May I offer my heart warming congratulations and agreement to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s article (TMI 16 July) entitled Give in to the mob at your peril. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised reading this highly critical piece of the PM – and from Daphne none the less.

On this very rare occasion I have to agree wholeheartedly with Daphne on her view of the Prime Minister’s recent decision to take over the policy and the decision making processes of MEPA. This outrageous and politically risky response reflects the PM’s view that MEPA has failed.

The PM of course also failed with this knee jerk response to the megaphone mouths. Instead of trying to tweak an existing problem he has decided to take it over all together.

You would think there is an election round the corner – surely the problem could have been fixed in time for the PM to gain some much needed kudos rather than reacting to a small but albeit loud mob. Politicians should always be at arms length in any planning decision making process.

They can of course determine the overall policy objectives, that is what they are elected to do, but they should never be involved in the decision making process.

The call from “the people” for him to take over decisions reflects the poor decision making processes that exist within MEPA. An appropriate and balanced response to this valid concern should have been an independent review of those processes. Instead the obviously flawed process is now maintained with final decisions resting with politicians or their minders. Although there may be no corruption, even a perception of an opportunity for corruption should be eliminated and instead the Prime Minister has now created an opportunity for this perception to grow and grow and grow. Shame Gonzi, shame.

The big developers must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Raphael Dingli

Canberra, Australia