The political parties have taken a rest. Other than issuing statements to condemn the horrible acts of vandalism on two cemeteries during the past week, they have kept the silence they promised.

The Nationalist Party, soon after carrying out its traditional fund-raising campaign a couple of weeks before Christmas, said that it will refrain from holding political activities over the Yuletide period.

Likewise, the Labour Party brought to an end six months of activities to introduce its new leader, Joseph Muscat, to all supporters in the different localities. This coincided with the party’s own fund-raising campaign held on Republic Day.

But the silence this year is different from the one we had in 2007.

With people talking about the impending election, which was to arrive a few months later and in fact did on 8 March, and the introduction of the euro, last year an air of tension and uncertainty had gripped the country.

The weeks leading up to Christmas 2007 were also characterised by politics, as there had even been talk that the election was going to be held some time in December. The Prime Minister ultimately chose otherwise, but although politics did slow down over Christmas 2007 it could not be helped that people were talking about the election.

The discussion centred mostly on the possible date as to when Dr Lawrence Gonzi would have called the people to vote. Everyone had an opinion, a possible date, and everyone was trying to convince the rest that his or hers was the most plausible.

The election was not all that people were discussing at this time last year. There was another issue that was on their minds and took up most of the discussion during the Christmas family meal – and this was the introduction of the euro to replace the lira, which was even more imminent than the election, considering that in this case the date had already been established.

Nearly one year later, the euro is now part and parcel of our everyday life, and nobody speaks about the lira anymore. We were already talking about a very smooth transition a few days after the euro made its official appearance, and today very few people persist in thinking in lira terms and carry a euro-lira conversion table in their pockets.

The move from the lira to the euro was also a matter of concern to many, in spite of the massive promotion campaign that was carried out in the months preceding the euro-day.

Matters are different today. The election is out of the way, the euro has been absorbed and there is more serenity and tranquility in this little country of ours.

This is not to say that there are no problems that need to be overcome, but at least the level of anxiety among the people is not as high as it was last year.

And top of the list of issues is that which concerns the water and electricity rates. So much confusion is surrounding the matter, and this has been further enhanced with the lowering of the price of petrol and diesel earlier this week.

If there was an average 20 per cent cut in the price of fuel, then how come the government keeps on insisting to introduce a hefty increase in the price of water and electricity? If the price of oil on the international market is less than one fourth of what it was in summer, when it had reached a peak of $147 per barrel, then why is the government pressing for a raise in the tariffs now?