A little more than ten years ago, during the 2008 election campaign, my comrades chided me for having left till too late to open up the scandal about the incredible abuses that was were being committed at Mistra Bay by then PN MP Pullicino Orland. Probably not enough time would be left for people to comprehend how serious the whole matter was, they felt.

Still, I decided to take that risk. Before launching the Mistra claims, I wanted to carry out all the necessary researches to ensure hundred per cent that we were on the right track. Being targeted was the reputation of a person who in my view, up to that point, had shown ability and integrity. From the Opposition, one needs to be hard, very hard, but then also prudent and cautious.

In the Egrant case last year, the worst sin of the then Opposition leader was that he let the prejudices of those he trusted as well as his own wishes, overrule everything else. Once again, he built his claims on a lie, like the PN had done in the Pullicino Orlando affair. This time, the PN did not win, but crashed very badly.

On two counts, because losing the 2017 election it has also been shown up as having again launched its political agenda on the basis of fraud.

***

Construction works in summer

I believed that a summer moratorium is inforce on construction works being publicly carried out in the streets of touristic locations: such works were to be kept on hold. Is this still in existence or not?

From what I can see, even if the moratorium still exists, it is being ignored on a big scale.

Frequent closures of residential streets, construction machines that occupy strategic corners, dust and scaffoldings made of wood and steel pipes infiltrating roads and dowtown squares, all these have become part of the scenery.

There can be no doubt that the quality of a holiday in the Maltese summer is deteriorating. We will get the blowback when our Mediterranean competitors, chief of which Turkey and Tunisia, recover.

***

Brexit

Anxiety is on the up regarding the possibility that the Brexit negotiations will not end with some agreement. On the British side, uncertainties have grown over the months, not declined. Speculation that the Theresa May government is in its death throes has continued to spread.

While in the UK, political currents have emerged that would like to see the UK exit the Union without any agreement, in Brussels and other continental capitals, that possible outcome is being taken more and more seriously. In a document it published last week the European Commission went quite deeply into the repercussions of how things would pan out were no agreement to be reached and the UK would just depart. The new British minister in charge of the exit negotiations again emphasized (something which had not been done for a while) that without a satisfactory agremeent, the UK would not be bound to pay the funds left pending to its debit under membership conditions.

An agreement needs to be found as soon as can be (this October was the month indicated) for Brexit to come on stream by March of next year. Many believe that this milestone cannot be reached.

One point that is rarely mentioned but which seems commonsensical goes as follows: if all member countries agree, the time set for an agreement to be reached could be extended. Indeed, why not?