The UK, sewage, and us

We in Malta have many close ties with our former masters, the Brits. But one thing which seems to connect us most dramatically is sewage.

In Britain sewage is spewed into rivers by water treatment companies. In Malta our beaches, or some of them, have sewage spewing onto them but no one knows how, by whom or how to stop it.

But the connections and incredible similarities between the two countries go beyond human detritus.

In the space of a few weeks, we and they held important elections. Theirs a general election, ours local council and MEPs elections. The results were spectacularly different.

A British friend of mine who lives in Malta – let’s call him B – confided that in his over half a century of voting he had never ever chosen a centre-right party. But he also confessed that he voted PN here in the local council elections. And that he would do the same if he could vote in the general election or MEP elections.

B actually cheered when the PN, in the MEP elections, reduced the voting difference to the extent that it could mean a possible PN victory in the forthcoming general election.

Putting aside his optimism about the Maltese electoral scenario, it is quite telling that a convinced left-winger, and someone who follows local politics assiduously, cannot tolerate the idea of the Labour Party in Malta being in power and remaining popular.

It was quite a different scenario when another Labour Party won a landslide victory. In the UK, B voted for the Labour party in the recent general election. He cheered most emphatically when the results were out. The right wingers, the ones B can’t stand or tolerate, were booted out, together with their corruption, their immigrant-bashing, their sleaze, their lies, cover-ups, and total disregard of the downtrodden.

The sewage problem both in the UK and Malta is a wonderfully colourful, albeit disgusting, connection, and a true metaphor of all things as they stand here and there. Or rather as they were till the Tories were kicked out; while we are still knee-deep in corruption and sleaze.

The British Conservative party were in power for over a decade. They were thrown out by the electorate in what was rightly called a colossal landslide. The Labour Party in Malta has now also been in power for over a decade. Yet they still won both elections and still lead in the opinion polls.

Notwithstanding my friend’s cheers, there’s no denying that the party in power here won both elections comfortably.

And this is where our comparisons with the Brits stop. Admittedly, the UK was – actually still is, but thankfully with a new administration – in dire straits. It’s not just the sewage that was flowing there. Billions of pounds had been siphoned off to cronies during the pandemic. Sleaze, lies, coverups, national health and education in shambles. However, nothing compares to what is going on and what went on in the last 10 years or so here in Malta.

We have had three monstrous indictments which are beyond harrowing. One is by a Judge, Wenzu Mintoff, who surely cannot be accused of being connected to or in any way influenced by any PN relative. He made it clear in one of his judgements that people in top government positions were not only failing their duty but were directly or indirectly helping criminals.

Two inquiries found that the state – the state of Malta, that is the government and all national institutions – was responsible for the failures that led to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder and

Jean Paul Sofia’s death. These are not just blemishes on the Labour Party. They are indictments of hellish proportions.

Daphne Caruana Galizia’s horrendous murder and the subsequent coverups should have been enough to turn the whole people of Malta against anything Labourconnected.

If the comparison with the UK is extended to voting patterns in Malta, the gap in voting preference between the two parties would be ginormous. It would be totally in favour of the opposition – of any opposition to the Labour brigade.

But in Malta we do things totally differently. We try thinking we are smart, even smarter than our old masters. Alas, the way we and they voted in the last elections proves that they far outsmart us.

The UK might have a worse sewage problem than ours. Yet the Brits seem to have climbed out of their worst horrors while we keep wading into more and more sh** (Ssh! Can’t say the word in full).