Deciphering environmental policy

The recent attempts to block development at Kalkara, Kirkop, the golf courses and others is proof of a growing general awareness about the environment.

We have come a long way since 1985.

Now, we welcome this lobby but we call on everyone to consider priorities and to make relative comparisons.

For example, we whole-heartedly support the people at Kalkara, who are attempting to stop the disappearance of a valley from their environs.

On the other hand, we cannot understand the argumentation of those people who categorically say no to everything, and here we are referring not to the denial or blatant objection to using land, but to the call for an 18-hole golf course and an incinerator.

And here again, we are not talking of any particular golf course, such as the badly planned AX Holdings, golf course or any specific incinerator, but of the concept of a golf course and an incinerator. We urge the opponents of these proposals to look at the scientific data and arguments and to stop being over-emotive.

Sweden - the country with the best environmental standards in the world - employs the use of state of the art incinerators and they have one of the highest recycling programmes in the world.

Golf courses are found everywhere and there are those that are 100 times more sustainable than the agricultural methods used in Malta – such as greenhouse and herbicide dependent high crop yields.

Don’t give in

The collective agreements saga goes on and there is good reason for this.

The government should not budge from its present position; to do so would mean suicide and a spiralling of costs that will only leave us with more taxes.

The arguments being put forward by most unions serve as proof that they are detached from any commitment towards a holistic future for this country.

And this goes to show the frailty of their arguments when they talk of the common good.

There is no such thing for most unions, they are largely only interested in forging unsustainable deals for their members without looking beyond the global reality.

The taxpayer knows that all these entities such as MMA, the Freeport, University, the hospital and the WSC are all dependent on revenue from the taxes they are obliged to pay.

More sobriety from the government on the issue is required.

A case of humbug and claptrap

Dr Alfred Sant has the habit of talking in misty terms. He said that there are two cabinet ministers who are inter-linked in a cobweb of business deals.

He refused to name them.

And he gets away with this.

This is unacceptable.

This has nothing to do with his role as leader of a party that pretends to be a social democratic entity. No - it has to do with his idea of playing politics.

On this score, Berlusconi would point to the Marxist skeleton found in Dr Sant’s closet. A plea to Dr Sant: tell us who they are, give us the names, otherwise what you say is just a simple case of humbug and claptrap.