Labour’s 51 magical proposals
Simon Busuttil wrote this for The Times. I really enjoyed reading it.
Hot on the heels of the roundly-applauded Budget, the Prime Minister presented the Nationalist Party’s new basic document, Our Roots.
And, in a fit of panic, Joseph Muscat rushed home to scribble 51 Labour proposals and presented them the day after. It could not have taken him more than an hour to write them.
And if you have not read them, please do because the mediocrity that screams out at you is too loud to be captured in this article.
Let’s leave aside the choice of 51 as the magical number. We are all used to Labour’s obsession with media glitz. But for those of us who thought that, finally, we would get some substance, the 51 proposals are a big disappointment.
Just imagine, the first item on their list is that “interest rates on VAT arrears will be reduced”.
I had to read it twice.
For quite apart from the fact that this is already being done (even in this Budget itself), the question that one must ask is whether this proposal, deserving as it may be, truly merits to be the first point of the programme of a government-in-waiting.
Is this Labour’s top economic brainwave?
Ok, so perhaps the document does not present an order of priority and that higher priorities are further down. But, then, why doesn’t the document include anything of substance on the economy?
The closest we get is proposal 5: “Our government will be safe for business and enterprises” and proposal 3 that tells the self-employed that “we will let you work”.
Safe? We will let you work? What kind of proposals are these?
And don’t these “proposals” betray an innate uncertainty over whether a Labour government would indeed be safe for the economy?
Now hold on to your seats. Here comes the famous commitment on electricity bills even if you have to wait all the way down to the 12th proposal to get it: “Electricity bills will be reduced in a realistic and sustainable manner”.
Really? And how? Nothing. Zilch. We are none the wiser. Except for two points.
The first is that the interconnector cable project that will link us to the European electricity grid will be continued (14) but that project will be well underway by the next election.
In a sop to environmentalists, proposal 13 adds that the Delimara power station will be switched to gas. Fine. Except that this will come at a significant cost that will translate into even higher bills.
Let’s move on, shall we?
Proposal 18 proclaims that the first decision of a Labour government will be to remove the increase in ministerial salary. The temptation was too great to resist. But even here they give away their scam: For in the next proposal, they announce that ministerial pay will be subject to an independent review.
Now am I the only one thinking that the independent review will bring ministerial pay right back up to its current levels? Does Labour really take us for morons? Probably, because the rest of the document is littered with “proposals” that range from outright inanities to self-evident statements that no serious politician can present as a new policy.
Here’s one inanity: “The key to address the pensions challenge is economic growth” (20).
And another one: “Youth before bureaucracy: we deliver what we promise” (26).
Here are some self-evident truths that Labour mistake for new proposals:
“We believe in industry as an important part of our plan for economic growth” (28).
Or “Air Malta has a future if it has a more ambitious vision” (35).
Or worse: “Unconstitutional laws will be amended” (46).
Need I go on?
Well, there are a number of “proposals” that are already in the course of being delivered as we speak. But in two of them, Labour really takes the biscuit.
Proposal 37 tells us that “tourism will be a leading pillar of economic growth”. Labour is obviously oblivious to the fact that, in the past years, despite the economic crisis, this country has broken one record after another in tourist arrivals.
Proposal 33 announces that “the stipend system will be strengthened”. This is rich coming from Labour. The last time they had a hand at strengthening our stipends, they sent students queuing at the bank for loans.
What can I say?
Well, I cannot say that I am pleased with these 51 proposals. For every country needs a serious opposition that can keep the government on its toes and that can come up with alternative policies on how to run the country. But this mediocrity is frightening.
Which tells me that the PN has a duty to do its level best to win the next election.
True, the odds are firmly stacked against it and it is running out of time. But if it is to win, it must continue delivering right up to the end. And all the while, it must come up with renewed policies that can show that it still has what it takes to run the country with new and exciting ideas.
Crucially, it must rally together and regain its will to fight to win.
The Prime Minister’s speech in the recent PN general council set the tone. But we all have a duty to chip in.
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Each to his own. To me the number is indelibly associated with Pastis 51.
Planet 51.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2011/12/meanwhile/
On Planet 51, Joseph the poodle is safe for business.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4KelxtIjoI
And here is Joseph Muscat with his dinosours and Silvio Parnis planning the invasion of Castille in 2013. The Sargas power plant and the Red Touch mobile phone are part of the plot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1yobLezkgU&feature=endscreen&NR=1
Daphne, so sorry to interrupt. Just got off the slopes. We got snow!
Simon’s comments are spot on. The little shit is an asshole. (or is the asshole a little shit?)
Anyway, we’ve got a very big fu-k up tmr in Brussels and Joey plays the ‘Great Leader’s card. Gimmie or I won’t play.
The commies are still on the rock.
Maybe these 51 magic proposals are just a rehash of the 15 point plan he announced when he was running for the PL leadership.
