It is difficult to deny that in the run-up to the General Election held in March 2013 Labour’s had a well-oiled media machine and a canny ability to react in just about the right way to attract new voters to its fold. Never mind that substance wise it was all empty and hollow, for display it was a slick campaign by a political party that managed to convince the vast majority that it had turned a new fold.
Two and a half years down the line and Labour is looking like a very different Labour. The formerly slick and well-oiled media machine seems to have hit a huge back of grit and is back to its good old mudslinging tactics of times long-gone by. Gone is the positive imagery of Malta Tagħna Lkoll, replaced by a Labour who’s only argument in government is that the previous PN administration did just as bad whenever it faces any level of serious criticism.
Gone also is the image that Labour has turned a new fold. We’re clearly back to the good old scratch my back I’ll scratch your back Labour. The Labour of the inner circle making a pure pig’s breakfast out of the benefits of incumbency.
Over the last two and a half years the signs have been all too clear. Different issues have displayed these cracks all too visibly. The recent controversy on Labour’s desire to carry out a development on land earmarked as an Outside Development Zone has perhaps mashed all these cracks and defects into one issue making Labour’s new found vulnerability all too exposed for all to see.
On the other hand the Nationalist Party led by Simon Busuttil has gone from a position of serious and fundamental difficulties to a position where it is constantly on the path of strengthening its legitimacy, its credibility and its ability to bring about change. If Labour tried to act as if it found Simon Busuttil to be some sort of joke two years back, it is now amply clear that the joke is long over and that Simon Busuttil is very much a credible and potential alternative Prime Minister, as stated recently in a blog post by my good friend and colleague Alan Abela Wadge.
No wonder even Labour MP Marlene Farrugia on Facebook recently stated, “I have been duped like many others. I will only be guilty if I remain silent in the face of all this”.
