It is no consolation at all to know that others are in a worse situation than the one you’re in. One can go no farther than this point when comparing how people in some European countries, even among the largest and most advanced, will be spending their Christmas and New Year holidays. Some will have to observe a curfew from late in the evening through the night, while almost all shops will need to stay closed around the clock...

The fear is that so many Covid-19 cases could pile up at hospitals that these will become completely jammed.

Meanwhile, optimism about the arrival of a vaccine has waxed even as the death rate has increased, including in those countries which have shown the strongest sense of discipline.

Political and social institutions continue to do their best to sustain morale among the most vulnerable members of the society and among health workers who have been struggling against the corona virus pandemic for long months now.

At least severe winter weather has been delayed. 

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CONSUMER SERVICE

Few realize the extent to which in this country, consumers still receive less than good after sales service. Moreover, one likely suspicion which never gets investigated in depth relates to whether products of substandard quality do get imported in Malta while still being retailed at a good price.

The fact that many imported products are priced higher than they would be on the European continent cannot be explained simply on the basis of the high transportation charges they have to bear in order to arrive here. Neither does it result simply from the point that since consignments are inevitably small, because the market is tiny, item by item, imports will therefore necessarily carry a higher charge relative to items that get despatched elsewhere in larger consignments.

When products are received, and probably they will not be up to scratch, we pay more for them than do European citizens elsewhere. And when they malfunction – which happens ever so often – the after sales service we get, by way of repair or compensation – is really inadequate.

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AT THE EDGE

Independently of what the final outcome of the Brexit negotiations is going to be, the way by which it will have been arrived at cannot but be cause for concern. Why is it that in Europe every decision of high importance must be reached in a crisis atmosphere?

On Brexit, right from the start it seemed to me that the way by which the negotiations were framed was faulty. Not because there was a lack of goodwill on either side, but because talks were conducted in line with the treaties that constitute the European Union. When these were being negotiated, few considered it likely that any country would really seek to leave the Union.

So they envisaged that in such an eventuality, negotiations would first arrange how the departing country would leave. Then afterwards, they would determine what its future ties with the Union would be. It’s like when a married couple is proceeding to a divorce, first by agreeing on how to separate, and then at a second stage, by agreeing on what should be done about the children and the assets that husband and wife shared as a couple. That’s crazy.