Huh! There is not much to say except the opposition’s opposition (yes, you read that correctly…) is getting desperate!
On the other hand, the present government is doing a reasonably good job of controlling the virus. It is cold here now with winter starting and infection rates have increased.They are still modest but stronger precautions are being put in place to protect the vulnerable. The popularity of the Social Democrats is holding up – they take their time to announce policies, but they try hard to be inclusive, thorough and objective. That is a breath of fresh air when compared to past governments.
But all is not steady. The Mayor of Helsinki, from the Conservative Party (the opposition party), has decided that running a city is actually a tough job because you are dealing with voters who happen to be the people living there. He has received some harsh criticism from his “colleagues” in the council at the city for being uncooperative and he has also been accusing the government of not giving him due respect as the mayor of the Capital City. The idea that the PM and ministers must bow towards him like some divine godlike wonder is ridiculous. He has a job to run the city while the government runs the country in these difficult times. He should stop complaining because Helsinki enjoys huge benefits from the seat of the government, and many big companies having their HQs here. He has nothing to complain about, and the fact that he is leaving the job to run the Finnish Olympic Committee says it all. It is difficult to think of a more cushy job with outstanding perks that has almost nothing to do with sustainable healthy living. The Olympics are just Big Money’s Global Feast. They are incredibly wasteful, and the Olympic bosses pay for their profligate squandering use of money by recruiting sponsors like Coca Cola, and dozens of others that turn up their noses at Climate Change.
Have you seen the new list for the Tokyo Olympics – quite an impressive bunch of Europeans…?
The other news is that the True Finns continue to battle for a place in politics by staying very quiet about important stuff, but make a lot of noise about reducing taxes and cutting financial support for development aid, wind power, party political support, the public media service, (the important Finnish Broadcasting Company,) and, above all, immigrants. Their whining wins and support votes from those who will most suffer from these short-term policies – just in the same way that Trump managed to get similar support for himself this last 4 years – and BTW, the True Finns also secretly believe that he really did win the election, and that the political leadership of Hungary and Poland are great examples to us all.
The Conservatives also published their thoughts on how to finance the budget. As always they want to reduce taxes and propose policies similar to those of the present government – the only difference is that their policies will result in many more people getting jobs. The only problem is that they are always making such rich promises but are incapable of sitting with either the Centre Party or the True Finns in any government. The last government failed when they were with the Center Party, and that party is way now behind in the polls (50% below their last great win), and the Conservatives will not be seen dead with the True Finns in any coalition. BTW the Conservatives also needs an oil change because support is also rather squeaky.
