It is widely believed that a honeymoon is fun, the culmination of a celebration and a union of two people who believe they are made for each other. It is also a symbolic time when all goes well and the path is rosy, and is a good time to take stock of what lies ahead – because all unions, even those made in heaven, need looking after, time to adjust, a deep understanding and mutual respect.

When the honeymoon is over, the two love-birds come down to earth, get back behind their work benches and, now a married couple, toil away at their daily grindstone. The union gets sturdier and more meaningful as the honeymoon becomes a memory, but the work is tough, the days sometimes long, the problems of paying bills, keeping up standards and eventually raising a family are interesting challenges which only those made of stern stuff face properly and successfully.

Sometimes, when a married couple has not sussed up each other well enough, even the honeymoon is a disaster. The two are incompatible or one of them is incompetent at everything. Strangely, this sounds very close to Malta’s plight right now. The electorate dumped a long-serving, successful spouse – the PN – and chose to marry and go on holiday with the new kid on the block, whose glitter and show was mesmerising. But, unfortunately, the honeymoon period – traditionally the time for fun and a continuation of the festivities – has been a complete disaster.

The electorate’s decision gave – and continues to give – the PN time to ponder, to regroup, to study what went wrong and what is wrong with certain strategies, certain choices. But if one truly, with hand firmly on heart (and not with tongue firmly in cheek), evaluates what has happened in these first few months of a Labour-led government, then one cannot but cringe. The country – or most of the observers who are objective – cannot understand how unprepared, how infantile, how useless the change to Labour has been. In my GP practice I meet many people who either did not vote or switched their vote, and they all have one familiar refrain. For various reasons, they all wanted the PN to suffer but they are all now regretting their mistake. They already feel that their choice was based on fancy words and hollow slogans.

The first few months have been a disaster nearly every day. We were promised solutions and all we have heard so far is criticism of what used to happen under the PN. Labour won on a ticket of change. However, the only change we are seeing is that – unlike the PN in government, who delivered – they are doing nothing but moan and grumble. We also now hear the terrible word xewwiexa (incite) and conspiracy. Labour does not know how to govern—it knows how to oppose by destructive criticism.

So, now that he is in government, all Joseph Muscat can do is talk in slogans, platitudes and hollow words. If you do that in Opposition, you might end up winning your bride (or bridegroom) but if you cannot handle the relationship, your marriage is heading for the rocks.

Labour does not work or deliver. Labour is a working disaster.