One third into this legislature, the Labour government can still do no wrong for many of those who voted for it. With an Opposition that struggled to regroup and is still finding its feet after the pounding it took in March 2013, which was followed up by another heavy defeat in May 2014, Labour has had a free ride for more than a year and a half.

In the last 19 months, there have been many instances in which the government made mistakes or did not live up to its pre-election promises. The Taghna Lkoll concept was thrown out the window on the first day, the citizenship for sale project came out of the blue and is today still a controversial subject, the situation at Mater Dei Hospital is still in a shambles, public transport is still in a mess, the many instances in which the police force was under scrutiny and the slump in employment figures have all been matters of great concern, but they did not leave much of an impact on people's minds.

It's as if, generally speaking, the people could accept anything that Labour threw at them, so long as the Nationalists had been pushed aside. No matter how big the shortcoming was under Labour, it was forgiven.

Things have started to change, it seems.

The delay in the completion of the power station, which was Labour's trump card in the pre-election campaign, has brought out the worst of Labour. And, with an Opposition that is finally showing some spirit, there are now some chinks in Labour's armour.

Over the past week, we have seen several instances in which the Labour government has come across badly. Joseph Muscat and his colleagues have lost some of the composure that had distinguished them so far.

First of all, we had the Prime Minister's insistence that his promise to resign was not linked with the power station completion. I just wonder how he can keep a straight face to deny his own words when clips of his saying so were going round on news portals and the social media.

Secondly, we had Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi saying the government will be considering the introduction of energy night tariffs, the same proposal made by the PN before the election and which had been ridiculed by the then Labour Opposition. I can still remember the alarm clock jibes from Joseph Muscat, telling people that they would have to wake up in the middle of the night to wash their clothes to save some money on energy.

Thirdly, the government is still to explain what has gone wrong with its plans to have the power station up and running by March. The people are still to understand why the government has failed to keep the promise which was the foundation stone of its election victory.

But the worst was still to come.

On Monday, with their backs against the wall as the House of Representatives was discussing a motion on the power station delay presented by the Opposition, and knowing that they had no way to justify their failure to deliver on their most important promise, Labour exponents came up with allegations against former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and former Resources Minister George Pullicino.

It was evident that what Labour was trying to do was to deflect the attention from its own power station debacle on to the Opposition. The press conference held on Tuesday by Konrad Mizzi and the statement issued by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo confirmed this strategy as Labour's way of trying to shift focus on what is happening now under its administration on to what happened in the previous one.

But by using such a tactic, Labour is only admitting that it has no justifiable answer for its inability to fulfil its promise. When one tries to change the subject it is an admission that the argument has been lost.