Two parties, one vision. Two leaders, one dream. Or should it be one country, two parties? The hurried agreement between the two political parties over the Gozo district, which will extricate them from a Constitutional impasse in the eventuality that one party gets more seats than votes, is completely unacceptable. All this talk from Drs Gonzi and Sant about their interest in sustaining democracy is absolute nonsense. The real responsibility for this state of affairs should really be kicked into Lawrence Gonzi’s court. He said he was all for electoral reform when speaking to me in a televised interview on TVM. Really and truly, he does not really believe in electoral reform, even though the reform committee on electoral law he headed still has his name to it. Probably egged on by Joe Saliba & Co, Gonzi has no wish to give any chances to the Greens or to Josie Muscat’s right-wing formation. When we hear them say they believe in electoral pluralism, we all know it is bulls***. The only thing that really interests the political parties is to gain or retain power. Like one of those boring and surreal series on Canale 5, the PN believes it should be around forever. If Gonzi was a real altruist, and he is not, he would take the plunge and reform the electoral laws. They may not be the sexiest thing in the world, but reflecting the power of voters in parliament is what democracy is all about. As things stand, the duopoly of the two parties is bound to live on and it will take Herculean effort to move them from their anchored position. With this kind of attitude I think people should skip my proposed “vongole fest” in Siracusa on election day and stay here in Malta and shift their vote to the smaller parties! The recent episodes in the election campaign are turning quite sour for the Labour party. Alfred Sant has made it a point to shoot himself in the foot. Seeing him address party followers in Birzebbugia on Independence Day, I could only hope someone had the gall to face him and tell him what a fool he is. Unkind Nationalists were alleging that the man was under some spell, but Sant was simply trying to rev up the crowds with a new style of delivery. It was a complete kawlata. It was a complete disaster and if he has not been admonished, he should be told that these are incidents that convince disgruntled Nationalists with no reason to vote for the PN, to return to the fold. In this war of words, carefully edited and transposed in news bulletins, the Nationalists are burning clusters of candles in the hope that Sant will get out his bazooka and shoot both his feet repeatedly in full view of a crew from Net TV. So focused are the TV crews on what politicians have to say or are expected not to say, that the Labour press were lucky to pick on the background groans from Notary Tony Abela, who suggested to Gonzi, while being interviewed by One News journalist Charlon Gouder, to ask him whether he would emigrate if Labour failed to get elected. Well, if Tony Abela did not have a good enough reason to resign with his abysmal management of how the army has handled immigration, this one is another good reason to go. Of course, Dr Gonzi has better things to do than ask one of his junior ministers to walk the plank. The election campaign is turning out to be yet another media battle. And it is becoming increasingly more difficult to try and find any sense and reason in what politicians have to say or what they stand for. The man of the week must surely be Lino Farrugia, who said after protected birds were shot down and dumped at a bird observation post: “It’s impossible that every illegally-shot bird ends up in the hands of these people. I’ve been hunting for 40 years and I’ve never been given any such birds after they’ve been shot. It’s just impossible.” You see, the hunters are peaceful and loving creatures who never get down to such bad behaviour. Well, either we are living on different planets or else BirdLife members are terrorists with a mission to undermine poor dear Lino. Yet his most laughable comment must have been his insistence that Maltese hunters should self-regulate. What is simply impossible to believe is that there are bona fide hunters around who will not shoot at protected birds if given half a chance. The time may well come when the moratorium will have to be extended to 12 months of the year. And when good old Lino says that even Europe allows for hunting, the answer he should be given is rather simple: Europe does not have this breed of trigger-happy troglodytes who kill birds simply for the pleasure of killing! sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt