You are right Mr George Calleja of Sliema (‘The wrong picture’ TMID, 24 May). Opulence is not what I was refering to, even though the “non-fictitious” event happened at the Msida yacht marina. But the contrast of the opulence of the yachter and the fate of this unfortunate man who, to satisfy his appetite, had to look into the green skips and retrieve perhaps what they had discarded. And that’s what hurts most! Like Mr Martinelli before you, there is no compassionate feeling in you, but an insatiable desire to shield the misgovernance of this government. It’s always the same with the PN sympathisers. They always quote their leaders blindly, but never look at the situation as it really is.

And the miserable state we are living in is not only the austerity – which the Prime Minister never admitted – but the imposition of exuberant taxes to make good for the huge debt it incurred because of the overexpenditure in the yearly budgets these last 25 years. The increased taxation and the introduction of direct taxation stemmed this tide of poverty, beggars, and national near-bankruptcy. And it isn’t laziness that might have brought this man into such situation. It is very cruel of you to relate this to his sorry state.

Yes, there are people begging because government has reverted to burdening the populace with heavy taxes in order to recover billions of euro in debt. Yes, we are in this sorry state because this government invested millions of euro in projects which will never render a return; projects which never kept the target dates and more seriously, always exceeded the budgeted tender, in some cases by twice the sum tendered. Yes, people are begging because of the €83 million spent on the bridge to nowhere, the doorless entrance to the city, the roofless theatre and a parliament which convenes for three hours, three days a week. This sum would have relieved thousands of people to pay for their electricity bills, or more conveniently for the medicine which is always out of stock. And yes, because of the national debt which is always on the increase. And by disposing of the various entities through privatisation – which were literally given away for peanuts.

People are in this sorry state because the PN was always against the social welfare created by the Labour administration. If you look into the parliamentary debates you will find living proof that the PN always voted against social measures proposed by Labour. The PN never looks down, or puts its ears to the ground to listen to the outcry, the wails of the poor people, but always looks upwards and makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.

I wish I had more space to continue, especially to say how the social benefits are distributed. No, Mr Calleja, we are not Labour gloomers and doomers. We are proud to belong to a party which never distinguished between the rich and the poor. Labour governments always wanted to bridge the gap between the very rich and the poor by creating a middle class which the PN was never in favour of; a society with equal rights in everything. Since its inception the PL always sought to unite our nation, not like the PN which came after us poor working-class beings for our vote and then disposed of us like empty bottles of beer. On the contrary, Mr Calleja, I am proud to form part of a PL which introduced a social welfare system much earlier than many EU member states; a social welfare state which was one of the best, if not the best, and the envy of all of Europe.

■ Louis Fenech

Iklin