Indeed, inflation falls almost always when unemployment rises.

@Baxxter

I read this into it: A frustration in which a stronger message is not reaching the majority, or more of that majority.

I agree that everything – as in everything – needs to be dumbed down. No use expecting the majority of people to understand, if they are listening at all.

The one Busuttil phrase that everyone has retained is that under Labour Malta is proceding “Gas down ghal gol-hajt.”

If that wasn’t powerful.

Dumbing down also means translating, with careful attention as to structure and to the obfuscating strategy used on the Labour end, what the precise value given or loss of value equates to for the man in the street. Expecting people to join the dots is to have spoken past them.

Dumbing down is not necessarily constant repetition of the same thing, but a simplified visible manner of presenting the point-to-point logic arrived at, pointing out where the dots are missing with Labour, or are being masked over, and what these are.

Where the dot-to-dot logic is fallacious, one would need to identify the dots and point out and explain the reason that logic is fallacious.

It has nothing at all to do with being negative.

Pictorial and factual data representation work wonders on this score.

A thorough risk assessment is what all successful projects need at the outset. Without it, someone, at some point, will have to pick up the pieces and that is generally the tax-payer.

“Positive” at the outset and negative result with hindsight is where Labour is rushing about creating a flurry. The dizzyness is there to distract. The name-calling an effort to pre-condition how communication is received.

“Positive” for Labour equals zero transparency, naghmlu x’irridu, electorate keep your mouth shut.

What one knows needs to be simplified. The process of simplification requires a greater effort in the manner and choice of communication.

It is useless knowing more, having a stronger argument, having a better policy, if the manner of communication leaves the onus of the simplification and translation process on the receiver of the communication.

Frustration can be turned into passion.

However there are some other facts that I should have been told. Firstly I would have liked to have been given a breakdown of how the 37% figure was worked out.

Secondly the minister is also responsible for health, so he should have also informed me for how long will my medicine be out of stock, because having to fork out the money to buy my medicinal needs would wipe out this saving within a month or two.

And finally how come that my personal data (name, address and customer number) was made available to a ministry from Enemalta. This is in breach of Data Protection because this data is available to Enemalta soley so that they can work out my bills and not to be given to politicians for use in a propaganda exercise.

… into the abyss

It means Muscat f*cked up by not negotiating a deal in Malta’s favour, which means Malta is less competitive for investors, which means less investment, which means more unemployment, which means less flus fil-but, which means lower consumer spending, etc.

Imma l-aqwa li qed inbieghu il-passaporti bir-ribass ha nhallsu il-bread and circuses biex ikomplu jivvotaw ghal Gowzef.

Having said that, Busuttil & Co should IMMEDIATELY stop apologizing and repeating reasons for losing last elections.

Reminding voters of past mistakes gnaws the grass roots of the party itself. The constant mention that the PN does not have the money to rent more billboards, as the LP has, is counterproductive.

Was there not supposed to be a committee responsible for turning the financial woes around?

How are fundraising events panning out?

Busuttil needs to be more forceful. The situation calls for it. And he should never sit among supporters at PN meetings. He should stand up, walk to a prominent spot and establish himself as the party leader, not simply a loyal party man.

“Malta will need to reduce the financial incentives it provides for industrial investment following a European Commission decision taken on May 7, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said today.”

What in god’s name does this even mean? Busuttil’s problem is right there in this statement.

I read it, and I retain nothing.

It doesn’t tell me his position.

It doesn’t give me his own plan.

It uses the EU as a crutch, as if it was the EU and not him that was chiding the government.

Of course he’s the better man. Far better. By miles. But politics is about far more than being the better man. It’s about leadership, and about connecting with people.

It doesn’t help that the business of politics is carried out in Maltese. But Busuttil needs to break through that fourth wall and reach out to his audience.

Or we’re doomed.

Eddie Fenech Adami became leader in 1977. He started to be noticed after October 1979.

Survey questions can be misleading. When you vote PL, you get Joseph Muscat and the whole lot.

Likewise if you vote PN, you get Simon Busuttil and the rest of the team.

When you are voting you will concentrate on the party and not the individual. You either want the PN to govern or you choose a Labour administration. There are exceptions and there will be voters who don’t reason this way but the majority will.

This is not to say that certain personalities are not more appealing to others to various sections of the electorate.