What the Labour government and the Nationalist Opposition did on Monday was despicable.

We are talking here about the way in which a Partit Demokratiku motion calling for hunting times to be restored to the way they were, thus ensuring that families and school children get more time at the natural park, was defaced by the PN and how the amended motion was endorsed by both the PL and PN.

Instead of calling for the reversal of the extension of hunting times, Parliament has now called for new consultation on the hunting times in the nature reserve, which could possibly lead to hunting times being extended further.

This media house has always been against hunting and that has not changed. We believe that allowing hunting in the park until 10am was more than fair. The logical thing would be to ban all forms of hunting and trapping in a nature park – the two things are just incompatible –but we also understand that this country has a limited amount of countryside that has to be shared by everyone.

But the government’s decision to extend hunting times was both irrational and illogical. It effectively means that ordinary nature loving people and school children have to make way for hunters - the small but ever so powerful minority that has always had politicians in this country by the scruff of the neck.

PD politicians Godfrey and Marlene Farrugia should be commended for putting forward a motion that was in the interest of the much larger majority who wish to enjoy our beautiful countryside in peace and security.

We are sorry to see how the PN effectively killed the PD motion by removing its most important part – the part that called on the government to restore the original hunting times.

The PN and PD have just announced a divorce – a one-sided divorce, it would seem, because the PD was not even given a heads up before an announcement was made. Adrian Delia’s PN clearly dislikes the PD and the PD clearly dislikes Delia’s PN. But just because the two parties parted ways does not mean that they should start taking potshots at each other, undermining the other’s every move.

If this is what this was about, then the PN has stooped to very low levels. It would mean that the PN sided with the government to spite its former Forza Nazzjonali partner. If this was not the case, if the PN genuinely felt that more time should be given to hunters, at the expense of families and school children, then it would have still stooped to very low levels.

The government, on the other hand, has fared no better. The Parliamentary Secretary responsible for hunting, Clint Camilleri, who has a massive conflict of interest because he is himself a hunter, part of the minority that has always held the government to ransom, said it is unfair that hunters can only practice their sport at the Majjistral Park until 10am. We say that what is unfair is that hunting can take place in a natural park in the first place.

Many may not like the PD’s style of politics, many more may not like its MPs, but in all of this the Partit Demokratiku was the only voice of reason.

PD is right when it says that, on matters of the environment, the PL and the PN are one and the same.

As the Majjistral Park Federation correctly stated, votes are more important to them than the environment.