The Economist has picked its word of the year - "slop". It described the word as "an unappetising symbol of a messy year". It's a good pick for 2025 because living through this year felt increasingly grimy.  It's also a perfect pick for Malta which lived through another year of sleaze, grime and muck.

Slop isn't a new word.  It's been around for centuries.  Some of us are old enough to remember the slop pail - a symbol of squalor and poverty.  Households in some areas of the country still lacked an indoor toilet well into the 1970s. Some used communal toilets in internal yards. To save themselves the trouble of having to leave their dwelling during the night to relieve themselves families used the slop pail.  In the morning that stinking pail would be emptied of the contents that accumulated during the night. As standards of living rose practically every housing unit had its own indoor flushing toilet and the slop pail died a natural death - until recently. Malta has seen an unprecedented rise in population fuelled by a relentless drive to bring in third country nationals to perform essential menial jobs that nobody else would do. Those essential jobs in the health, hospitality and construction sectors come with desperately low wages that have brought the slop pail back out from the fog of history.

Malta's economic growth is reliant on slave labour.  Those third country nationals we depend on for the most basic services don't earn enough to afford the exorbitant local rents. The only way they can survive is by living in cramped, overcrowded tiny apartments with limited access to toilet facilities.  Some even live in garages.  Others have access to a bed for only part of the day.  The same bed is used during the day by night workers and during the night by day-workers. And the slop pail is back, with a vengeance. One toilet is not enough for 12 people. Recent legislation is meant to regulate such overcrowding on paper - but who is enforcing that legislation? Labour knows that any attempts to restrict resident numbers in rented accommodation will lead to the collapse of Labour's strategy for never-ending economic growth.  Labour knows it will face the wrath of those landlords who are happily squeezing more and more tenants into smaller and smaller spaces and reaping massive returns.

But that's not the type of slop the Economist is referring to. Slop has meant many different things over the centuries. Originally it referred to mud or slush.  Later it referred to a weak liquid consumed as a poorly nourishing food. Slop also referred to any kind of food scraps.  It later took on the meaning of rubbish.  The Economist has chosen "slop" in its new meaning - the mindless entertaining junk that floods the internet.  It's the incessant drivel that clogs up social media.  And the world is drowning in that slop.  So is Malta. And Labour has played its part in providing as much slop as possible with which to distract the population. Labour's choice for the prime-time slot on national TV is Ricky Caruana - and that says it all.

That slop isn't reserved for TVM.  It's plastered all over.  Labour's unscrupulous tactics mean that wherever we look we are bombarded with slop paid for by our own taxes.  Billboards in the streets broadcast Labour's message of its amazing budget.  Even public transport buses are emblazoned with Labour propaganda - "another rise in pensions". Paid social media posts blast out more Labour propaganda with every click.  The tens of thousands of civil servants are met with Labour's partisan messages as they try and log on to their work computers.  You can't escape Labour's slop - in the street, in the papers, online.

Malta is drowning in another type of slop. Almost every day with the precision of a Swiss clock, Labour delivers new scandals.  If it's not Roderick Galdes bagging an unbelievable bargain from Joseph Portelli, it's Jason Micallef spending hundreds of thousands of our money to cover a green picnic area with gravel - without any permits and through a direct order to Bonnici brothers, one of whose directors is co-incidentally Robert Abela's business partner. Joseph Portelli gets approval for a 13-storey tower in Xlendi.  DB gets approval to add another seven floors to their massive St George's Bay towers. Joseph Portelli's illegal development in Sannat gets sanctioned despite rulings by Malta's highest court.

Labour's donors, the Zammit Tabonas, were only charged 8.1 million euro for the Fortina concession valued at between 18 and 24 million euro.  Within 20 days of paying those 8.1 million Fortina sold some of that public land to Bet 365 for 40 million euro. The original valuation was concealed by the Chair of the Lands Authority ensuring that the Zammit Tabonas made a massive profit off Labour's generosity with our property.

Court testimony revealed that Identita' had issued fake ID cards raising concerns about the integrity of the ID card system.  Malta lost its case against Steward at the international Chamber of Commerce but Labour declared it a massive victory.

A magisterial inquiry concluded that there was sufficient evidence of corruption, bribery, money laundering and criminal association involving offshore companies over the Electrogas deal to charge Keith Schembri, Konrad Mizzi and Yorgen Fenech. But "errors" by the prosecution led to the acquittal of Keith Schembri over the phantom job given to murder middleman Melvin Theuma.

A 2025 GRECO report showed that Malta remains significantly non-compliant with key anti-corruption recommendations having implemented just 8 out of 23 key recommendations. Labour is still dragging its feet.  It won't lift a finger to shield the country against corruption but it's acted super fast to deny citizens their right to request a magisterial inquiry.  Labour attempted to steamroll new planning legislation described as a developers' wishlist through parliament before a massive backlash forced them to slow down.

And Rosianne Cutajar has been put back on the parliamentary health committee - yes, the same Rosianne Cutajar of the fake ITS job. Neville Gafa was back in Castille - for just a few weeks.

The Economist could not have picked a better word of the year for Labour's Malta - slop.