Never in my life have I attested to a greater sense of revulsion than that expressed by the general public the moment the New Year heralded the imposition of higher prices for fuels and essentials.

If there is a characteristic that starkly describes the incumbent government - at this very moment in time - is its sheer, abundant and flippant insensitivity at the current plight being faced by so many families as they labour to try to make ends meet with the spiralling cost of living.

Perhaps former Nationalist minister Jesmond Mugliett hit the nail on its head in a recent interview when he questioned, with preponderant realism, how his party’s media can have the effrontery to speak of an economy on the mend at a time when, on the ground, families are desperately struggling to keep up with the bills. Like most of us are doing he spoke as an MP close to the man in the street. To those who prefer to live in the moon, like the government-friendly media, any news that can minimally salvage the reputation of this government is stuff for the headlines.

It is indeed very easy for the government to boast that Malta’s GDP grew by almost 4% during 2010, which for the global economy was the year of economic recovery after the unprecedented recessionary year of 2009. But it is an odd type of growth as it was mainly due to greater profits registered by financial institutions. Trumpeting vuvuzelas at these first signs of growth is a futile exercise in superficiality.

Indeed a deeper analysis of economic statistics will show beyond any reasonable doubt that those sectors representing the real economy continue to under-perform. Some of these sectors are still in negative growth. No wonder that there is still no magical feeling among families that their standard and quality of living are improving. There is no trickle-down effect yet. On the contrary they feel that their situation is getting and will continue to get worse. And indeed it is already.

Now this is not about doom and gloom. It is about administering to the country a good dose of realism. It is as if this government is hugely embarrassed about the current hardships being faced by so many families, is unable to do something about it, and cares more about trying to put itself in a good light than to properly address those hardships. This inability to try to help families when they most need it has so much to do with incompetence in administration and with political fatigue.

How, for example, could the government, at the last budget, have the indecency to raise the excise tax on fuels when it was clearly evident that international oil prices were about to soar. Families now will have to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for energy prices than they had already started to do after the last budget.

And to make matters worse gas and milk prices are soaring at right about the same time as if the powers that be are colluding to make life even more miserable to families.

But what irks families even more is the overt attempt by the regulatory authorities to compare local fuel and gas prices with foreign ones.  For two reasons.

In the first place this attitude weakens the stature of the regulator as by making comparisons it presents itself apologetically, when in reality it should stamp its authority on its price findings, whether they are right or wrong and irrespective of whether they are costlier or cheaper abroad. It also runs the risk of being perceived to come out too much in defence of the government when it is supposed to emphasise its independence.

Secondly the regulator misses the fact that,  although gas cylinder prices are more expensive abroad, most families abroad have gas mains while to most of us here gas cylinders are our only source of heating and cooking.  And how about comparing salaries? I am sure the regulator will find that Italian and British consumers have a far stronger purchasing power than their Maltese counterparts do.

What a great start for the New Year in public relations....and for the consumer!