The political class and the electorate at large are now coming to terms with the everyday realities that afflict us all. The realities stand out painfully. They can neither be ignored, nor swept under the carpet.

The government’s finances are far worse than anticipated. The economy is under strain, with inflation peaking up. The unprecedented burden of taxation has exhausted individual taxpayers and the economy alike.

All of this has happened while the Gonzi government was playing the role of the sorcerer’s apprentice, struggling against a structural deficit and coping with the spectre of mounting debt.

As if this were not enough, the Minister for Finance has to face the year ahead at a time of turmoil in the world’s financial markets, where Malta’s interests have to be closely watched.

There has been a lot of political acrobatics and tightrope walking during and since the last Budget debate – but the government has refrained from making a clean breast of the prevailing situation. In fact it has studiously evaded the real point at issue.

The PN administration has been continuously in office since 1987 (save for 22 short months between 1996 and 1998), It has deliberately – and persistently – pursued a ‘money-no-problem’ policy, at once profligate in spending, voraciously tax-oriented, and uninhibited in borrowing without limits.

This is the nub of the argument. Malta’s plight is of the government’s own making. It has been compounded by its own competence and inertia.

The Labour Party in Opposition pointed its finger at specific instances reeking with the odour of corruption, nepotism and abuse of power. Its spokesmen have highlighted instances of maladministration and waste. It identified itself with the concerns of citizens worried by their plight and uncertainties. These concerns were never officially addressed to the satisfaction of the electorate.

There is now a wide electoral consensus that Malta has problems in abundance that have been ignored far too long. These problems have to be solved in Malta – not in Brussels. They can be solved by an administration capable of winning the battle for the hearts and minds of the electorate.

Surely, this is no time for PN spin doctors to behave as if they belong to a tribe that has lost its head.

This is the time for honest, plain speaking and it has to concentrate primarily on Malta’s economic survival, rather than the survival of the PN.