Not only did the government dramatize its reversal on the Marsascala marina, packaging it as good news and a miracle of democracy. They had to serialise it as well to maximise the political benefit from doing bugger all. First Chris Fearne got a round of applause for partly disagreeing with the project. Then Owen Bonnici was feted for disagreeing with it altogether. Then Robert Abela was proclaimed saviour of Marsascala for merely saying he wasn’t going to poop in their bay after all.
Effectively this amounts to extortion, or as they call it in New York, a protection racket. The government announces a project that will ruin your neighbourhood and drastically reduce your quality of life. You protest, march, argue, and face the futility of resisting government power. Until, almost unexpectedly, the government reverses the policy and announces they will not ruin your neighbourhood after all. Cue your eternal gratitude. They have saved you from themselves.
You know democracy is dysfunctional when you realise that there’s nowhere to turn but to the perpetrators themselves to get any protection from the harm the perpetrators would cause you. If you’re afraid of what Labour might do to you, beg Labour not to do it, thank Labour for not doing it, vote Labour so they threaten you again, and the cycle of salvation starts all over.