Denmark goes centre-left

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 am, September 17th, 2011 - 31 comments
Categories: Economy, International - Tags:

Denmark has ended the 10-year reign of the right supported by the anti-immigration Muslim-baiting Danish People’s party. The Social Democrats headed by their first woman PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt will move away from the right’s favoured austerity and spending cuts to more investment in education, welfare and infrastructure. Austerity isn’t working in Britain, and Denmark is worth watching for all kinds of reasons.

31 comments on “Denmark goes centre-left ”

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  1. Quay 1
    17 September 2011 at 9:00 am

    Well that’s now 6 center-left governments in the EU now (6/27 ain’t too bad). I’ve heard from credible sources that Prussia might be next…

    • Colonial Viper 1.1
      17 September 2011 at 10:13 am

      Europe is still dominated by Right Wing governments however.

      (Noting that in Europe, their ‘Right’ parties tend to be quite left in outlook, and make our ‘centre’ parties look Extreme Right.)

      • aerobubble 1.1.1
        17 September 2011 at 11:45 am

        Europe has many contexts that require moderate pragmatic politics, NZ is far too easy to
        spin to a extreme that hollows out the economy yet further. It shows in high child
        poverty yet politicians calling for more draconianism. A whole manager class in NZ who
        believe the economy runs better the easier their lives are, why should white collar work
        be soft and easy when blue collar work isn’t?

      • Draco T Bastard 1.1.2
        17 September 2011 at 12:05 pm

        One of our centre parties is extreme right. The other one is centre right.

  2. alex 2
    17 September 2011 at 10:03 am

    Congratulations Denmark, lead the way.

  3. Afewknowthetruth 3
    17 September 2011 at 11:41 am

    ‘to more investment in education, welfare and infrastructure’

    She may plan to do that but we can be quite certain it won’t happen. Denmark doesn’t have any oil wells to speak of. Only those nations that currently extract more oil than they consume will survive the coming global meltdown [in the short term; none will survive in the long term].

    However, Denmark will do better than many nations on windy days.

  4. James Stephenson 4
    17 September 2011 at 2:21 pm

    Austerity isn’t working in Britain

    Austerity isn’t happening in Britain, a reduction in the rate of increase of government spending isn’t austerity.

    • dave brown 4.1
      17 September 2011 at 2:45 pm

      Depends who you are James. If you have a disability then you won’t find any care centre near you. If you need an education you will have to pay more for it. On the other hand if you are a bank most of the deficit is caused by your tax evasion, bailouts and bonuses. So the austerity directed at the poor is because you are indulging in moral hazard.

    • rosy 4.2
      17 September 2011 at 9:42 pm

      That’s the really interesting thing about this election. It was won by a party promising investment in public goods, tax increases, and public services employees working an extra 12 minutes a day. Noted though that the Danish fiscal position is better than many Eurozone countries under fiscal restraint.

      How these policies hold up against the austerity measures of other Euro governments is worth keeping an eye on. That, and the the coalition partners who might want to wind back the anti-immigration policies of the last few years.

  5. joe90 5
    17 September 2011 at 7:28 pm

    Danish newspaper Politiken (in English): Danish right-wing infiltrated

    A secret network called ORG , which has sought to ‘clean’ Denmark of immigrants and have a showdown with ‘traitors’ who have made immigration possible, has been active in infiltrating political and right-wing organisations, according to documents Politiken has obtained.

    ORG, which has some 100 members, was started by a small group of men, several of whom have held leading positions in the Danish People’s Party, or been candidates for the party, while at the same time taking part in Ku Klux Klan-type events and exerting influence on extreme right-wing organisations.

    Several ORG members have said they are willing to use violence against immigrants, and have praised the Hells Angels support group AK81 for ‘beating provocative wogs’.

    …

    While ORG has managed to keep the organisation secret for more than 20 years, Politiken has obtained internal ORG documents.

