The Swedish Election
Among my many terrible vices, I love elections and psephology in general. I've been sniffing around trying to find a results map for Sweden, but thus far have failed dismally. The rather uninspiringly named Moderate Party are clearly the good guys in that they are afiliated to the International Democrat Union.
Dagens Nyheter has very kindly included an article in English on the results, and an editorial . They seem quite pleased, albeit in a rather understated Swedish fashion:
"According to conventional wisdom, solid growth and increasing real wages should have secured power for the governing party. In Sweden, this rule of thumb is supported by 70 years of political experience. Only under exceptional circumstances has anyone else than the social democrats been voted to power. Not this time. The liberal alliance has proven, both to itself and the voters, that socialist dominance can no longer be taken for granted in this country....For the first time ever, a right wing coalition is taking over in properous times. It is a historic shift in Swedish politics".
And it just gets better, having seen this in a Reuters report:
"The incoming prime minister favors Sweden joining NATO if there is broad agreement. He wants Sweden more involved in the EU but has no plans for a referendum on the euro currency in the next four years. Swedes rejected adopting the euro in 2003".
And here's a lengthy English language piece entitled 'Why should the world care how Sweden votes?
Dagens Nyheter has very kindly included an article in English on the results, and an editorial . They seem quite pleased, albeit in a rather understated Swedish fashion:
"According to conventional wisdom, solid growth and increasing real wages should have secured power for the governing party. In Sweden, this rule of thumb is supported by 70 years of political experience. Only under exceptional circumstances has anyone else than the social democrats been voted to power. Not this time. The liberal alliance has proven, both to itself and the voters, that socialist dominance can no longer be taken for granted in this country....For the first time ever, a right wing coalition is taking over in properous times. It is a historic shift in Swedish politics".
And it just gets better, having seen this in a Reuters report:
"The incoming prime minister favors Sweden joining NATO if there is broad agreement. He wants Sweden more involved in the EU but has no plans for a referendum on the euro currency in the next four years. Swedes rejected adopting the euro in 2003".
And here's a lengthy English language piece entitled 'Why should the world care how Sweden votes?
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on Monday, September 18, 2006 at 11:48 am.
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I was thinking about norway a few weeks ago-as one does-and wondered why, considering that they are so wealthy from oil revenues they have such huge taxes to fund their welfare system, then I found the answer in an newspaper article, the government of Norway actually invest the revenues in tangible assets such as global business' rather than pissing all the money up the wall and calling it investment as our Gordon does.
Most of the morons in this country probably believe we actually have a state pension fund. I have a funny feeling that 20 years hence we are going to have some very disappointed and very poor pensioners living with the consequences of having voted for the shower of shit who have governed us for the last 60 years
Well, on the positive side of the ledger, the 'good guys'have won (although not convincingly so). On the downside, they have chained themselves to such a vast range of spending commitments and tangle of welfarist thinking that nobody in or outside of Sweden may actually notice that a change in government has actually taken place. I guess the mods. are erring on the side of extreme caution. The last centre-right government in Sweden (1991-4) under Carl Bildt enacted sweeping economic reforms and downsized welfare spending. And led the party to 12 years in opposition.
Oh, I nearly forgot. EU communication commissioner Margot Wallstrom is being
appears to be a serious contender to replace the outgoing Swedish PM as head of the socialists.
like any great socialist country of standign,the swedes have abundant natural resources.
name me a long term socialist govt that has sustained itself by 'investing in public services' without such welath?
I suppose the single most pleasing thing about this modest inch to the right is how much it will upset Polly Toynbee.
Why on earth would they want to join Nato now that it's only a bureaucracy looking for a justification?
DM - you might be onto something there, but the prospect of handwringing from the left and the self-styled non-aligned movement would be so very, very amusing.
Many years ago a Swedish politician was quoted as saying 'Sweden may well be officially neutral, but if there's a war in Europe we know which side we are on'. Or words very much to that effect. The Soviets got quite upset about it....
Yeh, think how upset Polly Toytown will be! What a blast!
I see that Ms. Toynbee is in advanced mourning over at The Guardian today.
I was just about to mention that GC. All most cheering, although what I'm really looking forward to is the hurricane of hissiness when Labour get kicked out. I've been looking forward to that for almost 10 years....
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