Labour Party leader Joseph Muscat will be giving his reply to the Budget 2011 speech in parliament tonight. In this country, we habitually dismiss and completely disregard anything that another person of a point of view puts forward. Let’s face it, it’s a Maltese trait. On certain subjects – most notably politics and football – the attitude is pretty much the same: “I believe in this, I don’t agree with your point of view.” And this brings us to tonight’s speech in parliament. Joseph Muscat will put his speech to parliament and we are sure that in his address, the labour leader will put forward some good proposals. The government benches must listen to what the Labour Party is saying. In the current climate, we cannot afford to ignore anything which will help us edge ahead in the fight to extricate Europe (and the rest of the world) from the economic crisis. We are sure that the Labour party will present some good ideas. While some of their proposals will be their own, others might build on measures put forward by the Finance Minister in his speech. This is healthy. The opposition only has a week in which to analyse the budget and in that time, fresh minds might have pored over proposals and come up with something even better. Why not? And what is wrong with saying so? Of course, there will be other proposals that differ in political ideology. Others might be puerile and others might be mistaken. But there will be food for thought. Speaking during his address at the PN council yesterday, the PM was quite frank. He said that differences remain. He indirectly thanked the PL for criticism when it is made in the right spirit. He also indirectly appealed for the PL to put forward good proposals today. On the other hand, Joseph Muscat has his obligations. Of course, he will keep to his party’s beliefs – that is democracy. But he must approach this evening with the same end goal of the budget. We need to balance those books. Europe is in an absolute mess at the moment. People are picking up the pieces and slowly putting them back together. But it’s a long road ahead. The Labour leader must focus his speech on the need to remain in conformity with the new fiscal rules of Europe. While countries are desperately trying to slash their deficits of 32, 20, 12 and 1%, we have to go down by 1%. Look at Luxembourg. The country commands total respect in the EU. Why? Because their finances have always been watertight. Just imaging Malta could do the same. We need to hit our targets and we can approach the table with utmost respect. But we need to do it as quickly as possible. At the same time, everyone in Malta is feeling a bit miserable. We are paying more and we are working harder and things are uncertain. We get shoddy service and we are being put through reform after reform and we are not happy at the way deals are being imposed on us when they will impact on our futures. These are the issues that Joe Muscat must address. He must tell us how he would go about doing the same as the government in terms of end-result, but also how his government would help alleviate some burdens and give us some more respect. Labour Party leader Joseph Muscat will be giving his reply to the Budget 2011 speech in parliament tonight. In this country, we habitually dismiss and completely disregard anything that another person of a point of view puts forward. Let’s face it, it’s a Maltese trait. On certain subjects – most notably politics and football – the attitude is pretty much the same: “I believe in this, I don’t agree with your point of view.” And this brings us to tonight’s speech in parliament. Joseph Muscat will put his speech to parliament and we are sure that in his address, the labour leader will put forward some good proposals. The government benches must listen to what the Labour Party is saying. In the current climate, we cannot afford to ignore anything which will help us edge ahead in the fight to extricate Europe (and the rest of the world) from the economic crisis. We are sure that the Labour party will present some good ideas. While some of their proposals will be their own, others might build on measures put forward by the Finance Minister in his speech. This is healthy. The opposition only has a week in which to analyse the budget and in that time, fresh minds might have pored over proposals and come up with something even better. Why not? And what is wrong with saying so? Of course, there will be other proposals that differ in political ideology. Others might be puerile and others might be mistaken. But there will be food for thought. Speaking during his address at the PN council yesterday, the PM was quite frank. He said that differences remain. He indirectly thanked the PL for criticism when it is made in the right spirit. He also indirectly appealed for the PL to put forward good proposals today. On the other hand, Joseph Muscat has his obligations. Of course, he will keep to his party’s beliefs – that is democracy. But he must approach this evening with the same end goal of the budget. We need to balance those books. Europe is in an absolute mess at the moment. People are picking up the pieces and slowly putting them back together. But it’s a long road ahead. The Labour leader must focus his speech on the need to remain in conformity with the new fiscal rules of Europe. While countries are desperately trying to slash their deficits of 32, 20, 12 and 1%, we have to go down by 1%. Look at Luxembourg. The country commands total respect in the EU. Why? Because their finances have always been watertight. Just imaging Malta could do the same. We need to hit our targets and we can approach the table with utmost respect. But we need to do it as quickly as possible. At the same time, everyone in Malta is feeling a bit miserable. We are paying more and we are working harder and things are uncertain. We get shoddy service and we are being put through reform after reform and we are not happy at the way deals are being imposed on us when they will impact on our futures. These are the issues that Joe Muscat must address. He must tell us how he would go about doing the same as the government in terms of end-result, but also how his government would help alleviate some burdens and give us some more respect.