The debate so far

It's not been so bad so far. Not a bad debate. There have been of course the usual ridiculous statements, such as the Prime Minister taking umbrage at Labour being well-funded; or Joseph Muscat replying to a MaltaToday question by suggesting that Tonio Fenech had had some apparition from the Virgin Mary.

As I write the first poll after the festive season has been published. Even the Times have come with their numbers. The results, I should believe, tally and show that Labour is in the lead.

The campaign so far has shown that the PL are well-organised, well-oiled, have a chest of gold, and are fresh in their aesthetic.

The same cannot be said for the PN. Simon Busuttill may be a ray of hope, but he is not the golden boy he has been made up to be. And surely, secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier cannot be blamed for the malaise inside the PN, where many of the black holes in the funds inside the Stamperija date from the tenure of his predecessor Joe Saliba, when embarking on a lavish project for a new headquarters and having raided the kitty for the 2008 election (which delivered a victory against the odds).

In the last five years, the focus at Mile End has been the next election, unlike at the Stamperija. Labour has learnt many lessons. They control (much more than ever) what is said and how people appear. On many occasions, you get the impression they look much like the same Nationalists that embraced the PN when Europe was on the agenda in 2003. Back then the PN was 'sexy'.

Today however, the PL are New Labour, no matter how hard the cynics try to remind us of the past. And the longer the PN campaigns on a negative tone, the more difficult it will be for them to regain points.

The PN has much to say and boast about. But I have the funny feeling that they are leaving all the goodies till the very end when it will be far too late. This is a long campaign, and it will leave both parties gasping for air.

And it's a different election. Before the election was on the horizon, the party officials never wanted the polls to give too much of a feel-good factor. Now they get annoyed if the numbers don't look good. This is a new development, and it may result in some new trends in voting: the non-voter phenomena and the traditional failure of cross-party voting, i.e. a person voting '1' for one party, and '2' for another.

Today Labour does its mass meeting in Gozo - a traditionally Nationalist stronghold. I find it hard to understand why the PN's own weekend on the sister island has been toned down. Somehow, I must be missing something in this 'long and complex' campaign.