Everyone seems to have become an expert on energy in the last few days.

Don’t worry, I will not bore you with another analysis of the plan the Labour Party has put forward and which, it says, will enable a reduction in the price of water and electricity. Neither will I write about the Nationalist Party’s attempt to discredit what the PL is suggesting, which it describes as an “Alice in Wonderland” story.

What I will say about the energy issue – since I am no expert in the field and do not claim to be one – is that the Labour Party has hijacked the first week of the election campaign. I use the word “hijack” in a positive way, meaning that the PL has managed to steer the political debate to its core issue, the one on which it will build its entire campaign in a bid to return to government. So far, the PN has had to defend, and this indicates that somehow it under-estimated Labour in this respect.

I will repeat what I have often said: PN and PL hardcore supporters will vote for their party, come what may. It is the so-called floaters that the parties will have to convince. And since most people base their convictions on perception and face value, the Labour Party has come across as well-prepared on the issue. On this, Labour has earned some points.

I say this without going into the merits of what has been proposed, which I will leave to those who are more at home with the technical points of the plans. For Labour it is do-able, for the PN it is not. It would be good, however, to get to know what experts who have no political, business or personal interest have to say about it. But, I guess, none can be found. Those who have spoken so far all seem to have some kind of link, or are opportunistically trying to suck up to the politicians, and therefore the opinions they have expressed are not objective.

It is clear that the possibility of a 25 per cent reduction in the bills people and businesses will receive from 2014 and 2015 respectively has overshadowed the feasibility or otherwise of the plans as proposed. It sounds so nice. This move is as blinding as Labour’s pre-1996 election proposal to remove VAT. That stunt worked, as people just saw the possibility of doing away with the dreaded taxation, little realising that it would have to be replaced. In fact, it was, and matters became much worse for them, as the 1998 election result shows.

In 1996, the VAT issue worked for Labour, and it is hoping that this time energy will be the determining factor of the election.

But the election campaign is long. We are still only in the first week. The earlier the PN manages to steer clear of the energy debate and turn the people’s attention to other matters, the better its chances will be of recovering the lost ground.

Somehow, however, I find it hard to believe that the energy issue will be put aside. We have already seen that it is a topic that comes up all the time in the political events that have been held and in television programmes that discuss the political situation. And whereas the PN’s intentions are to play things down, the Labour Party will continue to milk the favourable situation it has created right up to the very end.

But I do hope that the next eight weeks will not turn into a match based only on this particular issue. There is far more that needs to be discussed. Our quality of life and our future do not depend solely on how much we pay for our utilities, important as this may be.

This is why both political parties must use the time that remains to explain what they have in mind in respect of other important issues, apart from energy.

We are still to hear Labour’s plans in respect of health, education and employment, which are the three areas the Nationalist Party has chosen to focus on. Even here, the PN has so much to explain, given that it has based its arguments mostly on its track record – which is excellent in these sectors, but on which more needs to be done.

It is the overall picture that counts, not only how much one pays for water and electricity.

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Last summer, the Gozo Tourism Association was one of the entities that took me to task for saying that holidays in Gozo have become more expensive than visits abroad.

In a letter the GTA sent in reply to this newspaper, it said that low-cost carriers were a double-edged sword because more tourists were coming over, but at the same time more Maltese were opting for holidays abroad, instead of going to Gozo. However, it did not believe that a holiday in Gozo was more expensive than a holiday abroad.

A few days ago, in its proposals to the political parties on the eve of the election campaign, the GTA, while stating again that the advent of low-cost carriers “is detrimental to Gozo because the Maltese are choosing to go abroad rather than spend their holidays in Gozo”, it called on the next government to reduce the price of Gozo Channel ferry tickets for Maltese people spending at least one night in Gozo.

What the GTA is suggesting is a reduction of costs for Maltese holidaying in Gozo, which therefore means that, on the whole, it is preoccupied by the cost of a holiday in Gozo.

So it seems that what I wrote last summer is correct after all. Still, it is not the few euros that people will save on a ferry ticket that will make a difference. It is the rising cost of accommodation and charges in restaurants that are having a negative effect.

But the GTA stopped short of suggesting anything in this regard.

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