I refer to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s opinion piece entitled “There’s no need for vain promises” (TMIS, 16 January).

Let me be clear from the start that making the PN attractive to people like her is not my concern. Our concern, the Ugo Mifsud Bonnici vision to which I referred (ToM, 13 January), is the common good with which she is so disengaged.

She obviously did not read the leaked e-mail I wrote in standard Maltese but instead referred to the bits and pieces reproduced in most newspapers. The PN Parliamentary Group had last met four months earlier and having had “disconnected politicians... ignoring discontent” as so well explained in your and most editorials last Sunday, I felt obliged to use Daphne’s own ‘abrasive’ style.

At the first opportunity in last Wednesday’s Parliamentary Group I did apologise for this.

Nonetheless I am satisfied to have helped clarify that politics is no longer all about being convincing in debates and is not only about effectively managing an economic crisis but also mostly about a political class that is trusted inasmuch as ‘we’re all in it together’. Our electoral programme was indeed focused on togetherness.

Today’s political parties need sincere criticism from their political thinkers and not more of the same from opinion writers who excel in safeguarding the interests of their mighty

acquaintances.

Jean-Pierre Farrugia MP