Go West!

I ran into Sweden's former Conservative Prime Minister Carl Bildt's blog and found out that he discusses the new centre-left government in Norway that is the probable result of the election on September 12th. Bildt notes that Norway was described as "the last Soviet state" by an enraged Swedish minister a couple of years ago, and says:

"When reading the election promises of the Labour Party, it is difficult not to notice the similarities in philosophy to some of the things we are now hearing coming out of Putin's Russia in these respects. State capital. State control. State ownership."

Bildt has read a leaflet from Arbeiderpartiet, the Norwegian Labour Party, with the likely next prime minister saying that he wants to "build not to sell the country". This means, according to Bildt, that "the government should own power-, energy- and other natural reserve resources and that mail, telecommunications and railway should remain firmly in state hands". And something wet comes into a socialist's eyes when you hear the moral outrage from the man who privatised our country and established mass unemployment when he reads the following words:

"We want to use our strong capital base to build long-term national ownership of the strategic industries for the country."

In less than two weeks the right-wing government in Norway can be replaced by a centre-left coalition government consisting of Labour, the Socialist Left Party (they have 17-18 per cent in the polls) and the Centre Party (who are worlds apart from Maud Olofsson's proto-Conservative party). Let's all get inspired!

By the way, it seems as even Barroso himself has given up the hope of an EU Constitution in the short perspectice. In Poland the other day he said that "instead of never-ending debates about institutions, let's work with what we've got. Political will and leadership are more important than institutions". Couldn't agree more!