Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1122280
25 OPINION maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 MAY 2019 largest political force. That's the thing with campaign strategies, you know: they tell us more about the people using them, than those on the receiving end. Throwing milkshake during a campaign is the equivalent of hurling verbal abuse dur- ing a civilised debate. It only indicates that you don't have any valid, legitimate political arguments to throw instead. So how can anyone claim to be surprised, when the only people getting any results are the ones who are actually rolling up their sleeves and doing all the hard work – get- ting out there, mingling with constituents, talking to and trying to convince people… you know, all the stuff that serious politicians are ex- pected to do, if they want to win elections? But no. The 'clever' ones… i.e, the ones who seem think their own opinions are suf- ficient to overturn even a referendum result, if it is dis- pleasing to their ears… they think the proper way to win elections is not by arguing or debating, but by throw- ing things at their political opponents. Like mediaeval peasants throwing rotten vegetables at people in the stocks… only in 2019, instead of 1451. Then they all scratch their heads, these clever people, and wonder why so many voters turn away from their cause in disgust. For all their presumed intelligence, they seem to never understand why they keep losing this debate to the people who are actually debating, when they are not. Where the heck is the intel- ligence in that? What's so very 'clever' about making a public display of your own in- ability to argue? Perhaps the most disqui- eting thing about this ugly turn of events – for yes, mob rule is always ugly – is that it seems to be catching on everywhere else. In Malta, for instance, we throw insults instead of milkshake (though it wouldn't surprise me at all if Benna starts producing ergonomic milkshake car- tons, designed for maximum throwability and aerody- namic ease of flight)… and, oh my, how very surprising. The results to date have been exactly the same. Here, as in the UK, we have a small minority of self- appointed 'intellectuals' who seem to think that repeating words like 'fuck' and 'cunt' will automatically win them political support. One of them, a while back, accosted a politician (PN's Clyde Puli) at a restaurant and filmed his reaction to being heckled. To his credit, Puli responded to this barrage of (mostly inco- herent) abuse with calm, col- lected arguments. And even if the arguments themselves were far from impressive… ('Adrian Delia is the best'? Huh? What?)… to me, and to everyone else I know who watched and commented on that clip… Puli came out on top. And that's Clyde Puli: sec- retary general of a political party that is on the cusp of annihilation anyway. Look at Labour, for crying out loud. It has not stopped increasing its electoral lead, election after election, after election… and the 'intellectuals' opposing it never seem capable of realis- ing that they are themselves directly responsible for this state of affairs. Honestly: how many elec- tions does a party have to lose – by ever-increasing margins, too – before it fi- nally learns that political bat- tles are not won by hurling abuse (still less milkshake)… but by bringing intelligent arguments to the table? In any case: by now you will surely have worked out that this applies just as much to Norman Lowell's Imperium Europa. Lowell, too, has grown in stature with every European election since 2004. And it's not because of the strength of his arguments… but simply because he is the one bringing arguments to the table (no matter how weak or bizarre), while his opponents seem to expect everyone to just gravitate to 'their side' of the argument…. just like that. On their own. Without being persuaded, convinced, appealed to, or even consulted. In a nutshell, they expect to win all their political bat- tles… without actually put- ting up a fight. Sorry, but it doesn't work like that. People cannot con- tinue to be 'surprised' when their own idiotic strategies keep blowing up in their faces, time and time again. As I recall, a certain local politician once (long ago) said he wanted to 'instill a new way of doing politics'. It's a pity he failed so utterly (though again, hardly surpris- ing: seeing as he never really tried) but then as now, it remains what is truly needed in this country. And in the rest of Europe too. Arguments. Not milkshake. It is really not that difficult to understand… Poor Nigel...