Who's not working?

What's the difference between the PN's campaign billboard

LABOUR WON'T WORK

and the one that inspired it from the Conservative Party election campaign of 1979

                                                      LABOUR ISN'T WORKING?

What's the difference between LABOUR WON'T WORK and LABOUR ISN'T WORKING?

The difference is that between opinion and fact.

The Conservatives could justifiably make a factual claim that Labour was not working.   The UK election was held in May 1979 following a harsh winter of discontent where basically every sector went on strike.   Coal miners struck. Grave diggers went on strike. Rubbish collectors called it a day. Britain was a dreadful place with the Labour government under James Callaghan tearing itself apart fighting with its traditional allies in the TUC.

Basically the British Labour party was disintegrating and in fact it had to wait until 1997, 4 elections and 4 new leaders later for Tony Blair to make Labour electable again.   This state of affairs is more representative of the PN's current situation rather that the situation of the current PL which is more like UK's Labour on the eve of the 1997 election.

If anybody is not working it is the PN, and this is  fact not opinion.   A fact corroborated by the resignation of JPO, the threats and rebel votes of Franco Debono, the dissatisfaction of others in the back bench, and the forced resignations of Mifsud Bonnici and Cachia Caruana.

The claim that Labour if elected to government won't work is an opinion, a biased opinion at that.    But even if one were to hypothetically accept it as a valid expectation, that does not mean that the PN has to stay in government in perpetuity.  

If I were to be forced to choose between having a perpetual government and a fresh government which may not work I would blindly choose the latter.

Experience shows that third term governments never work.   The third conservative government under John Major was a disaster.  The third conservative Labour government under Blair/Brown failed miserably, especially after Blair left.   Mintoff's third term between 1981-1987 was an aberration.

Even if Labour may not work, and that is an opinion, it does not change the factual reality that the PN is not working. Their third consecutive term is fulfilling the same pattern of third term governments.   A fourth term for the PN would be suicidal.

There is every good reason why Joseph Muscat need not promise much to get elected.  He needs to preserve maximum flexibility because it is not clear what state of finances he will be inheriting.  Better to under-promise and over -deliver.   Muscat does not need to promise too much.  The people will not be voting him in.   It is more likely they will be voting the PN out.  The PN is not working.

They don't have residual energy for some originality in their billboards.