Whatever happened to those?
What can I say – Simon, quick – catch a flight back to Malta – I am sure thousands have the same thoughts – come back, we really need you here.
hear, hear
Simon for PM.
He earns more in Brussels.
@H.P. Baxxter
Sorry I disagree with you here.
We don’t need another PM. Dr Gonzi is doing fine (sakemm ma jinqalax xi JPO jew Debono jew Mugliett u jaraw x jaqilghu)
Gonzi is not eternal. Sooner or later he’ll have to step down. Besides, there’s no comparison between him and Busuttil.
Proposals 3 and 5 say it all.
They are nothing else but two parapraxes.
I remember belonging to a ‘Club 51’, sometime in the early eighties, I think. It was all very cloak and dagger! Have we come a long way, or what?
It would be interesting to know what will be Simon’s Busuttil’s role in the next general election. It’s a pity that time is running out since otherwise a leading role for him would surely give the PN a new blood and fresh ideas which are so needed, at least for perception reasons. Then zaghzugh Joseph would need to re-invent himself some other way.
Western capitalism and the free market economy are alien to the Labour Party. This is why Joseph Muscat is unable to come forward with a plausable alternative to a Nationalist government and is destined to perform badly.
The two years under Sant are proof of the party’s lack of experience. The government then performed poorly and showed it was estranged to the new system of politics in Malta.
[Daphne – It’s not lack of experience that’s the problem. Fenech Adami had no experience in government when he became prime minister in 1987.]
A Nationalist government has a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities in a competing business world. It successfully liberalised the market and re-established a social system based on the principle of individual rights.
Labour’s experience is reminiscent of the misbegotten and bloody politics of a decadent socialism.
If Standard and Poors were to rate the risk of a change to Labour in the next general elections, Malta would stand to lose.
[Daphne – It’s not lack of experience that’s the problem. Fenech Adami had no experience in government when he became prime minister in 1987
Neither did Dr Gonzi for that matter.
Simon couldn’t put it better: The PN has a duty to win elections, each and every one of them.
Maybe, one day, Labour will understand what we expect, and no Marisa is going to succeed.
Jozef, it’s not every one of them but also each of us who has to do his/her bit, by passing on the message that a Nationalist government – at this stage, with the present Labour lot – is essential if we are to maintain the present standard of progress. It is also important that we emphasize that every vote counts and that not voting is not an option.
Each and every election, Josefa, Including local council elections.
Muscat isn’t a Sant who had made it a point to push Labour led councils for results, instead he’s doing everything to create tension between these and central government.
The dock no.1 project in Cospicua continually stalled has become a tell tale farce, with the council halting the project until alternative parking was provided. ONE news carried a reportage gloating at the delays yesterday, blaming the PN for the attempted sabotage of the feast of the Assumption.
Rabat is to this day riddled with signs telling residents which project belongs to the council and which doesn’t. They didn’t stop at anything to politicise matters, not even the paving of an alley.
Zurrieq still doesn’t have a waste collection service in full working order, with Ignatius doing his best to block any bring in site some years back, The council’s newsletter has become a propaganda piece, one idiot even saying he should have the same clout deciding on road resurfacing as Austin Gatt when the latter was tackling Valletta Road and its required alternative traffic routes.
‘L-gheruq taghna’ should take up this nuance as well.
errata corrige
‘feast of the Immaculate Conception’
Simon Busuttil missed the point that each of the 51 proposals was preceded by Joseph’s assertion, “gvern immexxi minni…” Immexxi minnhu? How about those who pull his strings?
minnu mhux minnhu
My impression is that they chose the number 51 because they are assuming that they’ll get 51% at the next election.
It’s another strategy taken from the PN in the early 80s when Club 51 was set up as someone else commented.
The difference is that the PN had obtained 51% in the election and was not allowed to govern.
I have not read the 51 proposals but the above gives a good summary and reinforces my resolution not read them as the great majority are matters which we take for granted, like proposal 5 and 37, and we do not need Labour for these to happen.
It is not media glitz that gets you in government but real proposals and a good vision.
The most fascinating proposal is about the utility bills. So the decision will be taken to reduce them in a realistic and sustainable manner, so if it is not realistic and sustainable they will not be reduced.
The sad thing is that I have a feeling that these proposals are believed by a good number of the electorate, being reinforced by the billboards they have set up re ‘Gonzi jasal sal-mistoqsijiet, Joseph jati r-risposti’. I hope I’m wrong.
On the other hand, Dr Simon Busuttil didn’t exactly cover himself in glory with the European vote on HIV/AIDS. I expected much better from someone like him.
He is a PN MEP after all. Even European MPs have to toe the party line on many issues.
Indeed, Baxxter, but if that line is wrong, do you still tow the line? In my opinion, it is what Dr Busuttil did.
