Like well-oiled machines, the parties have geared up for yet another election – this time, one that interests the entire population but is not a general election.

The bill-boards are out, as are the tents that are set up in squares where meetings are held. Coverage is wall-to-wall on the Maltese language television stations. The template is rolled out with all the stops being clearly marked and falling into place, one after the other.

And it’s all so pointless: it’s not a general election but a sort of rehearsal for one. Then again, it’s not a general election so it does not entail the huge popular participation when the destiny of the country is decided.

Consider it as a periodic pain, that will come and leave very few after-effects, a bother, an upswing of rhetoric, perhaps some mass rallies or meetings that are usually so enjoyable, where people  meet those of the same political beliefs and for a time forget the country is made up of people with different beliefs and contrasting opinions.

Why bother? Why bother, indeed? The two main parties so resemble each other as parties of the centre that they only bicker and fight on personal issues. Otherwise they borrow plans and proposals from each other, as a result of which the plans and proposals are seamless. It would have been quite different were we to have a real difference of opinion such as between real Left and real Right. All that the parties seem able to do is fight over personalities,  steal each other’s clothes and battle it out on the airwaves.

There is a non-tense sort of tension – and appeals to voters not to desert the polls and that a non-vote is equivalent to a vote for the others fall on deaf ears.

Fittingly, such a situation mirrors exactly the situation in the outgoing European Parliament, where EPP and PES are more in coalition than in opposition. That situation might change after 26 May – we shall see.

So far, however, at least locally, we have the usual full content of invective, of bile and of generalised ill-feeling. Over the years, the Maltese have become rather inured to this – to a far greater extent than in other countries. Some foreign residents have obtained the right to take part in one or other of these elections and I pity those who are unfortunate enough to be asked to explain just one local political issue – and all its Byzantine roots.

We do not have the issues and arguments that are prevailing all over Europe in this election – our parties form part of the two main parties and Euroscepticism, Brexit, migrants, the euro itself and the coming together of Salvini, Le Pen and Orban do not feature among us. The two main parties have made sure we stay in the middle of the Euro-controversies and in so doing they have killed any European debate here. So why hold a European Parliament election at all?

If there is any excitement left that is to see who will be the new MEPs and the relative composition of the two sides. I was at our Business Breakfast on Thursday and can say Miriam Dalli has made a good strategic choice in choosing to speak about industry and its future. But then the people around her were, at least as I saw it, from traditional Labour ranks.

This comment can also be made in respect of the two parties in general with regard to the wider local council elections. The PN has already pointed out that none of the ladies in Dalli’s initiative to draw more women into politics seem to have made it to local council candidates. But I think we can also say that the PN lists contain the usual faces and, again, the copycat attempt to draw young people into politics does not seem to have translated to local council elections.

It is fair to say that the two parties did not try hard. Deep down, they feel they don’t have to.

Joan Hayes

We paid our last respects to Joan on Friday. Three weeks ago she was at our offices doing what she did on Saturdays – proof-reading. Then she was in pain and had to leave in mid-afternoon.

Joan and I were recruited to the Independent by a common friend: Joan joined earlier than me.

She had never trained to proof-read but the extremely good grounding in English that Judge Xuereb, her father, had given her was far better than any course. She did, of course, supplement that by good reference books and websites.

Proofreading is mistakenly on the way out in many papers and websites which think it is a waste of time and money – as the mistakes in papers and on websites show. It is a back-bench procedure that papers and websites dismiss at their risk.

But Joan was far more than a proof-reader. The many expressions of shock expressed on the social media and the attendance of so many former colleagues at her funeral show the debt of gratitude and the love they felt. She was very funny, and so, so human. Every so often she used to bring some grandchild or even great-grandchild into our offices with her and introduce them to us.

And she was courageous and so determined. In her last months she practically dragged herself to work, even in extreme pain until, one day, she had to leave. And that was that.

So long, Joan. Do they have proof-readers in heaven?

[email protected]