Do you really believe that us Nordics are “Bloody Socialists”? Just look around here and you will find hard-working people who want to keep our countries tidy, maintain good universal healthcare and excellent education with the minimum of corruption and crime…
We have relatively clean air and water, good roads, railways and functional public transport.
Cities are safe, housing is high quality with good insulation and we manage to keep reasonably low income differentials.
Naturally the above is somewhat of an exaggeration, but the point is that we don’t have people like Putin, Kim and Xi telling fairy stories about how wonderful their countries are when the police and other goons are imprisoning, torturing, and killing people who disagree with them. You only have to open you eyes to see that you get what you pay for! Naturally, changing things is harder when these types have managed to hang on to power for a long time, stolen enough cash and built an army to smash the opposition. Revolutions are nasty and bloody, but not that unusual.
Nor do we have goons like Trump who worships the above bunch of tinpot despots, who loves lying to suit his own ends, and who also likes to finance his greedy and indolent lifestyle with public money from ignorant voters who wrongly see him as their saviour from the political crooks in that “Swamp”. Trump is the biggest alligator in the swamp, but they just can’t see it…
Yes you get what you pay for and very little in return, except an expensive seat at the Muppet Show where his family members and close associates bask in the Florida sun.
Nor do we have clowns like Johnson who, like Trump, has a nose for self advertisement and self aggrandisement. He is less dangerous than Trump, but his lack of concentration on detail and planning together with a propensity to tell stories (lies) means that he has not been able to achieve too much even though he has held the job for many years.
It is amazing that any rightwing politician could have pushed for Brexit. Nobody has been able to explain to your correspondent how they could possibly dress up Brexit as a “Win Win”, when they lost a thriving trading relationship with the nearest and dearest neighbours.
Nor do we have a “Mutter” like the Germans who preached that we must love and trust Putin, (no more to be said) in return for cheap fossil fuels to fatten the bank accounts of all. Now they have lost that love and trust they want the rest of the EU to contribute to cover their losses!
… and even Scholz seems to be wavering when he should stand firm against Russia. The Nordics and the Baltics want to restrict Russian tourism because those that can travel must know what is going on, and it is their country that has brutally attacked Ukraine. It appears that Scholz wants to welcome these Putin Patriots to keep German, Spanish, Swiss, Italian, and Austrian hotels full… Russians are paying with blood money now after 6 months of a bloody war against Ukraine… Of course they know…
Do you really think that German tourists were welcome in the UK during the Second World War?
We are relatively lucky here in the Nordics because the total cost of housing, education, healthcare, utilities, public transport and clean environment are much lower than the costs borne by people in many other countries who are forced to use expensive private services, hospitals, schools and universities. We have good lives with sufficient safety nets and reasonably good infrastructure. We work hard to innovate, produce and export – we accept our challenges as small countries in the far Northern corner of Europe.
We are relatively lucky that we have coalition governments that at least try and often succeed in finding common ground and good solutions.
We are relatively lucky that most of the Prime Ministers are sensible ordinary folk who do not need to show off, lie, or mislead voters.
Even though things could be much better, we are lucky, very lucky…
There can be no doubt that you get what you pay for… and we are not Socialists, mainly just sensible folk…
Photo: Our Political Leaders meeting on 15.8.2022 Magdalena Andersson, Sanna Marin, Jonas Gahr Støre, Mette Frederiksen and Katrín Jakobsdóttir. © Roger Holmsen/Statsministerens kontor
