Here’s a Facebook post by Frank Psaila capturing the mood of the times in and around the PN.

Quite a few people have been speaking about their exclusion or the exclusion of others from the direction of the PN in recent years. Some have been less than subtle in their complaints they themselves or some favourite of theirs has not felt welcome and good resources that could have made a difference have gone to waste.

Obviously one has to see these comments (and messages of support from people saying how they sorely miss old faces cast aside) with the entirely contradictory clamour (often from the same people) to send to the knackers anyone who has ever been anything to somehow prove just how renewed the party has become.

Sometimes the contradiction escapes some people. Though I suppose it reflects today’s visciously ageist world where anyone employing people seems to be looking for 22 year olds with 30 years of professional experience.

So on behalf of the old(er), here’s a word of support for Frank Psaila’s call for volunteers to help take the PN forward in its greatest hour of need. They have no ego to bruise. They have no aspirations to frustrate. They are not discouraged by our ineligibility for the beauty contests of our image conscious times. They’re happy to work in steerage.

And for those, like Ivan Bartolo who inevitably still feel raw by the disappointment of their own personal electoral result, we need you to snap out of it quick. You still feel raw and anyone who’s been through it — as I have — understands what electoral rejection feels like. But if you signed up to this you must have known that gratitude and glory do not come with this line of work. Only blood, sweat and tears. So dust yourself off, pick yourself up, and help take this party forward. You’re more useful than you feel right now.