Two big things, and now (s)chool policy

Two big things have happened in my life recently; I have bought an apartment with my girlfriend and I have been on a great vacation to Argentina and Uruguay with two friends from the US (the highlight was my very good friend Lukas’ wedding). That explains the lack of blogging for a while.

However, this weekend the social democratic party has a big gathering about school policy in Stockholm. I am there of course, blogging at www.aip.nu. See you there, all Swedish-speakers.

Swedish ”week of politics” coming up

One of the weirdest things in Swedish politics starts on Sunday: The week when almost all politicians, journalists, consultants etc etc gather on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea (this week is known as ”Almedalsveckan”).

The pretext is the 462 seminars that will be held, but the most important thing to do is to hang around and meet other ”important people”. Even a guy like me have mixed feelings this year, it is a lot of fun but also… too much.

Anyway, on Monday (when Social Democratic Party leader Mona Sahlin speaks at 7 PM) we will distribute a somewhat special edition of Aktuellt i Politiken, and I just compiled a little overview of social democratic leaning seminars and other important events. It is by no means complete but you can check it out here.

And by the way: None of the companies and organizations that have sent ”personal” invitations and information to my home address (a.k.a my litte flat in central Stockholm) made it to the list... But it is somewhat impressive that they try.

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While completing the list, I listened to stuff on YouTube (surprise). And don’t miss the clips from a fantastic Damien Rice concert at Four Seasons. Songs like Delicate; I remember; The blower’s daughter; Cold water; Volcano; and Lonely soldier in wonderful versions. And my favorite; Cannonball. ”It is still a little bit of your taste in my mouth...”.

First of May coming up

Aktuellt i Politiken is a Royal newspaper this week. In my editorial I link Ségo with Mona and stress their work with internal democracy in their respective party. These two women can be put in contrast to Sarkozy and the likely new leader of Sweden’s ”liberal” party, Mr Jan Björklund. Both these angry men thought it was a-ok to invade Iraq without support in the UN. Moreover, I support Mona’s effort to shape up the social democratic policy on education, an important move that should not be confused with Jan Björklund’s populist rhetoric.

You can also read a longer text about election night on Rue de Solférino, and an analysis on why Royal can win. Hey, Jacques Delors is now urging all centrists to vote for her.

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First of May tomorrow. I am the main speaker in the city of Hudiksvall, a great little town on the east coast of Sweden, a good three-hour drive north of Stockholm. I am very much looking forward to it and I will travel up there with my good friends Henrik and Torbjörn this afternoon (they agreed to turn this into a road-trip and drive me up there - thanks guys). Music and a nice scenery along the way, dinner in Hudiksvall tonight, and red flags, banners and big speech tomorrow. (List of all speakers here).

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A new interesting blogger seems to be entering the blogosphere. Welcome, Mr. Schori.

Back at work

After a few wonderful days in Paris everything went back to normal; loads of work to do and things to write – and Liverpool cannot score away against Chelski. Anaway, a few shorties:

If you read Swedish; don’t miss all the good stuff in AiP this week (editorial, interview with Mona Sahlin, my article about France, Arvid's article about France).

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ECOSY – Young European Socialist – has started a campaign for freedom in Burma (more info). The European Union has to take a stronger stand towards the regime in Burma that continuous to violate basic human rights, and the European Parliament is about to discuss this issue. Read and sign the petition here.

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Rudy Guiliani, the former New York City Mayor, is accused by Democrats for politicizing September 11th in his 2008 presidential bid. Here’s what he said at a recent campaign stop in New Hampshire:

”If a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001... Never ever again will this country ever be on defense waiting for (terrorists) to attack us if I have anything to say about it. And make no mistake, the Democrats want to put us back on defense!”

That was not nice, smart or true.

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At least the present Mayor of the world’s coolest city – Michael Bloomberg – keeps his mind straight; time for congestion charges in NYC!?

Second round, but it will be tough...

Long day yesterday, but a lot of fun: Election night at Rue de Solférino (PS HQ), and then Royals speech at 1 am. And then I wrote this article for Aktuellt i Politiken, and now (Monday morning) it is time for some more seminars before we fly home.

The main theme of the article in short: PS-people I talked to were happy since a lot of people voted, Le Pen messed up, they got the larger share of the vote to the left (again) and they made it to the second round with Mitterrand 1981-figures.

