Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1524591
KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT SUNDAY 28 JULY 2024 • ISSUE 1290 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY Curious facts about the Paris 2024 games now underway PAGES 14 - 15 Warmer sea temperatures recorded earlier this year PAGES 2 - 3 Trump and Russia: A look into the weird world of Neville Gafà PAGS 9 - 11 Olympics Heatwave War on woke maltatoday Malta's MEPs file financial declarations PAGE 13 Audit reveals failings in food safety checks on farm meat PAGES 6 - 7 GLENN Bedingfield is calling for more openness in the Labour Party after the June European Parliament election result and cautions against a siege mentality. In an interview appearing today, the parliamentary secretary tells MaltaToday the party needs to step up on auto criticism and serve as a prodding stick for government. "Now is not the time to build walls," he says, insisting the forum of ideas within the party needs to be widened. "We have to open up; we have to speak; we have to reach more peo- ple because historically, the PL's message was always a message that belonged to the people, to workers," he says. Addressing the criticism by some within the PL's grassroots who of- ten label non-traditional PL voters as opportunists, Bedingfield says he understands where they are coming from. "Many of those who speak in this way do so because they would have passed through personal experi- ences. We have to address these personal experiences, but I speak a lot with these people and even they understand the need for the party to grow," he says, adding that the PL was at its most successful whenever it acted as a movement. The PL won a relative majority in the European Parliament election with a vote gap that was slashed to just 8,000 votes. Bedingfield says the result came as a surprise to him but the message he draws from it is that the people do not trust the Nationalist Party and want a better PL. Nonetheless, he acknowledges that the scenes of jubilation by Labour supporters outside the courthouse in Valletta when Joseph Muscat was arraigned did the party no good. The government, he says, must act on quality of life issues, which he believes are bothering people – the environment, construction and traf- fic. Decisions must not be taken with the next general election in mind, he cautions, but should be based on a vision of where the party believes the country should be in 20 to 25 years' time. SEE FULL INTERVIEW MT2 €1.95 Glenn Bedingfield cautions Labour Party against siege mentality Food safety audit reveals gaps in monitoring system, with just 44% of samples tested for residues from veterinary medicines and pesticides in farm animals and animal products Glenn Bedingfield