Personalities aside, the new Shadow Cabinet of the Nationalist Party has a lot to recommend it.

There is an overriding air about it of a cohesive group of persons focusing on a commonly shared goal or set of goals.

This time we seem spared the not so hidden conflicts of the recent past and the tension it used to generate, the impression of a party that had lost its way, of conflicts that were hard to resolve.

There is still a long way to go and maybe not enough time before June’s EP election. My suggestion, absolutely from outside the party, is for the party to strengthen its internal structures for these seem still depleted especially in the Elcom area. Come the elections, these will have to be up and running and the losses compensated with professional people.

The party has lost a lot over the past years when it found itself out of power but its basis remains there and its adherents still recognise each other.

Unfortunately the party clubs now resemble empty husks and do not represent anything for most party members. We rarely hear of conferences held in them, so how will the party members get to meet the party leaders or the leading lights?

We remember the conferences of the past and weep.

The party has seen so far its media survive when many were calling for their mercy killing. The television station seems to have had a revival of sorts.

But a political party is not made up of party media, television stations or clubs. It has to have a message to transmit and an audience to address.

The party has lost heavily the past elections starting from the 2013 election. It lost because people were still angry with the pre-2013 one. It lost because it faced a well-honed Labour Party machine, based, as we all know, on future give-aways.

It lost because its time was up and in the Maltese cyclic type of political history it was time for Labour.

Now it seems the consensus that backed Joseph Muscat is coming apart and the ruling party has quite some problems on its plate. Hence the interest surrounding the June election.

The Nationalist Party has retained so far its middle-of-the-road approach and has resisted pressure to move to more extreme positions even facing issues such as abortion and the like.

There is no question people are in doubt about the party’s identity as anti-Labour. Whatever all the other issues, people still make this basic issue choice. The new group must build on this without making a rabid opposition as its main stance.

The party must get nearer to people and come out of a narrow party stance. The broader its approach the better.

The party as it is now constituted must get to address issues as it sees them, rather than as others see them.

When George Borg Olivier led the party he resisted being led by the Church. He faced splits and vituperation but ultimately he won. He gave Malta its statehood for which the entire nation is thankful.

This is the way ahead for the new breed after the reshuffle.

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