There is one image that describes the present Labour government - the scene at Niscemi, over the sea near Gela in Sicily, where the abundant rain of the past weeks has produced a gradual collapse of the town, sliding down to the valley floor. 

That's how I see this government. But it is still in power.

Consider two examples: the repercussions of what led to Roderick Galdes's forced resignation, the long list of cases linking his tenure as minister to property speculation involving his close family.

Next, the tsunami of protests by Labour-linked persons after Robert Abela hinted the government had received an invitation to join Trump's 'peace' initiative on Gaza.

Taken separately, these and similar episodes could possibly be explained away, but taken together the effect is a Niscemi collapse.

And yet Abela is still holding on to the cliff edge. See last Sunday's MaltaToday survey.

That survey was a strange thing: normally such surveys are published on the first Sunday of the month.

But this time the Nationalist Party was holding a general conference on Sunday, held exceptionally in Gozo, the birthplace of the new leader. It's become more like a Gozo Party under him, with all the implications and contradictions.

Then, when you heard what the new leader had to say you could understand why the party was not making more inroads into the Labour supporters. 

The math is very clear - he is not making the grade. This puts the party in a tight spot, after such a long campaign it's becoming clear it may have made the wrong choice. I am not saying Delia would have been a better choice - my reservations about him are still there, if anything even stronger. It's the party that's is in a mess of its making.

For all the build-up to his speech, Borg came across as a nice guy but he has now run himself to a standstill.

And this is a problem not just for the party but for the country as a whole.

Borg went into all the expected hoops on Galdes but did you hear him commit to an investigation into each and every contract signed by Galdes? Did you hear any news of rapprochement between the party and the man who made most of the running on the Galdes scandal, Jason Azzopardi?

Here there is the same strategy as has long stymied the party with regards to the hard core followers of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Holding them all at arm's length as if they were toxic. And ensuring the party remains solidly in the hands of today's non-entities.

Alex Borg has squandered the first months as leader being nice to Abela. This should have been the time for him to take off the gloves with the election approaching, and with the government in such disarray. With the list of ministers forced to resign almost equal to the government's front bench.

For all his niceness, Borg is not a leader. To storm Castile you need something else - Eddie where are you when the country needs you? Or at least a clone.

I warn, as I have done many times, that the party must also shake off those who led the party to its defeat in 2013, especially those who allowed a PN majority become a PL one, those especially who still provide most of the crowd around the leader Sunday after Sunday. Those carry the stigma of failure. Including some well-known names aiming at a rehabilitation on the cheap.

Alex Borg has one advantage - he has no ministerial baggage. He must assert his authority over the party. He is still led by the party structure instead of the other way round.

He must understand that the country is awaiting not Mr Nice Guy but a person determined to take Malta to another dimension, as his predecessors did. A person determined to stop the Labour rot, the degradation anywhere around. It's enough to look at Valletta, which PN left with such signal improvements, most of which have been allowed to deteriorate under Labour.

Malta needs someone courageous to stop the rot of so-called persons of trust who are mostly political appointees and generally incompetent.

Did you hear Alex make this a campaign slogan? Of course you didn't.

Or promise a thorough overhaul of how people are allowed in Malta, and remain here when they're ordered out?

And a reform of the Planning Authority, bringing it back to how it was under PN before the likes of Musumeci got to punch holes in it?

Don't waste more time, Dr Borg. 

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