You’re referring to the vote on some “campaign against AIDS/HIV” thing, right? Where they mentioned abortion. All five Maltese MEPs voted against it, in typical fashion (Abortion! Oh the horror!).
You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. When I’m MEP there’ll be no such squeamishness. I’ll make sure I’ll vote in favour of every single law on abortion.
But then again, that means I’ll never be elected in Malta in the first place.
“Crucially, it must rally together and regain its will to fight to win.
The Prime Minister’s speech in the recent PN general council set the tone. But we all have a duty to chip in.”
Does the message need to be any more clear to Mr. Franco Debono? I hope with all my heart that the Nationlist Party wins the next election and he doesn’t get re-elected.
That should knock his egocentrism down a notch or two.
Actually, I doubt it will – he’ll probably blame someone or something else for his failure. His head is that big. It will be one, great, big conspiracy against his brilliance, miskin.
Re-elected?
Libera nos Domine.
I expect (in the emphatic sense of the word) that he will not be allowed anywhere near the PN in 2013.
It will then be time for the PN to cleanse itself, even if this means a few years in opposition.
Rat.
I mean even the choice of title is wrong. “Proposals”?
Fenech Adami didn’t propose “Xoghol Gustizzja u Liberta” or propose that Malta joins the EU. Neither did I hear Gonzi propose that we would join the Eurozone. We were told that if they were elected to government, that is what we would get – and that is what we got.
Watching Bondi+ about Sargas. With a mug of Earl Grey.
Nice post card of what the power station would look like at Delimara Bay. Looks like a 7 star hotel on the sea. Almost like a cruise ship. Maybe Hamilton Travel can run it.
Then, it was Marlene Farrugia Pullicino Orlando’s turn. She left me stunned. Another major U turn by Labour. She said that Labour is not interested in the Sargas proposal. Only in carbon capture. I knew they were interested in hot air, but not in carbon dioxide.
But isn’t carbon capture an extra cost to what we have today? And then there is the cost of exporting the carbon captured.
How can they lower the CURRENT bills by adding an extra cost to what we have today?
Now which version shall we believe? Shall we believe the version of Joseph Muscat and Anglu Farrugia, who spoke publicly about the “John Dalli plan,” or shall we now believe Marlene?
In the extract below, quoted from his own creation, maltastar, it is clear that Joseph Muscat proposed that Malta adopts Sagas’s plant for both the production of electricity AND carbon capture:
“Gonzi is ridiculing Joseph Muscat’s pledge that a Labour government would reduce water and electricity bills. Muscat has said that one of the ways of doing this was to implement the project proposed by Sargas to build a power plant that produces electricity at half the cost produced at present by existing plants and at the same time having the technology to capture carbon dioxide.
After 2013 electricity produced by plants that emit carbon dioxide will cost more as there will be a new charge €15 per every ton of carbon dioxide emitted.”
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=18158
Once again, Labour is showing that it only has confused policies. It is showing signs of amateruism. No signs of Ghaqal whatsoever…
Maybe it was a misprint. Or maybe their computer malfunctioned?
Capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) is nearly impossible that’s why sequestering is the latest craze.
If I understood Marlene Farrugia correctly on Bondi+ this evening, proposal no 12 will most certainly be possible, not because of Sargas, (they seem to have done a u turn on that one) but because of all the technology available in the world, based on her research on the Internet.
She struck me pretty much like one of those people who will happily advise others what medication to take because they read it on the Internet, therefore it must be true.
When Labour’s manifesto is out, one of us must sit down and check where every phrase in it has been lifted from the internet. I’m sure Wikipedia will be a key source.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl63WxnyTc8&feature=related
These 51 proposals by dear Joseph and his merry man are nothing but a great simalarity to Mintoff’s promise in 1971 of “Xoghol ghal kulhadd fi zmien tlett xhur”. The result was the Emergency Labour Corps, under military law, on a take it or leave it basis.
Then the three months got extended to years to included other labour corps because Mintoff couldn’t get Malta going as he had no international credibility, and could not obtain foreign investment. His only international credibility was with the worst regimes of Romania, Libya, China, North Korea, etc. We should not forget either that at that time the world was booming whilst we were carrying one of the highest unemployment figures in Europe.
The impression I got from watching (parts of ) Bondi+ was that she is not too keen about the Sargas proposal .
[Daphne – The impression I got is that Labour is retreating under the onslaught of criticism.]
So much for the ” progett ta’ Johnnie Dalli”.
[Daphne – The impression I got is that Labour is retreating under the onslaught of criticism.]
I agree with you. They’re beating a retreat just as they did on the living wage proposal.
But now comes the interesting bit. How will they support their claim that they will cut the cost of electricity by half?
The way they did so until Joseph gave Johnnie a ring after seeing him on TV: promise us magiks fil-hin opportun.