The PN’s election campaign has been so negative that it completely drowned whatever good leads it could have raised regarding better governance for the country. Those who remained sceptical about the arguments and allegations advanced by the Opposition Leader effectively came to be lambasted as themselves criminal and corrupt; let aside those who flatly disagreed with him.
The impression was then given – whether true or not is hardly material – that somebody noticed the whole approach had become too negative. So it needed to be balanced with proposals for future action by a “generous” government. We were therefore treated to a series of promises which were perceived as unbalanced and as put together without too much preparation.
Unfortunately, you cannot compensate for negativism by promising everything to everybody. Especially if you’re running a campaign that is fundamentally anchored to negative messages that must be repeated over and over again.
In this context, “positive” proposals end up as not to be believed. Moreover they are recognised for what they truly are: a procedure intended to let the negative message continue unabated.
The Opposition’s campaign seems to have fallen into such a trap. On this point surely, its leader has only himself to blame.
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Distrust
With all due respect, I just can have no trust in the statements about good governance and against corruption that the PN is making. For one thing, the proposals the PN is advancing today are not new. They have been around for a long, long time. There exist models to show how they have been introduced elsewhere.
Over the years, my colleagues and I suggested I do not know how many initiatives by which to respond to corruption, in an effective manner, not simply by flailing and wailing. We revealed cases of administrative abuse as well as of decisions that were really crooked regarding huge public contracts ranging from Chambray, to the projects for the Auxiliaries Scheme, San Raffaele and in its wake Mater Dei the hospital, to the drydocks, public transport and Mistra. Time after time, instead of launching serious investigations, successive PN governments treated the questions we raised as if they were clownish affairs. Scores of millions of euros were involved.
No, I’m sorry. I cannot trust the Nationalist Opposition to be honest and serious in its claims about good governance.
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Roger Moore
For me Roger Moore was not James Bond, as the media reports about his death emphasized most. For me he was “The Saint”, a main character in stories written by the now quite forgotten Leslie Charteris which were turned into television episodes. Every week they would be shown on the national TV station , with Moore then very young, featuring in the principal role as an able adventurer.
You can still view some of these episodes on you tube. I saw “The Latin Touch”. It is far from being boring, though pumped with stereotyping about national behaviours.
Like Michael Caine, Moore projects the image of an English-style aristocrat. He wears clothes that conform to the best fashion of the day, he speaks with a plummy accent and is cordial in his dealings, or calm, not to say cool. Yet in real life, both Moore and Caine were born and bred in working class families.