Writing in TMID (3 April), Daphne Caruana Galizia shared with us this unsubstantiated, self-contradictory observation: “it’s because Labour supporters are on average less comfortable reading English […] than better educated Nationalist supporters, who are happier reading the English language newspapers.”

Mrs Caruana Galizia is wrong in her assessment. There are Labourites and Nationalists who find it difficult to cope with two languages. Likewise, there are Labourites and Nationalists who are at ease communicating in either language or both, as the case may be.

Then, of course, there are those Maltese (red, blue, green, and even colourless) who are incapable of communicating either in proper Maltese or in proper English, and end up continuously switching from one language to another, mumbling up whatever it is that they have to say.

One wonders which category Mrs Caruana Galizia belongs to.

Lastly, Mrs Caruana Galizia seems oblivious to the inherent contradiction in what she's saying. Why should education result in being happier to read in English? If a Maltese person is educated, that person should be able to read in any of the two languages. This Freudian slip reveals much of what Mrs Caruana Galizia thinks about herself. Meditate gente... oh sorry, that's a third language... which only super-educated people will understand!

Mark A. Sammut

Valletta