All billboards are, essentially, marketing tools. An image is displayed which is intended to give a particular message that is sometimes accompanied with appropriate wording. In advertising, billboards can work wonders since the visual impact may sometimes be so clear that only one message can be received. This applies of course also with regard to billboards that are used to give political messages. Some are simple and clear. Others may sometimes not be so clear. There is also the hidden message and the unintended message.

The latest billboards put up by our political parties relay diverse and distinct messages. The latest to hit the roads are those put up by the Nationalist Party, in particular a billboard, which in effect is a representation of a queue at an employment offices under the heading “Labour won’t work”. According to the PN, a Labour Party in government would mean a downturn in jobs. Apart from whether you agree with this message, the method in which the message was put forward needs to be assessed.

The billboard itself has been confirmed to be a carbon copy of a billboard used in a UK election campaign so many years ago. This in itself can only mean that the PN is living in the past. When all it can do is re-hash old scaremongering ideas, then it truly has a problem. What was expected from the PN was a campaign based on showing what has been done over the past few years, although, in truth the PN has a problem. The PN in reality does not have much to shout about with regard to its achievements over the past few years. Unemployment, rocketing cost of living, unchecked rises in utility bills, lack of responsibility, lack of transparency and, above all, much internal strife.

The PN has nothing new to offer. There are no new messages. There are no new ideas. The PN has lost the plot, and this manifestly so.

Truly the message on the PN billboards is that it is an outmoded and outdated party struggling to come up with new policies and methods. The PN has lost touch with the day-to-day realities of our lives. I can imagine what’s in store for the next few weeks and months. Billboard upon billboard of endless criticism of the Labour Party. I do not want to be reminded of what may or may not have happened 30 years ago. I do not want to base my vote upon a criticism of the Labour Party for long-forgotten policies and situations. This is the basest form of negativism that serves no purpose other than to foment insecurity and inaccuracies.

I want ideas for a better future. The PN cannot give us any. Their billboards say so.

Simon Micallef Stafrace is a Labour Party general election candidate for the 1st and 8th Districts