No meteor has hit my head and turned me into a Labour Party supporter or apologist. I have always tried to analyse and reach conclusions in the most objective of ways. I am not apolitical and hope never to be. I will argue with, rant against and denounce all who sit on a fence hedging their bets.

I know many see me as a diehard blue spotted supporter of the PN. But who cares? In fact, pray someone tell me, where is the PN and its leader? Does anyone care?

But more of that later. Let’s now tackle this lovely ideal of Laburist sal-mewt (a Labourite till death).

I have no clue whether Laburist sal-mewt has ever been endorsed, or accepted, as an official Labour Party anthem or slogan. All I know is that there are people who love this idea of declaring themselves as forever tied to Labour. Come what may, whatever crime their leaders may commit, and whatever route the party takes, they tie themselves eternally to the party line.

I learnt of this when a friend sent me a video of a Labour supporter singing a song in praise of Joseph Muscat while driving his work truck. He sings beautifully, with great gusto, and his hand and facial expressions are just perfect.

What, however, rings loudest is that, with no hesitation, he states that he is a Labourite born and bred and will be for the rest of his life.

I’m not sure if the man in the truck has now recorded a few more adoring videos in praise of the current Labour leader, Robert Abela. While Joseph Muscat lorded it over us all from the Auberge de Castille his supporters considered him il-kink (the king). Muscat was the true embodiment of all things every red-blooded laburist dreams about, the Invictus beyond all dreams.

Whether Robert Abela is now seen as kingly, or still a prince in nappies who will never really lord it over his supporters, I have no idea.

The tragedy of this country is that Labour party leaders have been more in sync with henchmen than democracy. As a nation, we are more inclined to follow the diktats of the strong man, or maybe by some stretching of our deeply set misogyny, woman.

Thanks to this weird DNA, Malta is consistently more perversely Labour-leaning. And the more the Labour leaders use force, coercion, corruption, stretching of justice, and environmental degradation, the more people from all folds seem to follow and applaud them.

The PN was victorious in the 1960s thanks to the strange, anti-democratic assistance of the Catholic Church. Back then the ever-forgiving church had declared that anybody voting for the Labour Party would be committing a mortal sin.

Labourites say they are pro-Labour till death but, given a choice between heaven and hell, they seem to choose heaven. After all, mortal sins, in Catholic fundamentalism, spell eternal damnation.

Practically all through the 1990s, up to 2008, the PN triumphed. Which seems to totally disprove my theory that Labour is a better breeding place for voters.

What happened then, I imagine, is that the promise of joining the EU, thus obtaining loads of cash and free stuff, kept Labour, which was totally against the EU, unelectable. A certain man by the name of Alfred Sant also played his part.

Ironically, probably because Sant was slightly less autocratic, wanted a non-violent, non-corrupt party, he lost the numbers game and kept Labour in the political wilderness.

Then Labour under Joseph Muscat bounced back, having realised the potential of tapping the EU for cash by selling Maltese passports and sundry other devious, corrupt and even murderous schemes. And Malta’s men and women flocked to them, ditching the PN.

They say democracy needs an opposition. But the PN is in no fit state to oppose anything. With a leader who is even more clueless than Robert Abela, with the ratings soon dropping below 20%, the once proud PN is on the brink of extinction.

It is also bankrupt, of values, of the moral high ground, of money and of people. 20% in a two-party system is like sending the Bubaqra Oratory Boys to play a football match against Barcelona or Real Madrid.

The Labour Party has lately managed to become not just the party in power but the party that attracts everyone to join. Or if not join, to abandon the fight against Labour.

Whatever lies in store, whatever Covid-19 manages to wreck, what is certain is that, whether we like it or not, we are going to have a Labour Party leader in power till most of us die a natural death in the next few decades.

The slogan  Laburist sal mewt was never as aptly coined as now.

[email protected]