"25 years of slavery abolished"

Today was our last full day in Malta. We had been advised not to drive today, or even to go out on the buses. The reason for that was that Malta has been gripped with political fervour this past week ..... no violence or anything silly like that, no ... the Maltese get very excited about elections and almost everyone votes. This was all about celebrations.

The result was declared on Sunday, and after a wait of 25 years, the Labour party was finally returned to power. One old lady stated that 25 years of slavery had been abolished. So as not to offend her (I don't care much for politics), I asked her why it had taken so long. She replied that the Nationalists had lined their own pockets for too long and that Nationalists always voted Nationalist, and Labour always voted Labour, but what made the difference this time was that the youth (who had always been floating voters), this time voted unanimously for change.

The people took to the streets in their cars by the thousands .... flags waving, horns beeping, singing and celebrating well into the night and today also. We were warned that if the bus and ferry companies thought that the routes were too busy (or unsafe), then services would simply stop (leaving us tourists stranded), so we decided to stay close to the hotel today and went for local walks instead.

I'm happy for them. They got what they wanted.