Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/421389
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 23 NOVEMBER 2014 28 Letters Send your letters to: The Editor, MaltaToday, MediaToday Ltd. Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 | Fax: (356) 21 385075 E-mail: newsroom@mediatoday.com.mt. Letters to the Editor should be concise. No pen names are accepted. Following a string of biased videos taken during the 2014 spring hunting season, all totally devoid of concrete fact, the choice of Chris Packham re- ceiving the UK Green Ribbon Award for the best environmental campaign as reported in the local media on 18 November is indeed significant. Clearly this proves clowns are most likely to win awards for doing noth- ing but making people laugh. Chris Packham who declared he would be filming "millions of birds being shot by thousands of hunt- ers" actually filmed nothing but two or three dead or injured birds of unknown provenance that certainly disprove his declared intentions. The man is a farce and awarding him for a total sham makes the Green Ribbon Award even more farcical. Considering "The 2014 Green Ribbon Political Awards are kindly sponsored by Thames Tideway Tunnel, a major new sewer urgently needed to help address the unac- ceptable and growing problem of raw sewage discharges into the tidal River Thames" (http://tinyurl.com/ou- mucbp), Chris Packham was indeed the perfect match for such sponsor- ship and therefore the choice is quite understandable. Mark Mifsud Bonnici President, Kaccaturi San Umbertu *with apologies to Bill Clinton Beyond the personal sacrifices it envisages, the budget must be judged eventually by the results achieved. Its target is economic renewal, recovery and growth. It aims to place the country on a competitive edge capable of at- tracting foreign direct investment to our shores. Its targets are ambitious and, all in all, a first step toward getting our financial house in order. It has provided the first glances into a government determined to take the financial bull by the horns. To this extent, government keeps sending a clear message of its determination that getting the deficit under control is its topmost priority. Only time will tell whether the measures announced prove to be sufficient. Lawrence Gonzi's decision to remove the taking of alternative days falling on weekends for public holidays should make the country more productive and hence more competitive. To this extent the budget is good news for industry and most especially the tourism industry. We do believe, however, that the measures announced, although positive, should have gone much further. The main stumbling block in reducing the deficit and our achieving competitive potential remains the bloated public sector. Its cost is haemorrhaging our finances. Herein lies the country's Achilles heel. It is at the heart of our problems, and yet the budget fails to sufficiently address this problem. Government must, as announced, carry out manning target exercises urgently. The policy of natural wastage, early retirement schemes and the shifting of persons from overstaffed departments to other departments where required should be carried on in earnest. The percentage of the labour force working with the pub- lic sector remains unsustainable. It may sound Thatcherite, but there is no alternative - numbers must be reduced. In his interview with MaltaToday, the Prime Minister insists he has every intention of reducing the public sec- tor's labour force. That is good news. We would only be kidding ourselves if we were to believe that government finances could ever be set right without a substantially lower public sector. Herein lies the necessary pain for future national gain. This is the area where government's decisiveness will be tested most. It must be committed to introducing a scheme through which these numbers are reduced over a stipulated time frame. At the same time Dr Gonzi must incentivise the better managed and leaner private sector to be in a position to absorb the extra personnel. Speculation on property is yet another area which should have been tackled in the budget. This activity is the direct cause of the spiralling prices of property affecting more and more first time buyer. This perception is as true as it is socially dangerous. The increased taxation on the use of mobile phones and foreign travel are obscene when viewed in the context of the absence of increased taxation on property speculation. The air tax on outbound travel has placed us Maltese as the highest-taxed air passengers in Europe. How is that to help us overcome our insularity? Achieving growth we desperately need may be compro- mised by government's taxation policy. The hike in water costs, against Government's original pledge is a mistake. The increase in the price of public transport without any visible improvements in the service is equally misplaced. Increased taxation will only lead to less disposable money with an ensuing, inevitable fall in consumer spending. If this is a growing trend, the country is to experience a lower level in living standards. We must go for growth and be seen to be going for growth. The budget does not sufficiently send this mes- sage. A culture for start-up companies also needs to be nur- tured. Indeed, committing an even larger slice of the budg- et to venture capital activities would have helped instead of a meagre Lm900,000 spread over a number of years. The time has come to seriously consider incentives for businesses, as were prevalent in the 60s and early 70s. This too could help ease the shift in employment from the pub- lic to the private sector. This, together with a competitive atmosphere, will help set the foundations for growth. It's the public sector, stupid* Editorial • November 28 2004 Clarifications and corrections RAPHAEL VASSALLO'S COLUMN In his column of 16 November 2014, Raphael Vassallo's piece 'The Phantom of the Orpheum (a wild ghoul chase)' carried the incorrect photo of the cast from TV programme L-Oskur. The online version of the opinion piece has since had its photo changed to the cast of the TV programme Ghost Squad Malta, to which Vassallo was referring. By way of correction, we apologise for the error in carrying the photo L-Oskur's cast when the column was referring to Ghost Squad Malta. MALTESE TV In an article published in the November 9 edition of this newspaper entitled 'I can't stomach more than five minutes of Maltese TV', the following line appeared: 'Penned by Franco Rizzo – a former director of the since-cancelled One TV drama Il-Klikka – the two-part blog series one key polemic at its core: why is Maltese TV drama lagging behind other local art forms such as music, literature and theatre?' 'Since-cancelled' should have read 'since-concluded'. The error is regretted. Chris Packham awarded! Chris Packham Il-Klikka