Nanny Lou

It appears that either an election is close or that Lou Bondi has thrown all caution to the wind.

 Bondi plus on Thursday night showed Lou Bondi in the role of a nanny, fussing over Mario Demarco, blatantly agreeing with him in almost everything he said, and basically trying to ridicule, or minimise the well reasoned argumentation of Dr.Gavin Gulia, the Labour Party spokesperson on tourism

On Thursday night one of Malta's highest paid presenters (whether self paid from adverts or not) decided that Mario Demarco couldn't defend himself on the tourism front or so it appeared.

The programme's aim was simply to say government has done very well, and the opposition has nothing to contribute. Lou nannied Mario Demarco all through in what became one of Lou and inadvertently one of Mario Demarco's most embarrassing and miserable performances to date.

Mario Demarco boasted about arrivals. Four record years he bleated. You don't need to be an expert in tourism to sense there is something wrong here. Many areas have seemed empty of tourists in recent years. And it certainly hasn't been four years of record profitability either. Ask the MHRA. Ask the members of the MHRA how many of them have had four record years of profitability.

The unwillingness of Mario Demarco to come clean on Air Malta was also evident. The programme was meant to discuss the new strategy document of the MTA whose objectives very much depend on Air Malta, and yet we hear it may cut its routes even to profitable airports in London?

The biggest joke, were it not so serious was the discussion on Gozo. Gozo is suffering. Its tourism has dropped. Jobs are nowhere to be found and the island or much of it looks like an unkempt building site. Eco Gozo is such a misnomer for how the PN have treated Gozo.

Yet even here like the emperor who doesn't know he is naked, Lou tried to boost Mario's argument about farmhouses being built and the championing of rural tourism which so far has been one almighty flop. Mario Demarco couldn't even see the irony of boosting eco tourism while all he could boast about was the building of not very aptly named farmhouses.

On Thursday night Lou was, in our view, even more of a flop than usual as a balanced presenter. Mario Demarco was made to look even weaker by Lou Bond's constant nannying while Gavin Gulia calmly presented the facts as they are, and the way forward. With every passing Bondiplus the need for an election grows ever stronger. Nanny Lou certainly showed that on Thursday night.