From the ‘Cittadin Mobil’ to companies in Panama

Here’s a blast from the past: the Labour Party, led by Alfred Sant, out on the hustings in their Cittadin Mobil (Citizens Bus), during the 1996 electoral campaign.

That was also the year the Labour Party’s entire campaign, with the exception of the pledge to remove Valued Added Tax, was built around the battle-cries of Hbieb tal-Hbieb (friends of friends), Crieki Go Crieki (wheels within wheels) and Barunjiet (business barons).

Far forward a couple of decades and they’re in cahoots with the very same barunijiet, plus a few others like Silvio Debono who have cropped up since then, their wheels within wheels haven’t stopped turning in four years, and their friends of friends are all on the state payroll or at the public trough through contracts, direct orders, monopolies on the sale of visas in the Middle East, and deals for power station and the privatisation of public hospitals.

It’s a rum old world, isn’t it.