    The documents include ORG’s organisational setup and tasks, several years of communication between the network’s leading members on a closed Internet forum as well as examples of the network’s extensive ‘traitor archive’, which is called ‘The Great Memory’. The documents show that ORG monitored political opponents, certainly until 2009, and was ready to share its information with the Den Danske Forening association, which is vehemently opposed to immigration.

    The secret network’s Copenhagen leader, known as PUJ, received a suspended sentence in 2009 for having abused his position as a policeman to gather information on political adversaries.

    More:

    http://www.cphpost.dk/news/national/88-national/51977-secret-anti-immigration-group-exposed.html

    http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief-cover/849001-anti-immigrant-plot-denmark

    http://www.todayszaman.com/news-253386-racist-organization-uncovered-in-denmark.html

  6. big bruv 6
    17 September 2011 at 7:35 pm

    Shock horror!!!

    Another lefty who thinks that tax is for other people to pay.

    “police have been investigating reports that her husband, Stephen Kinnock, committed tax evasion for declaring he is not a resident of Denmark and thus not subject to Danish taxes, while at the same time Thorning-Schmidt declared, in an application for dispensation for Kinnock to own property in Denmark, that he resides in Denmark “every weekend of the year from Friday through Monday”.[16] Thorning-Schmidt attributes the discrepancy to a “big and sloppy error”.[16]

    However on 16 September 2010, Danish tax authorities acquitted the couple and allegations and investigations of tax evasion were dropped.[17] In September 2011 the 2010 decision from SKAT surfaced in the Danish newspaper B.T.. It turned out that Thorning-Schmidt from 2000 to 2008 had made use of tax deductions given to her husband, even though he was not subject to Danish taxes and had no income in Denmark. The mistake was fixed by SKAT for the three years from 2006 to 2008, and Thorning-Schmidt paid back the money gained by the mistake. She was however able to keep the gain for the six years from 2000 to 2005, because the case was outdated.”

    What is it with you guys and your unbelievable sense of entitlement?

    • rosy 6.1
      17 September 2011 at 7:39 pm

      “What is it with you guys and your unbelievable sense of entitlement?”

      I think it’s more that people with very privileged lifestyles have an unbelievable sense of entitlement. Open your eyes. Sometimes it’s not about left and right.

  7. big bruv 7
    17 September 2011 at 7:42 pm

    rosy

    So what you are saying is that her corrupt behaviour does not matter because she is on the left?

    That might explain why so many of you defended Helen Clark’s theft of 850k of my money.

    • rosy 7.1
      17 September 2011 at 7:56 pm

      I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that at all. I’m saying that you’re just as likely to find this in conservative circles and liberal circles. It needs to be dealt with but has nothing to do with left and right, it has more to do with ethics and people with poor ethics can be found anywhere.

      However, I have no insight into the Danish tax system. It’s their scandal they’ve clearly sorted it in their own minds. I was responding to the ‘you guys’ bit of your comment only.

      (And I’m not commenting at all on HC).

  8. big bruv 8
    17 September 2011 at 8:09 pm

    Rosy

    “I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying that at all. I’m saying that you’re just as likely to find this in conservative circles and liberal circles. It needs to be dealt with but has nothing to do with left and right, it has more to do with ethics and people with poor ethics can be found anywhere.”

    Agreed.

    However, history shows us that they are far more likely to be from the left.

    Mind you, one cannot help but notice that this Thorning-Schmidt shelia is damn hot!

  9. rosy 9
    17 September 2011 at 8:12 pm

    “However, history shows us that they are far more likely to be from the left.”

    Has someone done the research, have they?
    And sorry, I don’t look at politicians in terms of their ‘hotness’ I doubt she campaigned on that.

  10. big bruv 10
    17 September 2011 at 8:23 pm

    Viper

    That might be the only thing you and I will ever agree on.

    Mind you, those two have to campaign on their ‘hotness’, they have nothing else going for them apart from the religious nut bar vote.

