First off, the intention here is not to rain on the environmentalists’ parade as Mother Nature herself did yesterday morning.

Protests against the way in which the government is dealing with the shabby state of the country’s environment is in so many respects absolutely justified and welcome. Air pollution in its many forms continues to plague the country unabated and unaddressed, development has irreparably ruined many areas of the country and countryside, and the prospect of more spring hunting continues to threaten Malta’s, Europe’s and Africa’s wild bird populations.

But protesting over the location of Parliament in Freedom Square simply does not fit into the equation. The rules being cited that all ministries and Parliament itself need to be housed within Valletta’s auberges defies logic. These are not laws but rather guidelines. By that yardstick, one should also protest about the ministerial uses of the House of Four Winds, Casa Leone and many other non-auberges that have and are being used for ministerial purposes.

When environmentalists took to the streets of Valletta to protest against the Ramla Bay Ulysses Lodge development, the government, albeit unofficially, heeded their call and declared it would not allow the development to go forward.

This time around, one can rest assured that those against the location of Parliament in Freedom Square will not be heeded. Conventional wisdom, from what we have seen in the recent past, is that the government has cast the decision on the future location of Parliament in stone and experience tells us that when this particular government takes a decision of such magnitude, neither hell nor high water will persuade it to do otherwise. Obstinate, perhaps. Consistent, yes.

What the dissenters are forgetting is another fundamental point – that the House of Representatives is being relocated, as early as possible, so as to vacate The Palace, what should be the beating heart of Valletta, and to make it a reference point of national identity and culture. Once completed, The Palace will be transformed into the jewel that the Maltese people truly deserve.