Delia rehearses his Budget speech

Adrian Delia will speak on the Budget this evening in Parliament. This will be his first real Budget speech since last year he devoted most of his speech to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia which had just shaken the nation.

He has been preparing for this speech - one could see this from the interview he gave to NET Live yesterday even though earlier he had to accompany his mother to a clinic for a test.

He will thus be criticising the Budget speech from many angles - not just analysing what the Budget has not given to the ordinary man in the street compared to the needs of that man in the street but also what it has not contributed to the well-being of the economy, contrary to what the government says in its daily spin.

Dr Delia began his interview by comparing the Budget exercise to that of a family. On the one side a family focuses on its expenses but a budget exercise is more longterm than that.

The government has said this is a Budget of success. But what is success and how is it measured? Is it a real success if the government gives €2.33 or even €4 to people when the cost of living especially the prices of food have risen by 4% in a year?

Prices are rising but wages are not. People are unable to live well what with rising prices and with stagnant wages. If workers get an extra day of leave, that will be carried by the employers while the government just issues an order.

He focused on a story on Illum, which says that many police stations are being kept closed. The PN never did this to the people people have a right to a life in security. The Budget says nothing in this regard.

The Budget also says that €600,000 will be spent on sports, down from the €750,000 in earlier years.

What the Budget says about agriculture can be condensed into telling farmers there is no future for them instead of telling them how the Malta product will be protected and enhanced.

As regards education, the government has ill-treated teachers and no school per year has been built.

As regards health, the government seems to have suddenly realised that a lot remains to be done. It has sold three of Malta's hospitals to someone we do not know who this person is.

Delia reserved his bitterest words to Minister of Finance Edward Scicluna, who does not like to be asked questions before breakfast and who is surprised when a taxi driver in Latin America tells him Malta has a bad press. He gives people small increases so that they still vote for the government.

Malta has been called the dirtiest country in Europe since there is no recycling.

There has also been a 1.6% increase in inflation and this means that the increase given to pensioners is not enough to cope with inflation. This is a far cry from the Nationalist government's reduction of the top rate of taxes.

The government is basing its predictions of growth on allowing 70,000 more people to come to Malta. On the contrary, what the government should be seeking is an increase in productivity. A Nationalist government guarantees that everyone will have a roof over his head.

This government aims to get growth through cheap labour while a PN government will get growth through R&D.

His speech tonight will thus focus on real people and their real needs and on the importance of planning for growth.