Now it’s official – Malta through the ceaseless efforts of Dr Lawrence Gonzi has secured €1.12 billion from the EU for seven years. I’m sure you all know this by now but can we all stop and think. Do we take for granted the goods being delivered by a PN government?

We are so used to good news that we expect it and we fail to appreciate the work that has gone into it. In these tough times of recession and austerity, of cutbacks and suffering, our team in the EU has delivered and delivered big time.

But we – yes, I accept that even I do– take everything for granted. We have it good and expect it to be like that. The PN in government has set the bar so high that we have become immune to good news. So what if youth unemployment in Spain is over 60 per cent and ours is one of the lowest in Europe? So what if our graduates all find jobs? So what’s the big news that most of our neighbours are experiencing difficulties? We’ve become so used to our success that we don’t even classify it as success. And so because the PN has delivered and delivered magnificently some feel the need for change.

I’m always nervous about these calls for change when there is so much that is at stake. Imagine a football team that has won the top local competition five times running and the successful team has been re-energised continually with new players. It keeps winning – and because it wins people ask for a change. Dump the team and the coach for a new one just because we are bored of success.

The PN have been winning, yes – election after election. But they have won because they have delivered and have also won international competitions. The EU funds that have been secured can easily be compared to winning more than one Champions League – the PN has all the credentials to carry us forward to bigger things and changing can only endanger this.

People keep saying the past must not be mentioned – but the PN always believed in our country and will continue to do so, and because we had such faith in our people and in our capabilities we joined the EU. If the people of Malta had supported the Labour call to shun the EU, we would not have been the recipients of such largesse. We would have been deprived of European success and we would have remained living in isolation, with not a cent from the EU. Instead we rank among the champions of the EU –yes, little us is a country other big countries talk of with envy. Angela Merkel praised us and she is not exactly one to praise for no reason.

Just as we believed in the EU, the PN in government took decisions that were bold – because we believe in our capabilities and in our people. Joseph Muscat wanted us to remain out – and now conveniently says that personally he agreed with the EU but went along with party policy. Have the people around him who were vehemently against the EU changed as well and do they now think they made a mistake? But if they always made these mistakes in choosing the right track for our country what is going to happen when they take some other wrong decision and we are faced not with the successes we are used to but with failures?

This PN team has been a success and has been an instrument of change – a team that has changed Malta constantly and persistently for the better, for the benefit of the people. Now is not the time to change course.

A winning team needs more support, more long-lasting support to make sure that the team that wins goes on winning. Winning can never be boring.