In one of our leading articles published yesterday, we spoke of the increasing importance that people are attaching to social networks and their value as a source of news and information.

In that same article, we spoke of the dangers of misinformation that these same social networks bring with them. It was therefore with incredulity that many users came across photographs posted on Facebook showing two political billboards.

Essentially, the PL saw a ‘clever’ opportunity in spotting a vacant billboard which they rightly presumed was to be filled by the PN’s strategists. The PL again played on the PM’s diminished poll ratings, using the GonziPN slogan along with the statement: “A government devoid of ideas” – Gvern Baħħ – with arrows pointing towards the other billboard.

This of course was not received so well by the Nationalist strategists, who yesterday saw it fit to hold a press conference with the participation of two of its ministers to launch its own billboard campaign. Labour were quick to point out that the poster looked like something out of the 1970s. If this is what we’re going to get in the run-up to the election campaign, then God help us.

How very, very sad. Just who is advising the political parties in terms of strategy and communication. Do both parties even realise just how stupid such campaigns make them look ? It almost makes you want to vote for your next door neighbour’s Labrador, rather than give a vote to parties which are engaging in schoolyard bickering.

It literally sounds like the jibes that squabbling kids would make during a schoolyard slanging match. Is this really the depth of Maltese politics in 2012? When an election looms, the electorate expect to be informed about a prospective government’s plans for the next legislature, not to hear a bunch of children prattling about each other.

What about plans to stimulate the economy? What about plans to improve the health and education sectors? What about a sustainable energy and development plan? What about policies on alcohol and cigarettes? What about Malta’s position on bailouts, loans and the eurozone?

All the while, both the PL and the PN have been harping on about the ‘wider picture’, yet all they can muster is pathetic name calling. What is even worse is that it is not only limited to billboards and campaigns. Every Sunday, at political meetings, we never hear of the PN or the PL’s plans for the next five years. All we hear is the same old mantra: “Gonzi is clinging to power” and “Muscat will do anything to be in power”.

If the formation of this government was “scraping the bottom of the barrel”, we can only wonder what the next one will be like – irrespective of who wins – if this is the level of cattiness and pettiness that both parties are going to wage their electoral campaigns on. It is enough to make you lie down and weep. We always hope that there will be a new generation of politicians, but look where that has gotten us over the past four years. A constant state of bickering, power grabbing and ridiculous tit-for-tat exchanges in parliament and in public. Sadly, there is no alternative. People are going to have to choose between a rapidly deteriorating PN and a very mediocre and ordinary PL.

We deserve better as a people; we really do.