May I ask C. Galea how the government ‘lost its majority’ when the Opposition lost its no-confidence vote in Parliament? (TMID 27 January).

May I remind C. Galea that the government was handed a mandate in 2008, for five years and can govern for another year or so.

C. Galea’s tone is exactly the same as Joseph's and is defective in logic and simply designed to quench the thirst of Labour supporters who have not tasted victory since 1996.

What is interesting is the fact that the motion of no-confidence was made by Anġlu Farrugia and not Joseph Muscat as leader of the Opposition. Why? Was Joseph convinced that he would lose out and did not want his name tied to the ill-fated motion? Or did Anġlu jump the gun, put forward the motion as a ‘private member’s bill’, a right he has, but without Joseph’s approval? Is there a hidden power struggle within the Labour Party between the ‘old guard’ and the ‘new and moderates’?

Whatever the ploy, it failed. The government has not lost its legal right to complete its mandate and the Opposition has not gained any legal or moral right to continue to throw wrenches in the works of the government.

Had the Labour Party been transparent, accountable and honest with the public, offered better alternatives than the present government has offered and the successes it has achieved in Health, Education, Tourism and the Economy, then the LP would perhaps have a leg to stand on. It has not, it will not and has not even given the slightest hint of having an electoral programme whose author we are still guessing.

Is it Karmenu, is it Aaron, Charlie? We never hear more of Joseph's fifteen year ‘plan’ he boasted about so much when he was elected leader. What happened to it? Has it been shelved with Sant’s electoral programme of 2008, collecting dust on some obscure shelf at the Mile End?

In which area can a Labour government do better? If a future Labour administration will be a mirror of its own past, then heaven help us. Yet the Labour Party refuses to shed light on what a future Labour government could do better. Simply continuing on the successes of the present Nationalist government is hardly reason for changing for the unknown.

If the Mile End balcony was originally designed for Gaddafi to wave at the adoring crowds below, it missed by just over a year now. Was it MEPA’s fault, by any chance? Then it so happened that things were speeded up in anticipation of a Labour coup earlier this week. That also failed.

Even prior to us joining the EU, for Labour ‘democracy’ meant (and still does) doing things their way, or else. So, what else is new? Can the ‘new and improved’ Labour Party ever get one right?

J. Martinelli

Canada