The more cross-party debate that we hear about the budget, the harder it becomes for us to live up to our name that we at this publication cherish – The Independent.

The Opposition, by its utter lack of a proper reply to the budget, has shown perhaps that it simply cannot take on the government when it comes to the real business of governing the country in times of trouble.

We had hoped for better and we are, frankly, disappointed by the Opposition leader’s 51 proposals that will supposedly bring Malta and its population out of the doldrums that, by all reports from the Opposition media, we seem to be living in.

Honestly speaking, and we wish that it were not so, the budget speech, its reply and its counter-reply has shown a certain amount of substance from one side of the House, and a surprising lack of substance from the other.

We had waited with bated breath for the Opposition leader’s reply to the budget. Budget 2012 was a carefully-executed exercise in staving off the brunt of the economic downturn, if not a fully-fledged recession, spreading across Europe.

An alternative government, if it is to be a viable alternative, had better at least seem prepared to deal with the impending crisis should it be required to take the reins of power, either right now or in 2013. And if it does not or cannot come up with the goods now, how is the electorate to believe that it will do so once it is in power?

There is some real doom and gloom forecast on the horizon, and the European Commission and so many others are warning of an approaching resurgence of an economic crisis. They are not saying that just so the Maltese government could easily glide through the budget process; these are not excuses that are being made here.

And this is certainly no time for games and cheap ploys. Couldn’t those 51 points, for example, have been trimmed down to an even 50? Surely some of those points could have been likely candidates for the chopping block. For example, what does IVF have to do with the economy, and isn’t tourism already a leading pillar of the economy? We want a viable pension system, but where are the ideas?

Malta’s success in weathering the economic storms of the last three years has been a major feather in the present government’s cap, and it would be very difficult for the Opposition to truly tackle the government head on when it comes to the handling of the economy.

But to resort to pandering to the mob, with the constant harping on about its secret weapon to kill energy prices, and now, the sudden appearance on the scene of a company with certain connections makes for a dubious interpretation of what Labour’s plan might be.

We will leave this aspect lie for the time being, but suffice it to say that it is hoped that this is not the sole component of the Opposition’s grand energy plan.

The day before the budget we had argued that this budget must focus on the wood as well as the trees, more on the macro and how the micro can play its part. But in Dr Muscat’s reply, we heard a lot of micro ideas and precious little about matters such as curbing the deficit, improving competitiveness, or bolstering the buffer to cushion the country from the external shocks ahead.

The reply in fact instilled very little confidence that, should we have a new party in government come 2013, it would be able to handle an economic crisis and that we would not soon after be headed down the same road as Greece, Italy, Ireland or Portugal.

The Opposition in this instance has showed itself to be populist to a fault. The budget was a clinical exercise in prudence and responsibility with very, very few goodies for anyone. But its reply was a cornucopia of hollow promises with very little substance to back them up.

It simply threw as wide a woollen blanket over the country as possible and attempted to pull that wool over everyone’s eyes − to make it seem as though the Opposition has supplied answers to heal the country’s economic ailments but, in actual fact, it did not even come close.

The Opposition can continue hitting public nerves by screaming until it is blue in the face about electricity prices and ministers’ honoraria, but until it tables concrete, real and actionable solutions to the real problems the country is facing, it will not be taken seriously by enough people to bring it to power in the next general election.