Muscat exhumes Gerald Strickland's memory

Labour leader Joseph Muscat this morning placed a wreath at the foot of former Prime Minister Gerald Strickland's monument at the Upper Barrakka Gardens in Valletta.

For the second year in a row, Muscat commemorated Strickland as a sign of recognition to his commitment in favour of social and progressive legislation in the country.

By re-evoking the historical compact between the nascent Labour and Strickland's Constitutional Party, Muscat is trying to portray himself as a leader of a movement of progressives and moderates in his bid to appeal to disillusioned Nationalist voters.

This fits in with Labour's fixation with creating an image which appeals to persons with different and conflicting political allegiances and beliefs and potential voters who still find it hard to feel at home in the Labour Party.  

The historical coalition between the Constitutional Party and Labour saw both parties instructing their voters to continue giving preferences for the allied party after voting for their respective party.

The two distinct parties glued the pro British sentiment which united both parties against the more nationalistic pro Italian element.

Muscat's re-evocation of Strickland also comes on the heels of a proposal by Education spokesperson Evarist Bartolo to make English the language of instruction in schools, a position which contrasted with the emphasis on Maltese during the Mintoff era.

Ironically this commemoration comes at a time when the party is mourning Dom Mintoff, the Labour leader who after proposing integration with Great Britain went on to become Malta's foremost anti colonial leader, thus finding himself at odds with Gerald Strickland's daughter Mabel Strickland.

Despite becoming increasingly anti-British, Mintoff still praised Gerald Strickland accusing Mabel of betraying her father's principles.

Born in 1861, Strickland went on to form the Anglo-Maltese Party, which later merged with the Maltese Constitutional Party to become the Constitutional Party.

In the twenties, Strickland published a number of newspapers, including The Times. Strickland's printing press, Progress Press was burned down on Black Monday in 1979, when Labour Party supporters attacked the building in Valletta.

In 1927, Lord Strickland was prime minister of the government formed between the Constitutional and Labour parties.

Three years later, Archbishop Mauro Caruana and Gozo bishop Mikiel Gonzi issued a pastoral letter, in which they declared that whoever voted for the Constitutional Party and its former coalition partner, the Labour Party, committed a mortal sin.

The Constitutional Party was supplanted by the Labour Party as the major pro-British force after the war.  But remnants of the party still found a niche among an anglophile but profoundly Catholic section of the upper middle class which opposed both full integration with Britian and full independence. Most of these voters eventually drifted to the PN.

Led by Mabel Strickland the Constitutionals were also the first party to raise environmental issues like the dust pollution problem in Lija. The last successful election for the Constitutionals was the 1962 election when the party garnered 4.8% of the vote and elected an MP.  But the party failed to win any seat in 1966 and was disbanded after a poor showing in the 1971 election were the party only gained 1%.