On Thursday, the Nationalist Party approved and published its manifesto for the 2022 general election – a manifesto containing over 550 measures spread across 200 pages.

The PN has taken the decision to base its manifesto on a principle called ESG – something which is already a step in the right direction.

ESG – which stands for Environment, Social responsibility, and Governance – is essentially a set of basic principles which companies or organisations must follow in order to be eligible for certain incentives and measures which a PN government would offer.

There are principles such as, from a governance perspective, compliance with the tax man; from a social perspective, not employing people on zerohour contracts and following directives on worklife balance rules; and from an environmental perspective, moves towards climate neutral measures.

The idea here is to reward those companies who operate by following the rules and build a society based on fairness, where businesses are not left at a competitive disadvantage if others in the same industry elect not to follow the most basic of rules.

On paper it is an excellent concept to follow, particularly as it is something which will be enforced digitally and without human intervention – thereby further reducing the possibility of corruption.

Any business owner and employee should have no issue in supporting this core principle: the only ones who will be negatively affected by this are those ‘cowboy’ companies who seem to think that they can do as they please – cowboys who have become all too prevalent under this administration.

There are a number of other proposals of great interest. Environmentally, the PN has pledged to move towards a trackless tram mass transport system, with the more exact plans for this expected to be unveiled later in the campaign, while a pledge for the addition of 50,000 square metres of public land to outside development zones also looks good on paper, although one has to see how it will be fulfilled given that public land is not an infinite resource.

The PN’s proposal to take major roads underground and create new open spaces over-ground instead is also a no-brainer, to the point that the PL have already proposed something similar for areas such as Floriana and San Gwann.

There are a number of other good and innovative proposals such as introducing the rule of law bills which the government voted against some months ago, trialling a four-day work week, tax rate revisions, and important measures when it comes to the property market.

Other measures which the party has announced, such as the termination of the Steward Health Care concession and putting the Malta to Gozo tunnel to referendum before going ahead with it, are also in the manifesto.

Naturally, there are questions to be asked about some points: the PN’s ‘second chance’ system on traffic fines has prompted accusations of populism, while the PN is also proposing to keep Malta’s passport-selling scheme with amended rules to encourage more active economic investment by applicants – a controversial matter particularly when considering Russia’s current aggression in Ukraine coupled with the fact that the majority of passport applicants are Russian oligarchs.

One cannot yet compare the PN’s manifesto with that of their counterparts, as the PL is yet to approve and publish theirs. That’s not necessarily because the PL are late in doing so – the publication of a manifesto generally comes a couple of weeks into an electoral campaign – but mainly because the PN published theirs quite early.

That in itself should put paid to any suggestions, such as the one made by Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne on Thursday night, that the PN is unprepared for this election.

There is a long way yet to go to 26 March and, while party manifestos are not generally given too much consideration by the bulk of the electorate when it comes to casting their vote, it’s a good sign for the PN that they have managed to come up with such a massive package of measures so early on in proceedings.