You and the EU

The Labour Party is trying to create an illusion. It is telling the electorate that there are two options ahead of us, EU membership or partnership.

If there were really two such realities to choose from, we would be fortunate indeed. But in fact there is no such choice.

When you come to vote, you would have to decide on one thing. Do you believe we should go down the membership road, or are you prepared to let Malta drift aimlessly along an unknown route?

We know what being an EU member means. But we do not know what will happen if we do not join.

The choice is not between membership and remaining as we are. We cannot remain as we are. The very fact that the EU will have so many new members irrespective of what we decide is already cause for concern.

You can opt to have a voice in the new Europe or to have no voice at all. You can opt to have a commissioner having the same power as any other commissioner or to have nothing; to have members of parliament in the European Parliament or to have no voice in that parliament.

You can go for strength in numbers or you can opt to go it alone. If we had an opposition with a brilliant track record in defending democracy and the like, I would understand your hesitation.

But we do not have such an opposition as yet. Once Alfred Sant and his party lose the upcoming referendum and the election, a new, credible party leadership might provide real opposition and some real alternatives.

What is the party, with its present leadership, up to? When it won the 1996 general election, it promised to do away with value added tax, but today, seven years later, it says it will keep it.

Labour do not listen. When they realise they cannot win an argument, they try to shout you down. And they call themselves European!

Being European means, among other things, respecting the views of others. It means looking at the common good; it means tolerance and democracy, not mass meetings where to Labour's shame supporters are still committing appalling cruelty to rabbits.

Voting for the EU is a vote for the present and future. Believing and returning old Labour to power would mean a return to the old days in the short term.

If you really want this country to have a decent Labour Party, you have to vote Dr Sant and his entourage out.

You matter. Much more than you know, particularly if you are thankfully one of the many intelligent Labour voters in this country.

Labour will not respect your choice in a referendum.

Will you let them get away with that, or will you help this country get into the EU?