The “us” and “them” two tribes mentality when it comes to partisan politics is not only not diminishing, it seems to be getting worse.

I don’t know who is making all these secret recordings at the Sliema local council but they are certainly very revealing. This week we have already heard two audio clips in which Labour supporters are spoken of in a disparaging way.

First we had Joanna Gonzi, the former mayor no less, effing all over the place about how she “wants them all dead” and now we have PN candidate Julian Galea claiming he pays his Labour employees less than those who vote PN.  Apart from the fact that he says he can’t stand people who vote Labour and he has a phobia against them. He just about stopped short of saying he’s trying to find some kind of vaccine against “them” as well.

My question is, how does he know how his employees vote? Does he take one look at them and make a (possibly mistaken) snap judgement based on their accent and appearance?  Does he demand to know their politics before hiring them?

Maybe we can make things easier for him, and just have Labour supporters wear a yellow star sewn on their sleeve.  Sure, it’s not an original idea, but who cares, as long as he can identify those “jaqq” Labour people immediately and doesn’t have to breath the same air as them.

Remember how Joe Debono Grech caused an uproar when he used to roar that his door would only be open for his Labour constituents? And how Charles Mangion lived to rue the day that he used the phrase, “these people (Nationalists) have something wrong with their DNA”?   Of course you do.

These gaffes have continued to haunt the politicians concerned and rightly so.  We need to move on from this kind of divisive and rabble-rousing political discourse whether it is said in public or not. In fact, I think what is said in private is even more worrying because it exposes what is really happening behind closed doors as decisions are taken and people are being discriminated against, yet again in this country, just because of their politics.