From Mr E. Privitera

I refer to your editorial of 14 October: “We know that had they (voters) chosen continuity (namely, re-electing a PN government in 1971), the people of Malta would have grown better and quicker (including being in the EU as from 1973(!) for instance), without the traumas of the 1970s and 1980s, but they were not to know that”.

I found the above comment simply amazing! Had the PN been re-elected in 1971, we would not have seen the setting-up of the Welfare State, or the quick industrialisation of our island. Or the setting-up of our own national airline, nor Sea-Malta and many, many more achievements!

As your correspondent C. J. Buttigieg wrote in his letter, which appeared in the same issue of your newspaper, “the 1970s was the epoch of the bloodless revolution. Before 1971, sick leave, annual leave, pensions and other social benefits… were non-existent”.

Indeed we managed to eradicate most of the poverty, which existed up to 1971. Instead you, Sir, described those years as “traumas”!

Eddy Privitera

MOSTA