Water and electricity cost money. We can't afford to waste them, and oversubsidisation by government of their cost to the general consumers is bad just because of this: it encourages waste of an expensive commodity, that is energy, which through the infinite foresight of all our previous and present governments is only available in Malta through a natural resource that we don't have - oil.
When in 1997 Alfred Sant's Labour government decided that Maltese consumers should pay the full cost of these utilities, which, as has been well remarked by someone, do not grow on trees, all hell broke loose. The Nationalist opposition, at that time, was very vociferous about the subject, and went so far as to align itself with big bad Dom Mintoff in criticising the new tariffs, endlessly quoting his "Labour has lost its social conscience", and much more besides. At that time, the non-Labour leaning unions took it upon themselves to protest against the higher tariffs on behalf of the working class, while the General Workers Union (an extension of the ruling Labour Party) limited itself to a timid "scientific study" of the effects of the price hike...
Fast forward 11 years. Exactly the same thing has happened, but the political parties have switched sides. Now it's a Nationalist government insisting that consumers should pay the full price for the water and electricity they consume. And the Labour Party, along with their trade union wing the GWU are screaming blue murder, organising outdoor "manifestations of courage" and "national protests".
Apparently, neither Nationalists nor Labourites or GWU have realised that their stand is diametrically opposite to their position 11 years ago. What an utter farce.
The non-Labour leaning union(s?), which had protested in 1997, is also protesting in 2008, for exactly the same reason as eleven years ago. It's heartening to notice that one voice, at least, has managed to remain consistent instead of being driven only by blind political partisanship.
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