We all have a dream world, a sweet intoxicating wish world, which we acknowledge, smile and occasionally laugh at ourselves about, but nevertheless cling to like a baby to its mother's thumb.

The hope of an eventual realisation of this alluring, dazzling, appealing way of life makes us  emotionally and psychologically vulnerable. The further away we are from who and what we wish to be, and the more perplexed and desperate we become as to how we can set about to achieve our dream job, dream house, dream life, the easier it is for us to fall prey to the clutches of political party propaganda machines. As hope shrinks and flattens out and we are about to drown into abject hopelessness there come the mainstream political parties with their sweet talk and their proverbial straws to pump up the hope and guarantee us our dreams.

It is not easy for an average mind to resist the stranglehold on the local and national media that the powers that be obviously have. The might of their established organising presence impresses further, and their strategic jackals and vultures go into hyper-mode as they tear away at people's emotions, weaknesses and hopes. One week into the EP campaign the hype is already in full swing and a good swathe of the voting population is already on its way to having its mind kneaded like a blob of pizza pastry only to be baked into required form on EP election day.

We all wish that this campaign was about choosing our representatives for EP. We all wish that we were campaigning in our noble endeavour to send the best men and women to the indolent, bureaucracy infested giant that our Europe has become. We wish to be able to prod this Europe of ours into taking actual ownership of the social and economic realities of a genuinely united, as distinct from a loosely fragmented bloc, and actually acting on them with a united Europe in mind. To- date it is still painfully obvious that the founding concepts of unity and solidarity with and for all member states are only called into play when convenient for some countries and not for others. Having said that I still believe that we can create the European Union we all aspire to, and that on 24 May our contribution should be strictly towards that end.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately after all)  the first week of campaigning by the main political parties has set the trend for the weeks ahead. These elections are going to be all about expressing approval or disapproval of Joseph Muscat's first year in government, and all about public endorsement or otherwise of Simon Busuttil and the new PN he is trying to create.

It is clear that Dr Busuttil is still struggling with the formidable task of shedding the weight of the chains that still shackle his leadership, even if it was obviously his loyalty to the PN which made him jump into the midst of the absolute conflagration that GonziPN had become in its last months in office. 

From where I stand, at least to date, disillusionment in the political class is rife and increasing daily. The multitude of good policies introduced by PL in government during this year are still trying to elbow their way through the corridors in people's minds whose overriding impression is that nothing has changed in the way politics is being done.

The general feeling is that an internal unelected core is running the country, and that the PM is being held to ransom by developers and businessmen. In short, after a landslide victory only a year ago, the overriding perception is that people have got their change, but only in faces.

The upcoming few weeks are certainly going to be interesting, as we follow the gladiators fighting it out on the psychological platform. In the meantime, as a backbencher on the Government side I urge my readers to think with their minds, ask themselves how best to use their vote if they want a better Malta and a better Europe, and then cast their very valid vote on the day.

This particular vote is as important as the one we cast a year ago. The only difference is that on 25 May, whichever way we vote Joseph Muscat will still be Prime Minister, and that the next election that counts is four years away.

Marlene Farrugia is a Labour MP