There’s a lot of confusion about this. For example, people tend to make assumptions about the political background of others on the basis of their social background. This is a real mistake, and one which I never make because of my own experience.

I grew up in what was Sliema’s ‘smartest’ neighbourhood at the time. Socially, it was completely undifferentiated – everybody came from exactly the same kind of background. It was that frozen period before things change. But in the street where I grew up, the people were predominantly Labour and former Stricklandjani – not Nationalist.

My point here – and this is a mistake people in the Nationalist Party have made and are still making today – is that when you meet somebody from Sliema, from an English-speaking background, from socio-economic group A, who tells you that he only reads Malta Today or that Simon Busuttil is rubbish or that he votes Labour because it is pro-business or “ghax Daphne” and a whole lot of other clap-trap, the real reason is he has simply gone back to his political roots.

I have made the point repeatedly roughly since 2008 and the first of the difficult electoral results which showed clearly which way the wind had begun to blow: when people are not raised supporting Political Party X but feel the need to vote against it for some years because of a situation that concerns them, or because the other party is doing well in government, they always long to ‘go back home’ and at the first chance they have to do it, they will.

When people say that they don’t like the Nationalist Party in its current incarnation, what they mean is that they don’t really like it at all, but voted for it in the years 1987 to 2003, with a break in 1996, because of reasons to do with changes to the economy from which they could see Malta benefitting.

The tendency for media to have little effect on core voters is a problem which requires the PN to change tactics, in my view. I think a little can be learned from the SNP experience in Scotland.

With virtually no friendly media, the SNP managed to paint Scotland yellow two years ago. There was an effective national campaign, but the clincher in many seats was an army of volunteers on the ground.

Essentially, rather than candidates doing all the canvassing, teams of volunteers go door to door and converse with voters. The key is to have well-informed canvassers who are willing to listen and respond to individual concerns (from airgun licenses to property taxes, and anything in between).

They do not need to have all the answers. They simply need to be able to be polite, and to say they will ask when they do not know.

Canvassers are often more persuasive than candidates because they do not have anything to gain. Often, they are also able to speak in accessible terms, rather than spinning technicalities.

It’s amazing how many votes can be switched by simply listening and talking – leave the echo chamber, and get out and talk. Labour controls much of the media, but it doesn’t have the same deployable human resources.

Even if you are sent packing, a polite thank you and a smile might still dent negative perceptions. They mightn’t vote PN the first time, but they will be more receptive once the next general election comes round.

Maybe then it is time to separate the two offices where the party leader does not necessarily become Prime Minister when an election is won.

For years, Malta’s biggest-selling newspaper was It-Torca. It had a readership bigger than the next one down, The Sunday Times. Why? Because Labour supporters bought it as their actual Sunday newspaper.

The Nationalist Party newspapers struggled because people who vote PN don’t take party newspapers seriously.

This is a big cultural divide, and you are not going to change it because it exists for a reason. It’s not that the kind of people you are talking about don’t KNOW that they are watching and reading and listening to propaganda. It’s what they WANT to do. It makes them comfortable.

The minute they move out of that comfort zone, and start listening to and reading other things, they are forced to examine their beliefs. They don’t want to examine their beliefs, so they avoid every situation which might trigger that feeling.

‘Labour’ is an identity, like ‘Catholic’. You are no more going to rationalise your family out of believing in Labour than you are going to rationalise them out of Catholicism (if they are religious).

You have approached politics as a set of rational questions and answers. But to understand your family, you have to think of it as a religion. And then you’ll understand why you can’t get anywhere, why they get upset, and why it’s not worth trying.

That’s why Labour supporters read Malta Today and Illum, and not because they think they are independent.

Malta Today’s readership is mainly Labour, not mainly independent-minded people.