There are some who still think that MEPs from other European Union states can be told how to vote. That they’ll willingly oblige and march to orders. What these people do not realise is that there is a world of a difference between politics in Malta and that on the rest of the continent. What they do not realise is that the European Parliament sees itself as a counter balance to the powers of member state governments and the EU Commission.

Then there is this plainly stupid idea of ‘working in favour of Malta’ – where what ‘working in favour of Malta’ means is defined by the government of the day its minions. It is the same stupid argument used by the Nationalist Party in government in the past when accusing AD of ‘not working in favour of Malta’ because we  for lobbied in favour of the stopping of spring hunting in Malta, when the PN government and its MEPs where lobbying to keep this practise.

As if their government’s bending over backwards to accommodate some people was ever ‘in favour of Malta’. There are different visions of what is ‘in Malta’s favour’ and what is not. Whatever the issue, wherever the forum, serious politicians vote for or against something or someone depending on the issue. Government is not ‘Malta’. The Nationalist and Labour Parties throw around accusations of ‘not working in Malta’s interest’ against anyone opposing their policies and actions when in government. They photocopy their rhetoric from each other’s filing cabinet.