Obergrenze. It’s the word of the moment in Germany – namely should Germany set an upper limit on the number of refugees that it can take in 2016. CSU leader Seehofer wants to set it at 200000. The Austrians have agreed one (but there are questions if it can work),...
A tweet by Sony Kapoor: Any economically sensible relation with the #EU post #Brexit will be at the cost of a much greater loss of the sovereignty sceptics cherish — Sony Kapoor (@SonyKapoor) October 16, 2015 This is absolutely right, and let me give a little more context. If Britain...
I had an interesting discussion this morning in Oslo with an old friend (Hallstein Bjercke) and his colleague at IKT Norge, Torgeir Waterhouse. IKT is the trade association for the Norwegian IT sector, and Hallstein and Torgeir work on IT and tech policy questions with Norwegian politicians on a daily basis....
I’ve long been fascinated by Nordic politics and societies. There have been numerous posts about these countries on this blog over the years. These countries top the tables for quality of life, low levels of corruption, levels of broadband access etc. But how are these countries doing when it comes to...
In 2005 I went to France to campaign in the referendum on the European Constitution, making the case for oui. One thing about that campaign has been with me ever since: it was clear what oui would mean (France would ratify) while it was never clear what non would mean....
The diagramme above comes from an excellent report entitled “The Nordic Way” [PDF], produced by Swedish think tank Global Utmaning, and linked from this Bagehot piece about the Nordic countries. The paper itself is worth a read, although take it with a small pinch of salt as it presents a...
The idea is simple, the map is stylish and easy to read, and the code is open source – welcome to skoleporten, the interactive map of Norwegian school results for junior schools (5th grade) and secondary schools (8th grade), produced by Evan Westvang, one of the programmers at Origo.no. More...
Forköpsremsor. The patter of winter tires on worn tarmac. Blåbuss 3 mot Karolinska sjukhuset. The absence of overweight people. Påfyllning. Drunken happy people on the Tunnelbana. People that say hello to you when you go to the till at a shop. Showers that allow you to set the exact temperature...
Norway goes to the polls on 14th September and the election is being held at a time when Norway’s position in the world is in some question: what role for the oil rich country of 4.5 million people at the northern edge of Europe? The influence of the EU on...