Just like the desperate Labour government of 1987: panic-putting people on the public payroll

The Times of Malta reports here that despite a circular issued to the contrary, recruitment for the civil service, state authorities and government-owned companies will continue through the general election campaign.

This puts me in mind of the run-up to the 1987 general election, when the desperate Labour government of those days put 8,000 people on the state payroll, carrying on the process even while it was in the position of caretaker government.

The added payroll burden continued to cripple Malta in the years that followed.