I’m going to write this column without names, not because I have any problem mentioning them, but because I don’t want to involve this newspaper in any polemics or legal battles. But you all know who I’m talking about anyway, because you can’t have missed the controversies. Right now, the chances are that if you’re reading this, and you’re not reading it out of curiosity to see what your least favourite person has written, you’re reading it because you agree with me and are as sick to the death as I am of watching the same three or four business families, who operate like Mafia families, carry on no matter who is in government, buying up politicians, trading in influence and getting whatever they want to the detriment of the rest of the country, and then crying foul if they are called out on their behaviour, using the number of people they employ as some kind of threat or trigger for praise.

These people operate by buying influence and then claiming that they’re not. The people whose influence they buy then claim that their influence hasn’t been bought, that they’re just doing a job. But the operators I’m talking about systematically go after key people and approach them with offers of ‘work’. In reality, it’s not their work or expertise that they want, but their scalp nailed to their bedpost. They want to have as many significant individuals as they possibly can, from both political parties, in their pocket and in their pay. And because people are avaricious and selfish, have tunnel vision and lack personal pride and dignity, they manage to nail several of those scalps to their sleazy bedpost.

Over 25 years of Nationalist government, these operators entertained key members of those governments, in cabinet and outside it, on their boats, in their homes and elsewhere. That wouldn’t be possible today, not with smartphones ready to take pictures, not with internet ready to upload them, not with greater public awareness of why politicians should not accept hospitality from key business figures who will always want something. But back then, it was different. The very same businessmen who entertained Nationalist politicians over a quarter of a century began, when it became glaringly obvious after the 2008 general election that the Labour Party would win the next one, to court Muscat and Labour. They bankrolled his party, they entertained him and his politicians, they made inroads with them, and they began systematically buying them up. This does not mean that they let go of certain present and former members of the Nationalist Party. On the contrary – they kept their options open, because you know how it is, Labour will eventually be voted out.

When Simon Busuttil was elected leader of the Nationalist Party, I was relieved. I can say that in full confidence because I know for a fact that he is not the kind of person you can buy up. He also understands that if businessman X approaches him and offers him a job, it is not because that businessman thinks he is so terrifically skilled in his field, but because he wants to buy influence. What a shame, then, that Busuttil has people in his party who think that when a crooked businessman approaches them with an offer of work, it’s because he thinks they’re great and super-skilled, and not because he wants them in his pocket. And when a crooked businessman, or any businessman at all, crooked or not, invites them out, offers them hospitality, or seeks out their company, it’s because he thinks they are oh-so-amusing, so entertaining, such a blast – and not because he wants access.

If the Labour Party wins the upcoming general election, this country will be cast into oblivion. No amount of money will make up for that, and even the cash will end when we go the way Greece did. I support Simon Busuttil because he is the only way out of this terrible mess, and I am shocked, horrified, at the way some of those around him behave as though this is business as usual, as though they are better off in Opposition because in Opposition they can make more money (because cabinet ministers can’t take on private work). I am even more shocked and horrified when those Opposition MPs who take private work from shady and controversial business operators tell me “but we have to eat; we are only part-time MPs”. We all have to eat, but when you are committed to a cause, sacrifices are called for, and you have to be prepared to starve and suffer for that cause. If you are not willing to do that, you’re in the wrong place, fighting half-heartedly. And quite frankly, nobody every starved by not accepting a corrupt businessman as a client.

This government is dangerous. And anything which or anyone who improves its chances of re-election, even from the Opposition benches, is dangerous too. If you can’t understand how high the stakes are, or if you understand but don’t care, clear off and let somebody else fight the war against the forces of evil who are taking our country down into the blackest of black holes.

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