Well here we are, in the final stretch of this inordinately long election campaign.

Its duration was so willed by Lawrence Gonzi, who was so keen to let us know, more than once, that it was his prerogative to name the date for the election.

When he did, he went for a long campaign, hoping, I imagine, to retrieve his lost sheep. Did he manage? Was it worth it? I doubt it. I think his fortunes would have fared better in a short, sharp contest.

There have been so many chapters in this campaign.

I wonder, for instance, would the oil purchases scandal have broken out, if he had gone to the country earlier? Would MaltaToday have received the information which it got after the election date was announced? I have followed the scandal, but not assiduously enough to know if the newspaper had given out the details of when the calamitous (for the government) information came into its hands.

And it has been calamitous. For one, Austin Gatt lost his cool. His body language said it all. And he had reason to worry. It was on his watch that the awful, rampant corruption took place. How such widespread corruption over so many years, could escape his notice is beyond me. He must have taken his duties very lightly.

Tonio Fenech fared badly as well. He had not met George Farrugia, the man granted a presidential pardon in the oil procurement corruption. So he said. But as it turned out, Tonio had actually received Farrugia at his home and at his ministry too. As he himself admitted, eventually. He also met him at some activity, when there was the Prime Minister present too. At least a Nazzjon photograph showed the trio together.

And Tonio Fenech had also received a not insubstantial gift from a member of Farrugia’s family.

The ministerial code of ethics was breached here. But for the PN that was no big deal, it seems. Rules are made to be broken, it seems to tell us. The Prime Minister, no less, still expressed support for the cabinet’s postman. As he had for Austin Gatt. What could Dr Gonzi do – the election was round the corner. He could not take risks. So what if what was left of integrity went overboard! Most of it had gone out with the bathwater long ago anyway.

And then we had the four-year-old drug story. Joseph Muscat made a mistake. He took the wrong decision, but was man enough to own up to it. For him, too, the election was round the corner. But he still admitted his mistake, no beating about the bush. Integrity is precious to him.

The PN flogged the horse dead, so it went on and on about the story. It was so serious, we were told by the PN. It was awful. Such a terrible failing by the leader of the Labour Party. He was a danger to the country, the PN kept telling us, not exactly in those words.

There must have been some who fell for the story.

But, hold on, it occurs to me, if it was so bad, so harmful, why did the PN wait so long to come out with it? Why hold it under wraps for so long, I ask. Why keep to yourself knowledge of such a dangerous occurrence. Once it was so dangerous, as they said it was, should it not have been made public immediately the PN got wind of it?

But, you see, the election was not yet close enough. The story would have been forgotten by the time the election was called, had it been spilled when the PN caught on to it. So, though it was so dangerous, or so they said, it was held over by the PN. For use at the appropriate time. How about that for responsible action?

Unlike what happened because of Austin Gatt’s, and the Prime Minister’s, abject failure to smell out the oil purchases corruption. I include the Prime Minister because he is, after all, responsible for his ministers. Just as AG was responsible for what happened on his watch, so the PM was responsible for him, for having appointed him. And for standing by him constantly, too, through the Arriva debacle, the Fairmount affair, the SmartCity saga, the award of public land to GO, for free, and I do not know what else.

Because of the oil corruption, many, many suffered who could ill afford to suffer. There are people who cannot afford the utility bills, there have been many who had their power supply cut, families had to skimp to make ends meet, many saw their standard of living plummet. All because of the corruption, which AG and the PM say, they had not seen. Without the corruption we would have had lower bills.

In another chapter, we also had Lawrence Gonzi astonishingly insulting the President of France. Our head of government had the audacity to actually insult, gratuitously, the French leader. Who just days before had put his name to the EU aid package which the Prime Minister has been so boastful of.

I wonder, has there been any communication from Malta’s embassy in Paris, with Castile? Was Malta’s ambassador asked to explain Dr Gonzi’s remarks? I would really like to know. Francis Zammit Dimech is not one to hold his tongue. But in this case the foreign minister seems to have been struck dumb. God forbid. Was he contacted by the Paris embassy at all?

And Dr Gonzi has promised that he will create 25,000 jobs over the next five years. For the past 11 months, unemployment has been on the rise every month. But Dr Gonzi promises miracles. I wonder, do those 25,000 jobs include the 7,000 promised at Smart City. Those 7,000 did not materialise, though they were promised. Would the 25,000, if the PN is elected?

The thing is, it is so easy to make promises. Now, if Dr Gonzi were to say “if I do not manage to create those 25,000 jobs, I will eat my hat”, that would have been something. Or, if he had said, “If I fail, I will donate €25,000 to each (of so many charities)”.

That would be something indeed. Lawrence Gonzi might be believed.

Now, on the other hand, take Joseph. If he does not deliver on the power station, he has told us, he would resign. The power hungry Lawrence Gonzi, who stuck to his seat of power through thick and thin, in his warped logic saw that as taking the easy way out.

To me, to just promise to create 25,000 jobs, and suffer no consequences for non-delivery, is not the thing to do. In Maltese we say, il-weghda dejn – a promise amounts to a debt. Dr Gonzi sees no debt in his promise. He feels free to not deliver.

Remember, after all – in 2008 Dr Gonzi promised to lower the income tax rate. But he did not keep his word. Instead, he cocked a snook at us for five years. Then he made the same promise again.

Can you trust him to deliver the jobs, among the many other promises?