Before the last pre-election budget, the Government went on to increase social welfare, children allowances, and pensions when it knew, only too well the financial crisis within Enemalta. Come three months after the election and we introduce a bone-crushing surcharge coupled with a Golden handshake of 50 million to the dry docks workers.

The deficit is the difference between how much the government spends and how much it collects in one year. This is logged and accounted for in annual budgets. This is normally controlled by borrowing money from either Maltese citizens, foreign countries, and or other sources. In our case we seem to be handling it well by borrowing internally.

The national debt, on the other hand, is the total amount we owe. Our commitments to Infrastructure developers who build our roads and dig our tunnels, and pharmaceutical companies who supply our free and overburdened healthcare are an example of national debt which however, still has not been factored into the deficit. Every year that we borrow more money, the debt grows larger.

The difference between the deficit and the debt is especially important because when politicians talk about reducing the deficit, all they really mean is that our debt isn’t growing as fast. It definitely does not mean we’re getting out of debt.

The dry docks handshake four years ago put a huge strain on the deficit as will do the 160 million collective agreement to the civil service over the next four years. Lest we not forget, the increase in welfare state payments for children allowances, pensions, social benefits for unmarried mothers and indefinite unemployment benefits keep putting immense pressure on the deficit. It is all shiny now, but as soon as elections are over we will be facing the naked reality:

If labour comes out, it will spell out the real debt burden (il-hofra as did Alfred sant) in an excuse to do away with its countless promises. This will drive the economy into a grinding halt . Conversely, if the PN are elected, they will go into a frenzy of tax persecution to pay for the cumulative debt. This will be an identical scenario of the pre-euro entry episode where the government did not cut down on spending in order to meet the Maastricht criteria, it simply unleashed the Tax pit bulls!!

The feel good factor we are experiencing now is nothing else but a refrigerated figure of wax which will melt down once the new Government (whoever that may be) starts counting!!

“Can you explain this to me. If you and your family are self sufficient and don’t need any government whatsoever to move forward in life, then why worrying if there is a change in government? You and your family will still move forward.”

Tal-bliegh!

Let’s say for argument’s sake PL government re-introduces (it already did in 1987)property tax (drainage contribution on every door) and your family is “self sufficient” on property business. How would your family end up when there is no cash flow?

Or let’s say a “self sufficient family” has some ordinary shares in the Malta stock exchange from which it has a €10,000 average income yearly. What would it do when Joseph is PM and Leo Brincat takes a good bite from those dividends like he did to HSBC when he was minister in 1987.

Would your family survive with an income of €7,000 instead of €10,500?

If people want to elect someone whom they never experienced, they should look at the track record of the people who are at the helm of the party or read between the lines in what they utter in private and in public. Joseph Muscat’s PL is mysterious, it seems that its whole program depends on the promise that our utility bills will be reduced…it’s being presented as the Gordian Knot of the Maltese economy.

We were presented with this sort of promise when some twelve years ago Sant promised to remove VAT, we all know what a hollow promise that was.

Muscat jinkwetani iktar milli kien Sant fin-1996.

Muscat rega gabar mieghu l-irmixk li kien zabar Sant. Qed jigbor ukoll l-iskart kollu li jaqa mill-PN biex tkompli tghaxxaq.

Vera kaz li gab il-PL skip bla qiegh.

Change Gonzi, my foot. I believe he may be the one who laughs last.

Luigi, your opening paragraph betrays an “I’m alright f**k you Jack” attitude.

Most of these requiring low or medium skills. The question put forward was pertinent, are we dishing out unemployment benefits at the lower end of the job market at its expense?

Sur Luigi, we all know in what a mess and a disaster Malta was in during Sant’s short term in office.

His exit from office after 22 months shows that there is still a God looking after the Maltese.

I hope that the Maltese electorate will not be fool hardy again in 2013 to give a chance to Muscat and his dinosaurs of the 70s, the 80s and the 90s. The adverse consequences are there for all to see.

[Daphne – What an unbelievable statement, and so very southern Mediterranean, laden with primitive egocentricity and complete disregard for everything and everyone beyond The Family.]

If people want to elect a Labour government, no one, and nothing will stop them. People elected Sant in 1996 and rejected EFA, they forgot what the country went through in the previous years due to 16 years of Labour government, let alone now what they will do.

The only hope for the PN to be re-elected is to change Gonzi. The GonziPN campaign backfired a few years later.