The new KPI: a ‘ħobża biż-żejt’ per MP

I know that I will be quoted, as always, selectively and with a view to trying to intimidate me from taking the mick out of their heroes, by Super One (and yes, I know they’re not called that, but I remember them in that incarnation)

Given that I have little more than derision of them, it would be difficult to find anyone who cares less.

So now we know.

The Nationalist Party is going to keep track of whether its MPs attend enough festas, enough activities and enough house visits. Presumably, there will eventually be a spreadsheet somewhere recording the number of kisriet of ħobża biż-żejt consumed, pastizzi accepted, babies and old ladies kissed, and bottles of beer politely held for photographic purposes.

The political logic is, unlike many Labour politicians, unimpeachable.

Elections are not won from behind desks. Politicians who disappear between campaigns deserve to be criticised and, worse for them, ignored.

Being visible matters.  Ask Nigel Farage. But one hopes that visibility is not mistaken for relevance.

If the next five years become an endless procession of village feasts, patronal celebrations, football club anniversaries and club-house barbecues, then those of us who vote using more than a pencil will conclude that the Opposition have learnt precisely the wrong lesson from the last election.

Not to put too fine a point on it, subtlety being a lost art in the digital age, will there also be targets for raising awkward questions about corruption? For exposing the waste of public funds? For scrutinising direct orders? For challenging planning excesses while yet another ODZ application quietly makes its way through the system? Coincidentally, on the very day this initiative was announced, another major countryside development was attracting hundreds of objections.

Will PN MPs be assessed on how often they force uncomfortable debates in Parliament? On how many Freedom of Information requests they pursue or support?

On how many administrative failures they uncover? On how often they make ministers genuinely uncomfortable?

Or does none of that count towards their quarterly performance review?

Governments, especially those led by entitled princelings, like nothing more than an Opposition that confines itself to retail politics while leaving wholesale governance largely unscrutinised.

If the Opposition spends its energy ensuring every local festa has an adequate PN presence, those actually exercising power and abusing it will sleep rather more comfortably.

To be sure, there is nothing wrong with scoffing a ħobża in the village square. There is nothing wrong with shaking hands until your arm goes numb and your brain threatens to seize up under the weight of uttered platitudes.

But that is retail politics. The constitutional role of an Opposition is something rather different. It is to hold government to account, relentlessly and often inconveniently.

If Alex Borg’s “standards” measure both community engagement and parliamentary effectiveness, then fair enough. If, however, attendance at festas becomes easier to quantify than exposing corruption, mismanagement or overdevelopment, the exercise risks confusing popularity with purpose.

And the PN will fall back into the weeds of their existence before the recent foray into the brighter light of political relevance.

The electorate already knows its politicians can mingle with the best of them. What many voters are still waiting to discover is whether they can mingle at the same time as consistently making life difficult for those in government.

That, rather than the annual consumption of assorted ftajjar bit-tonn and Cisk (other beers are available) would be a performance indicator worth publishing.