Many will know of the hilarious British sitcom that titles this leading article. In it, the main character Hyacinth is obsessed with keeping up appearances, pretending to be uppercrust when she comes from a working background and making out to be something she is not.
Hyacinth even mispronounced her surname to sound like ‘Bouquet’ rather than ‘Bucket’. Given this short background, we now tackle the issue that we are meant to, and that is the Nationalist Party. Leader Simon Busuttil has told Malta that the party is rejuvenated and is inclusive. We beg to differ, and this is where the PN is ‘keeping up appearances’. Let us go with the cosmetics first, the setup for the PN General Council was lacklustre to say the least. The backdrop looked scruffy and dated and the chairs – well, let’s just say they would have been more at home in a Bingo hall. Dr Busuttil’s delivery was good, the speech was also good in content, but did he have to go for the grand (re) entrance? Dr Busuttil was sat in the front row and then exited the hall, only to return to a ‘hero’s welcome’ as the party faithful stood up and applauded. To the trained eye, it looked like an exercise in the grandiose and was not needed. In short, it looked set-up and it didn’t look good at all.
We also question the PN’s shooting down of MEP candidate Kevin Plumpton, who took to social media to share his views on the Citizenship Scheme. The PN distanced itself from his comments, in which he said he believed that the PN should now retract its judicial protest against the government. The PN went as far as issuing a statement on the matter. And it begs the question, is there no freedom of expression allowed in the Nationalist Party? Other PN members have said that the revised scheme can produce good results, so why has he been singled out?
The PN is changing and evolving and by and large, Dr Busuttil is working tirelessly to win back the hearts and minds of the many thousands which deserted it in the last election. But on the other hand, despite the dire straits that the party finds itself in financially, it really ought to spruce up its image. Aesthetics do matter, and this is fact.
The PN also lost a lot of votes in the last election because people felt that they were not being listened to, and in addition that if they offered a different point of view, they would be ostracized and even ridiculed. The PN must shed that image as soon as possible and failure to do so would result in more people thinking that there is only one mantra within the party.
Dr Busuttil’s delivery and the content of his speech was good, but he must now put into practice what he is preaching.