Just a touch of politics

Politics

The big news here, apart from the extreme economic difficulties that Sweden is undergoing (???  What???  That’s where the drive for perfection takes you!) is the leadership of the Social Democrats.  The leader has just resigned after numerous problems, like his partner being convicted of fraud and he didn’t tell anyone when he stood for leader, a ‘misunderstanding ‘ on claiming expenses when staying in her flat in Stockholm.  Bless him, he didn’t know the rules of this, despite chairing a parliamentary committee on parliamentary expenses.  Although thinking back to various chairs of various committees I’ve known, this isn’t entirely unbelievable, but, nevertheless.... He’s only been in post about 10 months and the previous recumbents were not that much more fortunate.  It’s bringing up lots of interesting cultural attitudes. Now I live ‘on the other side’, it’s fascinating to watch the feeling towards Stockholm, which verges on hatred in some circles.  It could be what the rest of teh country think about London, although in the UK we do have truly national newspapers.  I say this, but thinking about it, there are also criticism that the nationals are too London-centric (I do not speak of the red-tops).  Here the biggest newspapers are based in the biggest cities and everyone here reads the local paper. 

Anyway, even now on the radio equivalent of Radio 4, they are talking about the distance of the Stockholm-based politicians from the rest of the country.  The old SD leader was not from Stockholm, but from the country and there are accusations that the press hounded him because of this, and this is from the press!

Ho hum, you frown, why the problem?  A political party? Who cares?  Well, yes, in the UK there is an increasing lack of difference between the parties and in Sweden here there are at least 5 in the ruling alliance, so what’s the fuss?   The Social Democrats made Sweden what it is today, they were the ones who build the ultimate Social State, the one that comes nearest to perfection that one can achieve in this imperfect world.  They have formed modern Sweden and now the Right is in, some of the things they put in place are being dismantled.  And people are talking about what if basic principles are abandoned such as the essential equality of everyone.  I’ve noticed that the cabinet are now all wearing suits and ties, which they never used to do. People aren’t sloping around in jeans anymore in the bank head offices and, if you ask me, it’s a sign the country is going to the dogs.  If the Social Democrats can’t form a credible opposition, who will?  At the moment, it’s looking like the Communists and Greens, which means that ‘lagom’ is also going out of the window and then the world will end.