By George Farrugia Calleja:
Obviously, any couple that wants a baby should be helped to achieve their aim, and the state is there for just that purpose. Out-dated notions of morality propagated by men in skirts and their acolytes (and yes, I’m being offensive on purpose, for effect) have no place in the debate: unless actual harm is caused by a procedure, then power to it.
The PN has a record of hide-bound conservatism that did it no good in the past and, because things happen this way, continues to do it no good. The smug pseudo-liberals who populate the ranks of the MLP (they keep reverting to type, so their name will do the same) have lashings of fun reminding the real – if myopic – liberals how the PN opposed – and continues to oppose – measures aimed at making people’s lives that much more positive.
Which is why Delia’s motion to amend the Legal Notice regulating special leave for couples wishing to undergo IVF was ill-conceived and yet a further piece of evidence that his ‘new way of doing politics’ falls short of the mark.
From what I’m told, the Legal Notice is at odds with the Embryo Protection Act, so it is right to think it would be a good idea to try to bring things into line with each other. Given that many pieces of legislation that have issued forth from Helena Dalli’s Ministry tend to be shabbily written and shambolic, it is actually very likely that there were significant corrections needed, and instead of being lambasted every which way from Sunday, the PN should have been thanked, really.
But shouldn’t someone within the ranks of Delia’s strategists and assorted geniuses have put two and two together? Wasn’t it obvious that the New Establishment would latch onto any hint of opposition to their faux-progressive policies and characterise it as yet another instance of the PN standing in the way of the march to freedom for all minorities?
To my untutored mind, assuming that amendments were needed, shouldn’t approaches have been made to the Government side? After all, according to Delia in the House, in principle there was nothing to stop the Legal Notice being given effect, as long as the legalities were ironed out.
Being a cynic of some long standing, my feeling is that any such approach would have been rebuffed with the arrogance we’ve become used to from the New Establishment. This would have allowed the PN to react by proposing an opposing motion from the moral high ground, instead of having to stare down the barrel of a revolt occasioned by the inept handling of the whole thing by Delia and his chums.
It looks like the PN is regressing to its awkward past of “we know best and we don’t need to explain ourselves to anyone” because instead of handling this thing with finesse and class, Delia just lumbered into a mess of his own making.