I hope the good editor of this newspaper allows me the same right Mrs Grace Saliba had (Seriously confused, TMID 10 December) and this means allocating to me the same space she had for her letter. In return, I promise that after what I have written is published, I will not reply again.

Mrs Saliba alleged that I was “seriously confused”, but then, it’s not the first time I’ve heard the pot calling the kettle black and I bet it won’t be the last. Unfortunately Mrs Saliba, in her haste to proclaim the Labour Party a non-entity, maintains that Dom Mintoff and Paul Boffa were not the “founders” of the women’s right to vote.

This qualifies me to note that it is Mrs Saliba who is seriously confused, not I. I thank Mrs Saliba for the offer of coffee and of pastizzi, but it would not allow for enough time to journey into the past that she delved into. It would have to be breakfast, lunch and dinner.

She mentioned a history of violence under a Labour regime. Let me assure Mrs Saliba that both parties have skeletons in their cupboards. Both parties probably want to forget certain things.

In her letter she mentioned the lack of food, toothpaste, chocolates. I prefer that to hearing my grandmother and my own mother telling me how the Nationalists managed to manipulate even the Church, which in turn did not give absolution to Labourites. What’s worse is that people like a certain Guze Ellul Mercer, who had Labour tendencies, was not even deemed fit for a Christian burial. How’s this for democracy under the Nationalists?

Suffice to say that the PN brought about so much harm between Labourites and the Church at the time, that in the year 2007 some people still refrain from setting foot inside a church, even after the former Archbishop stepped inside “Super One” on 10 February a few years ago begging forgiveness for the sins of the “fathers”. Compared to what the Nationalists inflicted upon us, bringing about the quarrel with the Church and the Labour Party, Dom Mintoff was a saint.

Since I will be better off with Mrs Saliba’s assumption of my having a lot of euros, I insist on paying for all our meals but I doubt I’ll manage it. Still, I’ll let her know in six months’ time what we have to “suffer” because of the euro.

We’ll be much richer, she said, but with the high cost of living we have, and the rising electricity and water surcharge, telephone bills, etc., I doubt it.

Anyway, living so far away, how on earth would Mrs Saliba know about the rich and the poor in Malta? Funny how she condemns Dr Alfred Sant for his one year and 10 months in government when here in Malta we’ve never had it so bad. Crime has tripled, drugs are as easy to find as bread, there is unemployment everywhere, hundreds of young couples are going through the grinder knowing they want to get married but the houses are too expensive.

Mrs Saliba should stop being in denial. The Nationalists have been too long in power. All they have to show for their 20 years in power is the Mater Dei Hospital, which took 17 years to build. I bet Cape Town was built in even less time. As for road maintenance and streets, they have been fixing, undoing and fixing again that it’s become a household joke. I sincerely hope that I won’t live through a Nationalist regime again because if we do, God have mercy on us all.

Valerie Borg

Valletta