Malta was full of people trying to escape from the island by whatever legitimate and legal means in the 1980s.

I should know. I worked at my grandfather’s office at the time – he was Commissioner for Canada – and much of my day was taken up by turning away people and telling them that emigration to Canada was closed.

Several of my contemporaries gave up and did it the illegal way: they went to London on ‘holiday’ and disappeared into the system for the next several years.

That’s a little tough to do with three babies, you know.

My reaction is the result of having had to moderate comments from other people like you, who think that because they somehow managed to escape in the 1990s, people could escape in the 1980s or 1970s. I’ll add that in the 1990s there was precious little to escape from compared to the misery of the previous two decades.

Why should Maltese people have had to jump through hoops and wangle ways with work permits, slipping here and slipping there, when we could have been in the European Union years ago?

1971 to 1987: wasted years of hell. I spit on Dom MIntoff’s grave and have nothing but contempt for those who brought him to power and kept him there.

True. I’d forgotten about those.

EU membership has made no difference?

Yes, right.

Ivan Bartolo set up a company with the Demajo Group in England. He was not employed. He was an employer.

People like you disgust me. You will stop at nothing to argue that Maltese people did not need EU membership.

I knew somebody with your exact attitude – incidentally also in software – who actually made a point of emigrating to Australia the minute Malta joined the EU, to prove that as a Maltese citizen, he didn’t need EU membership to get around.

I won’t tell you how that ended up.

Imma ma nafux x’tip ta’ hbiberija kellu ma’ haddiehor biex hareg il-permess u il-bejh fi Strada Zekka.

Can’t see any of them getting replaced if there’s a change in government.

I would have liked a pig-sty better than Malta in the 1980s.

What were you – an illegal immigrant?

Somebody with freedom of movement in Britain?

Or somebody lucky enough to get a work permit?

You’re ridiculous. I know exactly what the laws were.

I did not need EU membership to work in UK and I had children already. Seems to me like you liked Malta better.

British people move to Australia because it’s got the same queen and they speak English there.

Maltese people of a certain level of education are a lot more flexible.

Belgium? For heaven’s sake. I would slit my wrists.

For the same reason many British people leave Europe and move Down Under.

I lived for a whole year in Belgium contracting for the EU. The weather was depressing and the tax rates crippling.

Besides, in 2010 Europe was in a recession, whereas Australia was (and still is) booming thanks to its mining industry and exports to China which provide huge incomes to the government and keeps taxation, in general, way lower than in many EU countries.

The downside of course is its remoteness, which does cause it to be slightly insular at times, but I haven’t seen such beautiful and landscaped suburbs and open spaces anywhere in Europe.

If you love nature and the outdoor life, Australia is perfect.

Well, why on earth did you emigrate to Australia when you have an EU passport?

I would never live anywhere outside Europe. You only realise that Europe has a common heritage and culture – despite the overt differences – when you leave it.