From Mr M. Portelli

The substance in the Budget speech reply Dr Muscat gave in Parliament was nothing but superb. No matter how hard the Nationalists and some columnists in the independent media tried to belittle the Leader of the Opposition, I am more than convinced that he surprised tens of thousands of people, myself included. The only negative aspect was the fact that he read his speech word by word. This is something he needs to work on but time is surely on his side.

He did what it was his duty to do – criticize, propose and also state which budget proposals he was in agreement with the government. I have been following local politics since 1996 and do not recall any budget speech from a Leader of the Opposition as convincing as this one.

A good number of issues he raised were left unanswered by Dr Gonzi a couple of days later. The argument that Dr Muscat was talking nonsense when insisting that the government should lower taxes, was rubbished by governments in England and Italy among others. In fact, Gordon Brown and Silvio Berlusconi have concrete plans to leave more money in people’s pockets in one way or another so as to stimulate their respective economies in the hard times Europe is doomed to experience.

I believe it was Dr Gonzi’s worst performance in Parliament since he became Prime Minister. Whoever is worth his salt knows well that the budget Tonio Fenech presented was a budget for election year 2013; that is, a budget that will be good for when the government eases the tax burdens a year or two before the next election.

For months, the Nationalists, various columnists in the independent newspapers and the people in the street (including myself) criticised Labour for not giving concrete proposals. After having done so in Parliament, the PN was low enough to criticize Labour for not publishing the exact electricity rates they would charge if it happened to be at the helm of the country. As if there is a party in opposition anywhere in the world that gives such a detail!

The first wave of statute reforms shows that times are really starting to change at Mile End. This reform will give the party much more credibility and I honestly hope that this is only the first in a series of reforms that will make the Labour Party the most appealing and transparent. Labour should never use the conservative Nationalists as their benchmark. In order to beat them they have to be better than them.

This can only happen if more similar radical reforms gradually take place in the coming three years.

Among other issues on the agenda in next year’s general conference should be making the position of deputy leader for party affairs redundant and of making the duties of a general secretary purely administrative.

The Leader of the Opposition should also make sure to settle the Labour Clubs’ issue once and for all. If there were any irregularities in the 1970s or 1980s in taking over of venues to serve as clubs, then it is his duty to rectify this injustice. If this implies leaving some villages without a Labour Party Club then so be it. This won’t lose Labour any votes since the staunch Labourite who hangs out on a daily basis in one of these clubs will still vote Labour come Election Day. At the same time, this move would show the floating voters that Dr Joseph Muscat is very different to his predecessors, and would certainly help in gaining credibility.

Michael Portelli

ATTARD