The devil quotes the Scriptures

Unbelievable!!

The  PN had been requesting  the PL  for months on end to explain in detail how, when, and how much they plan to reduce utility bills and how this was to be financed without upsetting the budget structure.

Labour's reply was always that this will be explained all in its due time, when the election campaign kicks off.

Labour kept its pledge and yesterday gave all details and technical explanations and brought independent technical corroboration for its feasibility.

One would expect the PN should be more than ready to find holes in Labour's proposals to discredit it.  They have been in Government for nearly 26 years interrupted by only 22 months Labour interlude between 1996 - 1998.   They had ample time to explore, study and decide what is feasible and what is not.

So it is unbelievable that the PN's shock reaction to Labour's proposals was that of the 'Devil reading the Scriptures', or as they say it in Maltese 'Il-Qahba milli jkollha ittik".

The PN is reported in The Times as saying:

The Nationalist Party has called on Labour to publish documents and information related to its proposals on energy tariffs.

In a statement shortly after Labour unveiled its proposals, the PN  called on Labour to publish the documents related to its proposals, including documents by its consultants.

It also asked the party to publish the proposals received from private companies and contractors, the dates of meetings held with such companies and private contractors and the details of talks which, it said, had been referred to by Dr Muscat as a ‘done deal’.

The PN also asked whether any company or person whom the PL had met had made a donation to the PL or any of its officials or activists.

Clearly the PN measure others by their own standards.  Rather than evaluate the technical and commercial merits of Labour's proposal they want to know how much commission has been paid and who got it.

I cannot speak for the PL but surely the contractor will not be chosen from the Yellow Pages and no individual will get a four million Euro commission.  I know Joseph Muscat well enough to vouch that the award of such contract will be handled in a transparent and professional manner and that the taxpayer will get the best deal possible without strings attached.

When the PN commissioned the BWSC HSO extension to the power station they gloated that one week trial operations saved more than one million Euro through fuel efficiency.    Then they realised that by saying so they are admitting that such savings can be translated into lower utility bills so they went mum and did not give any further information.

Now Labour has proven that if rather than High Sulphur fuel, LPG is used,  the savings could be much higher and the utility rates could be rendered in line with the EU average to release pressure on the quality of life of households and to render our industry and tourism competitive.

The question the PN should be asking is why have they not done this investment five years ago?    In these last five years through operation of low efficiency power stations ( Marsa and Delimara)  we wasted enough funds that could have been enough to invest to buy Labour's project twice over.   And we have disgracefully contaminated the environment and prejudiced the health of families in the Marsa area.