Precisely.

People do not need six full plates of food a day to survive.

Imma il-Maltin kollox bil-maqlub – you tell them the body needs a good supply of water, they’ll drink soda drinks. Water filters don’t cost anything – they can always use filtered tap water.

You tell them, the body needs a good amount of vegetables, they’ll eat sweets. Vegetables are so cheap.

You tell them, the body needs a good amount of fruit intake, and they’ll eat crisps.

I’m not surprised they’re always out of pocket. They don’t understand the health food language.

It’s all laid out for them and the healthy methods don’t cost the world. The unhealthy stuff does.

What a load of balls. I’m skint and I live on egg whites, beans, lentils, fruit and vegetables and oats. The food of the gods. And the cheapest by far.

Eddy, I’m a married woman and I work full time.

I don’t work because I need the money for my whims and desires. I work because I have pride in myself as a competent person, and I managed to continue studying and land a good job.

I enjoy my job immensely and I feel proud that I can contribute to society. Even if I had all the money in the world, I would still continue working, as I would go crazy doing nothing but twiddle my thumbs at home.

It seems that you are already aware what Goseph l-irmuncat will be doing to solve the problems you are mentioning in these statistics.

15% of our population live in relative poverty.

I think now a days poverty also means that you live without an a/c.

9% of the population don’t know how to read & write.

With the education system we have today you have to be very stupid to be in this situation unless your name is Silvio Parnis.

Around 7,000 people are currently unemployed.

This figure is very low compared to other countries, although I have my doubt if this figure is correct.

What about smart city’s jobs? White rocks? the income tax reduction?

We are waiting for the PL to be in government for these projects to be more successful especially the reduction of the income tax. If the PL is in power we will have reductions in the VAT , reductions in the water and electricity bills, and a reduction in the prices of new cars as well.

If you are going to vote Labour you should ask Goseph l-irmuncat from where he is going to get all these funds.

There is presumably a significant correlation between illiteracy and poverty.

Unfortunately stupidity and sloth are mostly to blame – and a Labour government that emphasizes government handouts is not exactly the better solution, is it?

A Nationalist government that keeps the economy afloat, such that it can afford to subsidise schemes promoting education and employment, is obviously a better choice to combat poverty.

As regards your other queries:

– White Rocks is a unfortunate waste of space, but yet another heavily subsidised tourism-related project (which seems to be the only thing the LP ‘knows how to do’, as it involves wasting taxpayers’ money) is to be avoided;

– Ever since the 2008 financial crisis, very few would consider static income tax bands to be a ‘failure’; and

– Smart City jobs were never meant to cater for illiterates. The aim was to absorb the thousands of expected IT graduates. Guess what? IT students did graduate in their thousands… AND ALL ARE EMPLOYED, despite the Smart city debacle (which was due to the world-wide real estate collapse, by the way – i.e. nothing that the dear Lijder Joseph can fix).

As regards to ‘cliques’ (an argument brought up by quite a few of my acquaintances – as there are, inevitably, quite a few jerks in government circles), one can simply vote for the many fresh NP faces – which include successful professionals, and bright young people, who are willing to sacrifice themselves for public service.

Can you imagine how better the NP can be, with Simon Busuttil, Albert Fench, Therese Comodini, Ryan Callus, Alexei Dingli and others replacing the crappy and/or tired JPO, FD, JM, AG, et co?

“Relative poverty measurements can sometimes produce odd results, especially in small populations.”

I may be living in relative poverty but that does not mean I’m poor.

The average wage in Malta is around €20,000, I earn less than that, does it mean that I’m poor?

Smart City : Joseph Muscat believes that Smart City is a good project it was only last summer he went to Dubai to meet the owners, and even the chosen few MLP approved contractors believed in it four years ago they went for a secret visit with Notary Charlie Mangion and were caught leaving to Dubai by journalists.

I remember the setting up of Spinning and Weaving , it was set up with outdated technology and poor quality control to the detriment of the established Phoenix Textiles which had to close down and fire its emloyees.Smart City will be syphoning business to Malta from abroad when the world economy starts to pick up and recover. When the idea was conceived and approved the world economy was thriving. Would the PL kick them out or will Labour wait patiently until the tide turns in our favor?

If income tax is reduced in tomorrows budget , I bet that you’ll be the first to shout that its’s an election gimmick , not another kept electoral promise .

If you were in an interview for a job , you are the type who would state that you applied for the job coz you’re fed up working in your present job. You’ll be voting for Joseph not because he’s convincingly good but because you’re fed up with this govt & its cliks…and elect the “airport clik caught on TV going to Dubai”

Last but not least: Joe Taylor , you try to write like a young man but your style is a dead giveaway. Next time try harder!

They didn’t mention that a certain category of children live on pizza and pastizzi as they are cheap to buy since their families are too lazy to cook or they have no knowledge at all about cooking.

I would like to point about something about the EU food supplies. In my opinion there is a big wastage and this food is arriving in places where it shouldn’t be. It is even arriving in private houses from institutions that are entitled to, due to the large quantities that are being recieved, like for example convents etc.

A couple with a salary of around 900 euros a month each, a loan repayment of 400 euros, an average utility bill of 65 euros, a fuel bill of around 70 euros, a television/internet bill of 33 euros or less will have just over 1000 euros a month to live on. With a child or two to feed and clothe, that’s not much to live on.

Ten years ago I taught a girl whose poorly educated mother worked in a factory 8 hours a day for the minimum wage of 45 liri a week. The father walked out of the family and more often than not, found a hundred excuses not to pay his wife the pitiable amount of 20 liri a week maintenance for his daughter’s upkeep. The mother often went hungry so she could feed her daughter decently and not let her suffer the consequences of her mother’s predicament. Poverty is not always the fault of the persons involved.

What makes my blood boil is the sheer cheek of those who spend their entire lives living off social benefits paid for by the hapless gainfully employed whilst bringing up broods of four to five children without working a single day of their life. And yes, unfortunately this is the case of another girl I had in class.

Ex-PN.. Oh look! I’m ex-PL.

Sure, why not.