to the open air market hawkers, taking up the space available in the premier square in the centre of the capital. The square’s state was just as bad without the hawkers’ vans – it was all stains and smudges of engine oil and rubbish, the GRTU said.

There were shortcomings that were as bad in Freedom Square, the entrance to the capital, it added. And all pavements were broken, as if no one cared for anything. There were only boasts and vain words, which had no substance. If it were not for the trade generated by the cruise liner business, Valletta traders might as well shut up shop, the GRTU said.