A song of Southern European personal political patronage – the curse that afflicts the region and keeps it backward

This is Joe Demicoli’s new song. No doubt he thinks it’s about valid and righteous sentiments. And no doubt, too, the Opposition will pounce on it as a sign that look, even Joe Demicoli, Labour supporter extraordinaire, is voicing the “pain” of those who voted Labour and didn’t get what they were promised.

Does anybody actually stop to think that this is personal political patronage at its worst, of the sort that has afflicted the southern Mediterranean since time immemorial, exacerbated to an extreme degree when people in the region got the vote?

Stop it – for God’s sake, stop it. In a civilised democracy you don’t vote for a politician to get a personal favour, and the politician who fails to give you that personal favour should not, then, be criticised for it.

He should be torn to shreds for delivering on that promise, and not for failing to do so.