Childish tit for tat

The Times editorial of October 27, Getting The House In Order, should provide ample food for thought as to where we are heading.

Unfortunately, both the PN and the MLP are guilty of short-sighted political stratagems which invariably explode in their faces in the fullness of time.

I recall that when Alfred Sant proposed a token charge on prescriptions to make us aware of the cost involved in providing free medical care, he and his party were lambasted by the opportunistic Nationalist Party... only for the PN to be compelled to tell us soon after they were returned to power that we cannot expect everything for free.

Now it is the turn of the MLP to revel in the price hikes of international oil, for which they are dishonestly blaming this government. It is a childish tit for tat with the attendant loss of respect for what we regard as our highest institution.

It is indeed sad to have to witness a total lack of cooperation between government and opposition. It is even more so at this particular time of international turmoil. While the government has to cope with an unprecedented explosion in oil prices, about which Dr Sant and his MLP know we cannot do anything, the government is also expected to cope with an expensive pandemic. Yet, instead of the opposition cooperating to deal with the twin calamities we are faced with, they are like vultures simply scouting for a perceived political advantage.

The editorial makes reference to Jason Azzopardi. Dr Azzopardi and José Herrera in their television programme Mill-Parlament started off setting a new standard in civilised debate. It is to be regretted that Dr Herrera single-handedly sought to undermine this new way of doing things by his antics in the last edition of this programme. He was far too raucous and unnecessarily abrasive, as to bring to naught all the previous good work.

Dr Herrera, apart from his deplorable misdemeanour, persists in the lie about hedging agreements. He was at no point honest enough to admit that the way hedging worked last time, under a MLP administration, it was an unmitigated disaster. We were compelled to pay $23 a barrel instead of the $13 on the international market.

I have no intention of casting aspersions on the whole political system. I have deep respect for individual members that belong to both parties. It is the system and the people that have the ability to guide it that I am not happy with.