The government and the Labour Party are always quick with their responses.

Their propaganda machine works seamlessly, and one or the other – sometimes both – is always at the ready to pounce on criticism that is levelled at the government or party. A statement drops into our inbox within an hour or two.

They respond fast to anything that the Nationalist Party dishes out. Sometimes it’s a direct answer; at other times the intention is to divert attention. Many times they hit back like with like; at other times they just say the PN is being negative. But they always have something to say in reply. There have been occasions when their reply was a one-liner. They want to have the last word.

We used the word “always”. But there are rare occasions when they don’t. And this silence sticks out like a sore thumb. Because it means something. When neither the government nor the Labour Party replies, it becomes clear that they want the people to ignore what has been said. Probably because it’s true.

The last time it happened was last week.

The Nationalist Party held a press conference to say that the power cuts that Malta experienced in the second half of July cost the country €200 million. The PN based its calculations on what Edward Scicluna – at the time a Labour MEP, who later became Finance Minister and is now the governor of the Central Bank of Malta – had said when the PN was in government, and Malta had experienced a lengthy power cut.

Scicluna had estimated the cost of that power cut in 2010 as having reached €20 million. The power cut in question, which had hit the whole country, had lasted five to six hours. The power cuts we experienced this year were not nationwide, but have hit several pockets, with some localities having to endure more than 24 hours without electricity in sweltering heat.

The PN made its own estimates, and reached the figure of €200 million in losses for the country. It held a press conference to present its calculations. It said this was a deep blow to the country’s economy and its business. It wanted to drive the point home that the Labour government in the last 10 years had failed to invest as much as it should have done in the power distribution network.

This time, there was no reply from the government or from the PL. Not within an hour or two. It never arrived.

Labour – Castille and Mile End – must have reasoned that if it attacked the PN’s estimates, it would have been indirectly attacking what Scicluna had said 13 years ago. If Scicluna was right in 2010, then the PN is right now. If Scicluna was wrong in 2010, then the PN is wrong now too. So better let it slide, Labour must have thought. Whatever the reply, something would come back to bite us, Labour strategists must have reasoned.

And so they said nothing.