On the night between September 20 and 21, 1964, the bands, military and otherwise, at the Floriana Parade Ground (now Independence Arena) waxed sentimental and played repeatedly Auld Lang Syne. The tune was much more familiar then, and the crowds joined in, singing with a tinge of nostalgia.

I was still very young, but my father had insisted on taking me to the Granaries, explaining to my mother that his father had wished to see the Maltese Flag replacing the Union Jack, but had not been fortunate enough to see it happen as he had died in 1948. Our Brexit was smooth under the wise guidance of the then Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgio Borg Olivier.

This statesman had realised that independent Malta had everything to gain from maintaining the friendship that had been struck between the two peoples in the previous 164 years, and especially during the wars (whether the Napoleonic, Crimean or the two World Wars).

The January 2020 Newsletter of the Friends of the Malta Maritime Museum features the losses in ships – and therefore in men – sustained by the Convoys sent eastward (from Gibraltar) or Westwards (from Alexandria) to relieve besieged Malta between 1940 and 1943. The reminders of the comradeship and sacrifice of those years are still echoed in memories, books and buildings.

Following 1964, Malta’s relations with Great Britain were as close as possible. Although for some time (post-1971) Dom Mintoff ’s Labour government alienated British public opinion in pursuit of friendships such as that with Colonel Gaddafi’s regime, time and again – especially with the return of a Nationalist government in 1987 and most markedly when both our countries became part of the European Union – the convergence of world views and economic interests brought Britain and Malta into intimate collaboration again.

It is not in Malta’s interests to accept to sever or even loosen the cultural and commercial relationship built with Great Britain since 1800

We recall Prime Minister Cameron’s speech in the House of Commons, when Lawrence Gonzi was Maltese prime minister and I was the minister for home affairs: “It is not the first time in our history that Malta’s friendship was amply demonstrated in the hour of need.”

We do not anticipate that Great Britain’s exit from the European Union will make of our two countries strangers to each other. The historic ties, the ‘old acquaintances’, will not be forgotten. The economic and cultural interests of both should also be ‘brought to mind’.

It is surely not in Britain’s interests that the view at Westminster should be fixedly directed towards the Atlantic and towards the world in other directions but overlooking the European continent and the Mediterranean. It is not in Malta’s interests to accept to sever or even loosen the cultural and commercial relationship built with Great Britain since 1800.

Our Constitution was cast in a British mould, and our Parliament still refers to Erskine May. Our Civil Service follows patterns established in the British tradition. Our medical specialists have undergone their post-graduate studies in British universities and practised in British hospitals. Our armed forces are British, not only in the styles of its uniforms but, more importantly, in the ethos and discipline we expect them to follow. Our accountants and bankers have studied and trained in British methods.

We can add that British goods and services (insurance, banking etc.) have a share in the Maltese market which is proportionately large. Though we are no longer one of John Bull’s other islands, we are still very much attuned to the British way of life.

Let us hope that the conduct of foreign policy in both countries will continue to make good store of this traditional closeness and shape practical lines of activity accordingly.

We cannot and should not lose the advantages of friendship, long acquaintance, understanding, common views on democracy and the rule of law, and a bounty of commercial interests.

The Commonwealth provides a wide framework of collaboration in many fields, especially those outside Europe and the Mediterranean, but it is also useful to underline that our relations with Britain have always been direct and our friendship has always been of a very particular kind. This friendship should suffer no Brexit.

Carm Mifsud Bonnici is PN spokesman on foreign affairs and trade promotion.