    Having said that, it seems that Thorning-Schmidt had a rather intense round of botox treatment prior to the election, if that is not campaigning on her ‘hotness’ then I don’t know what is.

    And let us not forget the heavily airbrushed pictures of dear leader that the NZ Labour party used to produce.

    It seems that once again the left are as bad as anybody else when it comes to things they accuse others of doing.

  11. big bruv 11
    17 September 2011 at 8:30 pm

    Although it does seems that Thorning-Schmidt has a heavy round of botox treatment prior to the election, so perhaps she is just as guilty of campaigning on her looks as Palin.

    Mind you, the NZ Labour party are not above this type of thing, remember the air brushed pictures of the former PM that Labour used to produce.

    Or perhaps that was to take our mind off what she really looked like.

    • Colonial Viper 11.1
      17 September 2011 at 8:39 pm

      bb = idiot for not understanding the blemish revealing age of HD TV

      Palin and Bachmann on the other hand go further in order to flaunt their looks

    • rosy 11.2
      17 September 2011 at 9:07 pm

      So predictable that a woman wins an election and talk degenerates to her looks.

  12. big bruv 12
    17 September 2011 at 9:20 pm

    Viper

    Are you seriously suggesting that the former PM did not have her picture heavily airbrushed?

    If so you are a liar.

    • mickysavage 12.1
      17 September 2011 at 9:25 pm

      Big bruv if your primary obsession is whether or not a picture of Helen may or may not have been airbrushed you have serious, serious problems.

      • Afewknowthetruth 12.1.1
        17 September 2011 at 9:41 pm

        The matter is one of integrity.

        If a politician needs to resort to low tricks like presenting herself as a ’35-year-old dolly bird’ when she actually looks rather like a character sat over a cauldron in a scene from a well-known play starting with M, she has no integrity.

        Mind you, we already knew that.

        • rosy 12.1.1.1
          17 September 2011 at 9:45 pm

          The matter was one of advertising.

          • Afewknowthetruth 12.1.1.1.1
            17 September 2011 at 10:12 pm

            Isn’t it interesting that someone who makes false claims about a product or presents it as something it is not can be charged with false advertising, yet that rule does not apply to politicians, and they can lie continuously and grossly mislead voters with absolute impunity.

            • rosy 12.1.1.1.1.1
              17 September 2011 at 10:29 pm

              When companies get pinged for using celebrities to advertise products they probably never use you’ll have a point.

              As it stands a comment like 12.1.1 is entirely based on presentation (and in HC’s case, that means her looks) not policy, which is what I understand to be the real problem you have with the last government.

    • Oligarkey 12.2
      19 September 2011 at 5:19 pm

      Bruv – I want to see all people have the opportunity to be included in society, healthy and happy. You want market mechanism to deliver the few very wealthy people an ever increasing share of the pie, so they can fly around in ever larger jets.

      Your vision has been triumphant in the west for the last 20 years, but with less energy resource to grow the economy, and subsequent high unemployment, people will be growing increasingly disillusioned with your vision. One way or another it must die. It’s not that far off either.

  13. Gareth 13
    18 September 2011 at 5:02 pm

    Denmarks previous ‘right govt’ is as far as I can tell further left than nz labour. I have some relations there and from what I understand taxes are high, healthcare & education including uni is free, and the minimum wage is 100 kroner or @ $25nzd per hour. They do however have a youth wage which is set at 60% of the minimum. What that has done has made it difficult for immigrants from other euro countries where they are starting at the bottom to get work as supermarkets openly say that they want to hire on the youth rates.
    I guess their youth rate is a lot more livable than the $7 proposed here…..

  14. John D 14
    19 September 2011 at 12:28 pm

    Who cares what the “government” of Denmark is? It is part of the EU. They make the rules. National governments are irrelevant.

    Until the EU collapses that is, and then the fun will really start