I had no idea it had reached such a huge number of people. You’re right, I did miss a lot. I never used to stay around that area. I’m more of the Coconut crowd, and even then that was about 10 years ago. I haven’t been to Paceville for ages.

The population density in Paceville on an average Saturday night has shot up to about three per square metre. And that’s the average over the whole area from the beach on St George’s Bay to the interior of the most crowded nightclub.

The street in front of those stairs was crowded. It always is. It’s impossible to move at all without pushing people aside. And that, again, is on an average Saturday night without incident. Those stairs are also quite narrow. The whole area is crowded with bars, nightclubs, and all manner of paraphernalia: outside tables, chairs, skips, sometimes even parked motorbikes.

Look, I could go on. But the point is someone up in the rarefied heights of government needs to decide whether we want to keep the number of nightclubs per square kilometres, and the number of clients per nightclub, to a safe First World standard or whether we want to accelerate business activity to even dizzier levels so the GDP can increase by a few decimal places. That’s the choice that’s facing us.

Increasing police number as per the Leader of the Opposition’s suggestion, will change nothing. And it wouldn’t have prevented this accident.

When I was growing up, Paceville was for over-16s only, and it was already on the brink of saturation. Now it’s full of (hamalli) teenagers who only got pubes last week. Nightclubs are stacked three high, it’s so crowded. Alcohol consumption has gone through the roof. And before anyone interjects with a reminder of our wild days at MaltaSajf, know this: I lived in the Fredu years. Those bikers and punks were mere amateur drinkers compared to today’s 13-year-olds.

I’m told the economy is doing splendidly.

Well then. Let them scream and suffocate.