For the last two or three years, the Labour Party has been constantly attacking Health Minister Joe Cassar – sometimes verging on a personal level too – while highlighting what it describes as severe shortcomings in the way Mater Dei Hospital is being run.

On one occasion we even had the PL spokesman for health Marie Louise Coleiro Preca questioning the credentials of the World Health Organisation Regional Director Zsuzsanna Jakab who had described Malta’s health service as being an example others should follow.

We have had Super One regularly showing footage of patients waiting in the corridors and giving their viewers extensive stories about what it said was the pain and suffering of people who needed treatment at the hospital. (It never reported the good things, such as the countless new types of surgery and services that have been introduced in the last few years.)

So when, this past week, Labour announced that it will be holding a press conference outside the main entrance of the hospital, I expected the Labour leader to come up with a string of proposals which, in Labour’s view, would overhaul the system or, at least, explain how the PL intends to sort out the problems about which it has been speaking for such a long time.

But we had none of this. Instead, we had Joseph Muscat saying that a new PL government would build on what already exists, which to me means that what we already have is more than good enough. I guess nobody would want to build on unsteady ground, and so what Labour did was to tacitly admit that it was wrong to heap so much criticism on the health services, and the minister in particular.

All Joseph Muscat did during the press conference was to speak of various issues related to health without committing himself to what a new Labour government would do except – listen to this – try to find solutions to the problems the current government is already looking into. So, after all, Labour has realised that the efforts that have been made by the government have been more than fruitful, and that it does not have the magic wand it led many to believe it had to wipe away all the inadequacies.

To me, Labour’s press conference on Friday gave a political clean bill of health to Minister Joe Cassar.

What stood out at the press conference was the presence of no fewer than 10 Labour candidates who flanked their leader while he was addressing the media, five on one side and five on the other. I bet all of them are vying for the post of health minister in a new Labour government, and are probably already at each other’s throats in trying to grab that place. I wonder to whom has Joseph promised the position. Perhaps he has individually told them all that it would be theirs.

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The Malta Employers Association was extremely quick in coming out to support the Labour Party’s energy plans. Just a day after Labour star candidate Konrad Mizzi explained what Labour intends to do – without giving a detailed explanation and without presenting any report to the media – the MEA endorsed the proposals without as much as questioning how they will be implemented.

The MEA, however, had no comment to make on the proposal put forward by the Nationalist Party to allow what will be known as parental sick leave – meaning that parents could make use of their sick leave allotment to stay at home with their kids who are unwell. This newspaper asked for comments one week after they were printed as part of the PN’s election manifesto, but the MEA chose not to take a stand because, its president said, discussions were still ongoing.

So, on the one hand the MEA gives the thumbs-up to complicated energy plans that would include an investment of between €376 and €600 million without having a comprehensive explanation of how they will be implemented, and then on the other opts to take no position on something that is less complicated, such as the parental sick leave proposal.

It certainly does not make the MEA look good.

By the way, what has happened to Konrad Mizzi these days? He was in the forefront in the first week of the election campaign, and was constantly appearing on TV shows, but he has since disappeared. Was Labour not too happy with his performances? Is Labour having second thoughts on its energy plan?

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I do not see the reasoning behind the Nationalist Party’s proposal to give a €1,000 gift to newborns or adopted children. The PN is describing this as the start of a pension fund, but to me it is yet another socialist idea, one of many that can be found in the PN’s electoral programme.

It will not bring any disgruntled Nationalist voters back into the fold. Neither will it win the PN any votes from the Labour side, as Labour supporters will say thank-you, but still vote Labour. If anything, people who pay every cent due in taxes see it as another way in which the government is squandering their money.

For many years, the PN criticised socialist governments for being too paternalistic. This and other proposals in the budget – such as the parental sick leave, increase in stipends and the donation of a tablet computer to each child in school – are paternalistic too.

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I cannot understand why Alternattiva Demokratika expects to be given the same amount of time as the PN and the PL during televised political debates.

With less than two per cent of the vote in the last election, AD wants to have as much time on air as the two main political parties. It is unreasonable that they should make such a demand.

In fact, I think they are given more time than they deserve.

I will only change my mind when AD holds its first mass meeting and attracts as many people as do the PN and PL.

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