Regarding Major Stanley J.A. Clews’ letter of 11 October in answer to my article published a week earlier, it is unfortunate that Major Clews has completely missed the thrust of my argument.

The point I made was not whether or not the shipyards were used for political purposes in the period until Major Clews retired in 1984.There is much to say about that but it is beside the point. The argument was why the PN administration in its 22nd year in office finally deciding to privatise the shipyard still blames the problems on its predecessor.

The point I made here and in an earlier article “Death by a thousand cuts” is why did it have to take so many years and so many millions flushed down the drain in order to arrive at a solution that was visible even to Major Clews when he retired in 1984.

Alfred Mifsud