It’s been one of those strange years where a lot has happened for me and to me, but much of it seems to be a blur. Thanks to the two years of the pandemic that we went through before 2023, it almost feels like the last three years have been one long slog of a year.

I thought that perhaps it was a ‘me problem’, but on speaking to several other people, it transpired that I wasn’t the only one feeling exhausted by everything and all the money I’ve been spending for so little in return.

Just yesterday, as I entered a shop in Valletta and paused to look at a dress, I became an unwilling participant in a conversation between two people I presume were mother and daughter.

 I didn’t gather much about the context thanks to It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas blaring from one speaker and someone playing something that sounded like a sea shanty coming from outside, but the girl sounded like she was pleading, while the mother firmly and sadly shook her head.

I confirmed that price was indeed the issue when I heard the older woman say that local shops had become too expensive for them and that if she wanted something similar, she would try to find it online. I would be lying if I said that I disagreed with her and that shopping locally hasn’t become a nightmare.

Everywhere you look, the prices of everything have doubled, if not tripled. Whether you’re buying butter, pasta or a slice of cake, it’s become ridiculous. I understand everyone needs to make money, but honestly, at what cost? Is everyone just okay with this happening?

I’m tired of the cheque gimmicks that cover half of one visit to the supermarket

I don’t have any children or anyone dependent on me and I’ve never been a penny pincher, but if even I’m baulking at prices, how is no one else saying a single word?

I know I’ve said this before, but when the cost of bread went up by a few cents more than a decade ago, the authorities almost had an uprising on their hands, and now we are told that the price of milk is to go up by 15c and hardly anyone bats an eyelid?

Every day, we hear how people are struggling to make ends meet: are people willing to die of hunger rather than criticise how their country is being run? Do price increases only matter when it’s not your party of choice in power? It sometimes feels like revolutionary entities only seem to come out in full force when the Nationalists are the ruling party; otherwise, they’re like meek lambs skipping merrily through fields of gold.

It would be bad enough if it were just the cost of daily essentials that have gone up, but all you need to do is open social media and look at the comments on various groups to see how impossible it has become for people to afford accommodation or to fix up places on their current salaries.

Where are we meant to go from here? It’s high time our government started doing what it was voted in for and started to govern. I’m tired of the cheque gimmicks that cover half of one visit to the supermarket; all I want for Christmas is you… to do your job.