But: Can Royal win? Yes, because now it is the left against the hard right, change vs. more of the same. And a lot of Bayrou’s vote will go to Royal since there is a huge anti-Sarkozy vote behind Bayrou. And the votes of to the left of Royal are much safer than the votes to the right. And people really want change, and if Royal can build on that, she will win. That was the analysis last night. Optimistic, I know, but hey this is my blog.

More later.

Greens into Finnish government

The new Finnish government (“Vanhanen II”) has just been presented; the Center party will govern with the Conservatives, the Swedish Peoples’ Party AND the Greens. It seems like a pretty smart move by Vanhanen (!?); in this way he moves the Green party into his own block (away from the leading opposition party, the Social Democrats). So, we are officially in opposition in Finland as well. Hope they will start regrouping soon.
[Photo of the Finnish Parliament taken by your blogger. Thanks for quick information, Dan].

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Articles like this makes me want to go to the movies.

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Eldkvarn plays at the Södra Teatern on the 27th of April. Guess who has four tickets in the middle of the front row? Review of the new album here.

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Aktuellt i Politiken this week: Editorial, article about Royal’s campaign in France, and the social democratic election analysis.

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And: The team that is my favorite pastime – Liverpool FC – made me very happy as I had a few pints last night. How far can we go this year? Can we beat Chelski? Articles in The Guardian and Liverpool Echo.

Hang in there, Finnish comrades

Parliamentary elections in Finland on Sunday and early this morning I got this text-message from my friend Esa:

”2 days left and polls suck. Center party leads by 1%, we come as 2nd and the right 0,7 behind and on the rise… Doesn’t look too good, but we will work as hard as we can.”

So, maybe we shouldn’t expect a social democratic PM in Finland anytime soon, but let’s hope that the fuzz about the TV-commercial will galvanize the blue-collar base. And don’t miss the SDP-commercials on YouTube (here, and here, and here). Hang in there, Finnish comrades. Work hard, they are just a little bit ahead!

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Our own congress starts tomorrow Saturday. I will try to blog a little in English, but things will be hectic. When the delegates, guests and others arrive in the morning, they will get a copy of Aktuellt i Politiken (in its new layout) in their hand. Feels great to modernize the party newspaper on the historic day when will elect a fantastic woman – Mona Sahlin – as our party leader. Our website will not be totally re-done yet, but there will be some new content during the weekend.

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Just a quick note: Don’t miss that Zapatero, Bush, and Giuliani all have problems.

Sopranos? A lot better than Bush’s budget...

There are loads of things to read in Aktuellt i Politiken this week, don’t you miss Jens Henriksson’s essay about the economics of conservatives. And my editorial is here.

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And then we have Bush’s new budget (also known as the war on poor people). A good way to start reading about this is the Progress Report. And don’t miss this additional info: Only 13 percent of congressional Republicans say they believe that human activity is causing global warming, compared to 95 percent of congressional Democrats.

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One question we nerds should ask ourselves: Is Hillary Clinton’s victory inevitable?

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I am now watching the third season of Sopranos and it is still brilliant. Don’t miss out for as long as I did, folks.

Time to meet expectations, Royal

The election heat is going up in France, good article in The Economist today. Needless to say I want Ségolène Royal to win, and I am hoping she can meet expectations when her political platform will be presented later in February.

Before that, some 5 000 debates will be held where the members of the French Socialist Party can come up with conclusions and proposals that will be submitted to Royal. Even the Swedish section of the French PS will have meetings like this (in Stockholm); something we will write about in Aktuellt i Politiken.

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As Jonas Morian writes, we are about to change the layout (and some other things) of Aktuellt i Politiken (and Stockholms Tidningen and Ny Tid). I can reveal that the editorial will grow from one to two pages, and that we will increase our reporting of international and EU politics... More to come, and the ”new AiP” will be presented at the SAP congress in March.

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Social Europe (“the journal of the European left”) has a new website, and don’t miss the video with Tony Blair’s speech at the Policy Network Conference ”Britain and Europe in the Global Age: Common Challenges, New Opportunities”, including remarks by Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Andre Sapir and Will Hutton.

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Finally, I hope y’all have read the PPI Trade Fact of the Week (yes, I am quoted). And don’t forget to have a nice weekend!