Back-dating does not increase past consumption, but only affects the rate at which the actual consumption would eventually be billed.

Joseph Muscat is not only proving himself to be an ongoing PR disaster, but has now publicly shown himself to be incapable of correctly interpreting a simple explanatory note on rate changes on a utility bill.

Holding a partisan protest against changes in utility tariffs that he knows are fully justified was an irresponsible act by the Leader of the Opposition. Compounding that by an unfounded declaration that consumers would be made to pay high rates for utilities not consumed,is totally unacceptable. Such declarations can only create unnecessary anxiety in a world-wide climate of economic uncertainty.

By his actions and declarations, Joseph Muscat is evidently a disciple of his predecessors Alfred Sant who sought to build, but in the event only managed to destroy, his political career by resorting to cheap shots the sole aim of which was to garner the odd one or two votes.

[Daphne – Yes, I was thinking yesterday evening that the demonstration was exactly the same – and conceived in the same way and for the same reasons – as the 1994 anti-VAT protest that marked the start of two years of agitating about VAT and eventually led to Sant’s election in 1996. The only difference is that this time, Vince Farrugia wasn’t marching at the head of the column alongside the GWU leader. The only lessons Muscat seems to have learned from that time is that picking on an issue which is affecting people’s pockets, however justifiably, and promising to deliver them from it, will get you into power. He hasn’t learned the second part of the lesson, which is that you need to have a game plan once you get into power, or you’ll end up with the equivalent of Sant’s CET-induced chaos. Sadly, he depends on the votes of the unthinking and the votes of chancers who think ‘I might as well give it a try if it means paying less’. On Saturday morning I was at the post office and overheard two women who were queuing to pay their bills. Their grumbling was based on the thought processes of a battery chicken. And I thought how nice it is to be reminded on a sunny day that my future lies in the hands of people who can’t formulate a thought.]

Yes we can leave you in Opposition, you betcha *wink