The charade by PN candidate Victor Scerri on Xarabank on December 4 is an age-old tactic, used time and again by the Nationalist Party to undermine, discredit and shoot the messenger. It just goes to show the depths to which some people sink to get back at anyone who even dares whimper a word of criticism in respect of this government, the party and their shenanigans.

Notwithstanding Lawrence Gonzi's repeated utterances that the environment is one of the basic elements of the PN's new way of doing politics, the programme served to confirm, if any confirmation was needed, that the PN's pro-environmental rhetoric is just that: pure rhetoric. The rape of the countryside, it seems, is something to be covered up and defended. Dr Scerri's entourage also confirmed that anti-environmentalism is still going strong within the party's rank and file.

(The Times, 12/12/2009)