An arranged marriage of inconvenience

The findings in the survey commisssioned by The Sunday Times once again cannot go by without comment. The dilemmas and contradictions among the minds of our electorate are there in black and white, telling us our future is not as clearly mapped out as it should be.

Before getting into the standing of the two main and one little poltical party, the role of the GWU cannot go unnoticed.

Now let's make it clear. These comments are not directed at the membership or some of the executive but at the failed leadership.

One of the worst elements about the debate we have had so far about EU membership has been the total misleading and lying to the working classes, and by that I mean anyone, including our large proportion of pensioners, who only live off their salary of around Lm7-8,000 a year or their pension of much less.

This is Malta's working class today.

It benefits all these people to be part of a very lefty EU, and yet these are in many ways the group who are most being scared of membership. None of my English socialist friends believe me when I tell them what sort of campaign the GWU has run. None of them can believe that they are being believed.

Well, of course the GWU is being believed by those who do not think but not by many more. Asked about the most reliable source of information respondents to the survey named "the GWU as the least credible".

If people in Malta and Gozo had really understood what the EU is and what it represents the intentions of voters would be totally different to what it appears from the survey. In general, working people would be in favour, save those with racist and xenophobic notions of "Malta for the Maltese!"

Intellectuals like Dr Alfred Sant would be most in favour, and yet even more supposedly conservative politicians like our PM would be cautiously in favour because the truth is this!

All over Europe, in all the other applicant countries, every political party red, blue, green or indifferent, have joined forces to get the best deal for their country, acknowledging the EU is not perfect or heavenly but is our best chance of surviving what is currently a bleakish future, thanks to the growing threat of international terrorism, among other things.

Only in Malta, only the MLP and GWU, have joined forces in this absured marriage of inconvenience to lie and tell us to be scared.

Because that is all they are doing. They have no facts at their disposal. They have no alternative policy to propose so they spread fear. And most of all they do not even understand what partnership is!

All they understand is old-fashioned marriages of convenience where you just marry who your dad tells you to marry. Inconvenient for the working classes because their best interests are not being looked after. Old-fashioned because you are meant to do what you are told, you are not allowed to think.

So the GWU and the MLP, which have married each other, do not believe or understand what partnership-cum-shubija even really is? They just want you to blindly marry into what they say is good for you...

And most important of all, you pay your contributions as a member of this union. It commissions reports on whether we should join. And then, because the findings are generally in favour it hides them!

What a workers' union!

Indeed one Labour councillor in Mosta who said he was in favour of membership (and he seems to be, because he is a caring, genuine socialist who cares about other people's misfortunes) was patronisingly told by Jimmy Magro that he would be prayed for!

Is that what Labour gurus tell their children if they don't marry whoever Daddy tells them to? "I'll pray for you!"

Other findings in the survey are important for the outcome of our election which must be won by an absolute majority of PN votes for us to go into Europe.

It is not surprising that the man and his team, Eddie Fenech Adami who has worked hardest on EU membership, should have a popularity and credibilty rating of 62%, while Alfred Sant actually has a worse credibility rating than the man who probably cannot even get elected as an MP with our current system - Dr Harry Vassallo

Those who are disillusioned Nats or reds who are planning to vote AD must square that with the possibility of losing EU membership if they vote AD!

I wonder if this messge will be drummed into the electorate post referendum?

"An AD vote could lose us EU membership!"

That is the one thing AD keep on not saying. If they were really as different as they claim to be they would be totally honest about it but they fudge the issue. I also haven't noticed many journalists questioning them closely about this problem, which could soon be a terrible reality?

While many people now feel the referendum could be won because a majority of those who vote will vote in favour of membership, few are as certain about the outcome of the election.

At election time, we could well see the Nationalists getting, say, 49%, AD another 1.9% which means 50.9% in favour of membership, and yet the MLP with 49.1% of the vote actually winning the election and effectively taking us away from EU membership.

Because although the survey showed that an amazing 70% of us want the referendum to definitely close and decide the EU membership issue, Alfred Sant and his band persist in saying only an election decides the issue! When do 70% of us ever agree on anything? Yet this will of the majority is being ignored by the MLP.

Scary too that only 42.5% of Maltese women intend voting in favour of membership while a strong 55.8% of men are in favour. This no doubt reflects the fact that Malta has a very low proportion of women working outside the home. These women whose lives are centred around their children and their husbands are not led by billboards, are not reading much and are not closely following political broadcasts.

They are worried about losing their reasons for living, their children who could go abroad and perhaps their husbands too.

It is a very hard nut to crack in the final week before the referendum but there is also an election to be won and the hearts and minds of these women must be won too!

When I look back at this whole election campaign, and how various groups have been persuaded for or against one thing has stood out. The PN had a product which was in the interests of the working classes to say yes to, yet their campaign has swung the middle classes far more. The MLP had a product which could realy only appeal to the most xenephobic right-wingers and yet their campaign has worked in the minds of many loving housewives and many genuine working people. The wrong people are voting Yes and No for the wrong reasons.

How strange that the normally astute Maltese have not understood what they are buying into on Saturday?