Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1482386
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 OCTOBER 2022 COMMENT What are we skinning? The Nationalist Party's apparent- ly chronic inability to make inroads among voters and/ or present a coherent united front against the ruling Labour Party on key issues of the day, as personified by the persis- tent and embarrassing infight- ing between current leader Bernard Grech and his former counterpart Adrian Delia… and an embarrassingly error-rid- den pre-budget document. Why are we skinning it? Be- cause it's a two-pronged dis- play of concerning ineptitude, that's also kind of sweet, as a chaser. That's a juicily loaded sen- tence, right there. Could you unpack it? On the one hand, what we have here is a leading Opposition party that's in no shape to coherently 'oppose', because the metaphoric bat- tering ram they're expected to produce is currently being put together by spit, papi- er-mache and what seems to be the half-frozen Prinjolata leftovers from carnivals past. Yes, that would be of some concern as it means that the Labour Party's rock-solid mandate can keep on truck- in' on, with any number of questionable policy decisions swooshing by unchecked. Ex- actly. But on the other hand… I shudder to think. You may shudder away. But the fact is, it's also kind of funny. My sides are rearing for a splitting. Go on… Well, it's kind of amusing to see Malta's former ramrod straight, De- mo-Christian moral leader be reduced to the ambling and shambling, headless-chicken condition it is now. Few things are more deli- cious than self-righteous over-earnestness being ba- nana-peeled into humiliation, yes. It's a cruel comeuppance that was, alas, somewhat inev- itable. You'd think that their re- peated electoral drubbings of late would be punishment enough, though. There is an argument to be made about not being overly sadistic to- wards an already-embattled PN, yes. But surely the party itself shouldn't keel over and whine like that? Yes, adding self-pity to their crop of vulnerabilities will hardly drum up the con- fidence that they desperately need in this prolonged hour of need. Are they actually making an active effort in contradict- ing the prevailing narrative, though? Persisting on mak- ing their infighting public and publishing an error-ridden pre-budget document is cer- tainly not the way to go. Do say: "Malta needs a stable opposition party, fast. Either that, or civil society needs to truly come together to create the necessary battering ram that can pave the way back to a truly democratic space for the country." Don't say: "It was really crum- my of MaltaToday to publish a whole article detailing the top-to-bottom errors in PN's pre-budget document. When did we decide that the island's independent media should be critical, rigorous AND glori- ously bitchy?!" Glaciers in the Alps are melting faster NEIL ENTWHISTLE PAGE 12 The Skinny Malta, shrunk down MICHAEL FALZON It's Budget day again PAGE 7 No 162 – Malta's Bumbling Opposition Block JOSANNE CASSAR Lack of parental discipline has led to the 'no children allowed' rule PAGE 6 EDITORIAL Government's contempt for Parliament knows no bounds PAGE 2 SAVIOUR BALZAN Praise me – when I am gone PAGE 5 The last time glaciers had an extreme melt season was in 2003 when temperatures were very high across Europe, and a heatwave killed at least 30,000 people