After having caught Covid 19 himself, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is currently soldiering on looking rather worse for his personal experience with the virus and even trying to pass a very controversial Internal Market Bill through Parliament.  He believes this bill will strengthen the negotiating position with the European Union, on the Brexit trade deals. 

These negotiations are currently floundering and looking rather unlikely to succeed, leading to a no-deal Brexit scenario.  Journalists in the UK even question Johnson’s real interest in securing a deal that will save the country from a hard exit from the EU. 

Whatever transpires in the next weeks is crucial and will have an effect not just on the whole of the UK but also on European nations, such as Malta.  For many decades Malta has, perhaps, taken for granted the close relationship and historical ties that it had with the UK.  In the fields of education, health, travel, employment and investment, it has always been like a second home for the Maltese.  And too, in reverse, for many British people who have made Malta their home, or second home. 

This week our country received a visit from the President of the European Council.  Not for the first time, too, members from the European Union Parliament have discussed issues pertaining to Malta, especially to do with the sale of passports and the killing of a journalist which has still not seen justice done.   It is likely too, that background investigations into money-laundering and corruption are underway, besides the wider links to the plot to murder Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The President of the European Council visited the family of Daphne Caruana Galizia and paid his respects at the site of the blast. 

In the UK, the Guardian newspaper has given wide coverage of the killing and continues to investigate and report on new findings and developments. 

Here in Malta we may think that our ties with the UK have been superseded by those with the EU.  However, much of our identity is still intrinsically linked to the UK.

 

As the date for the finalization of negotiations for the deal between the UK and the EU draws uncomfortably close, as with so many serious and important issues facing our country, there is little to no mention of what impact a No Deal could have on Malta. 

At this very time, so many parents have seen their children leave Malta for Scotland & England where they will be studying at a University there.  Some athletes find a specialisation in training or participating in sports.  Others are working in the field of research and medicine.  The connections are tightly-knit and our dependence on having a friendly and reciprocal relationship between our two countries is strong and must be protected.

Following the auto-goal in the tourism sector, by none other than the Minister for Tourism, the bulk of tourists that we normally receive in Malta, from the UK, fell through the roof.  In the tourism sector, too, our economy benefits greatly from the relationship we have with the UK. 

For Brits living in Malta, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding their future status.  Perhaps not as threatened as with other EU states but even here, there is no real certainty of what will be the new entitlement and rights they may enjoy. 

With the rest of the EU, the UK citizens living in any member state, perhaps with the exception of Spain and the Balearic islands, are in a place where they never dreamed they could find themselves.  They see themselves as EU citizens with a right to freedom of movement, as they actually are for now, but their lifestyle, work and choices may be lost for them under a No deal Brexit. 

Malta can and should, at this very transitional time for its UK friends, make sure that there are no obstacles to freedom of movement for them here.  The right to own property and to have a residential permit should be guaranteed.  Let us remember that so many of the now remaining centuries’ old farmhouses in Gozo had been restored and maintained at great cost by British owners.  Just this week, with some great mercy, the farmhouse belonging to the writer Nicholas Monsarrat and his wife was given protection status. 

Certainly, our roads worked better in the rain, when under British rule in Malta, than they do now, when major arteries became flooded again.  Those days, we had culverts in the road.  Now we have lakes.

The same St Luke’s hospital’s foundation was laid on 5 April, 1930 by the Governor of Malta, John Philip Du Cane, in the presence of then Prime Minister, Gerald Strickland. Progress in the construction of the hospital was slow due to technical difficulties encountered. By 1939, at the onset of the Second World War, the hospital was still incomplete and the work was suspended.

In 1941, the main block was converted into an isolation hospital for infectious diseases. The hospital, by then given the official title of St Luke's Hospital, dealt with several epidemics ranging from measles to typhoid, typhus, poliomyelitis, scabies and ringworm.

By the late 1940s the hospital assumed its role as a general hospital with facilities for treating general medical, surgical, gynaecological and paediatric cases. In 1948 the radiology department was opened.

The hospital building is included in the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands.

Today, the hospital languishes in the filing cabinets of Steward Health Care.  More a home for the pigeons than a hospital for the population of Malta.

Other examples include the many schools that were built and the shipyard in Kalkara.

One can also speak of the cultural and linguistic heritage, not least, that the English language has been so important in our islands’ progress towards investment and education. 

Very soon the Nationalist Party will have an election to vote for their choice of leader.  The responsibility of the party is about so much more than civil rights and unity.  It is about identity, its past, present and future.  It is important that the leader will have a good sense of history and identity of the Maltese people, in their trajectory from Independence to members of the EU and to the new reality of the UK and what this means to us. 

Perhaps the Maltese voters do not trouble themselves too much with the administration of the country and the way it is run, preferring to look to their pockets and their immediate family, rather than society as a whole.  Their values are basic and survivalist.  This is possibly due to the long history of foreign power in Malta. 

It was not enough for Malta to become independent in 1964.  The need to shake off our inward attitudes and become adult citizens in a global world that encompasses international values and causes, such as climate change, justice, civil rights, freedom and peace and neighbouring relations is vital to prosperity in every way. 

Fat comments apart, is there more that Malta can do to ensure a smooth transition?