So Budget Day has come and gone and all those who wanted have had the opportunity to have their say. Institutionally, the Opposition’s reaction comes in the coming days – but don’t hold your breath. Otherwise the reactions by the constituted bodies were clearly pre-prepared and came within minutes, and most of the media quite sensibly disregarded them.

For all the razzmatazz of hijacking Castile Square where the prime minister upstages his finance minister who had just finished down in the House, and flyers sent to all households and wall-to-wall coverage on compliant television stations and popular programmes, for real and objective analysis one has to dig deep.

The following does not pretend to be an objective and dispassionate analysis but is, anyway, my personal reaction. I will not start with what should come first - the state of the economy and the prospects for the coming year.

Instead, I begin with the variegated COLA increase, trumpeted ad infinitum by government supporters and propagandists.

Let’s begin from the essence of COLA. This is a mechanism which was drawn up by the social partners, including the government, many years ago and which compensates for the rise in the cost of living for the past year

In other words, it is (almost) automatic and it compensates for something that happened in the past year. It does not compensate for any rise in the cost of living over the coming months.

To make it more clear: the increase we will be getting is something owed to us, not a government bounty or charity. We have spent that money (and more) already. And the government will still charge and collect its VAT and other taxes on anything we buy. Now maybe if VAT is trimmed (there are so many ways of doing this) according to the objects we buy, that would be something. I acknowledge however that the government has made an effort to give more to those at the bottom of the scale. This is praiseworthy.

But the coming weeks and months will tell us the real consequences of this COLA increase – will we face ever-higher inflation and will companies and enterprises shed employees?

Next, the deficit. This is set to decrease slightly in the coming year but the debt figure will climb higher and will continue climbing in 2024. Inflation will rise and settle around 5.75% but will decrease over the coming years.

The minister for finance claimed that inflation would have been far higher had not the government intervened to subsidise the cost of energy. This needs thorough examination considering that anything to do with energy has become rather toxic when one considers the mess in this sector, the private companies involved and the allegations of corruption. One reading of this government statement that COLA could have had to rise to €25 a week had not government decided to absorb the increase in costs could be to ask whether this government decision was in any way motivated by caring for the private partners in Enemed, both local and foreign. And thus whether the Maltese citizen is being short-changed once again.

True to form, the government has soft-pedalled on capital works, which means we will still be lumped with that confusion outside the airport for a long time and that Gozo will still have that Greek ship for the crossing and will not see work on a Courts of Law.

On the whole, the government seems happy with the way the economy is running, happy with the mess at Identity Malta, happy with the ‘caporalat’ where entrepreneurs get people in, taking a cut in the proceeds. One has to watch the many job offers sites to see how many foreigners are now recruiting other foreigners for work in Malta. This is now a runaway horse and there’s no stopping it. Inevitably, it drives the job market further down and all that Maltese citizens can do is to get a job with the government.

This is a race to the bottom and the government is not addressing it. Like a runaway horse the economy races ahead, construction booms everywhere and any green spaces are gobbled up. The government, sometimes, boasts Malta is not grey-listed any more but then acts as if it does not notice what a stressed-out, dirty and corrupt country this has become.

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