The Great Nordic Thread
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Question: Will Iceland and Norway ever join the EU?
#1
Iceland, but not Norway
 
#2
Norway, but not Iceland
 
#3
Both
 
#4
None of them
 
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Total Voters: 178

Author Topic: The Great Nordic Thread  (Read 201243 times)
Zanas
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« Reply #325 on: August 26, 2014, 07:40:27 AM »

What is this Danish Whisky Belt you referred to ? I'm curious.
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politicus
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« Reply #326 on: August 26, 2014, 10:15:19 AM »

What is this Danish Whisky Belt you referred to ? I'm curious.

Its a nickname for the wealthy suburbs along the coast north of Copenhagen (the area between Hellerup and Rungsted/Vedbæk).
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ingemann
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« Reply #327 on: August 26, 2014, 02:35:04 PM »

What is this Danish Whisky Belt you referred to ? I'm curious.

Its a nickname for the wealthy suburbs along the coast north of Copenhagen (the area between Hellerup and Rungsted/Vedbæk).

Yes through it also go inland, through it's unclear how far, I have heard some include Furesø and Allerød Municipalities in the Whisky Belt, and I can see the argument for it.
 
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Diouf
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« Reply #328 on: August 30, 2014, 06:38:16 PM »

Social Liberal leader and vice-PM becomes new Danish EU commissioner



While we got to keep Helle, it has just been announced that the leader of the Radikale Venstre (the Social Liberals) Margrethe Vestager will leave the government to become the new Danish commissioner. The 46-year old has been Minister of the Economy and Interior and Deputy Prime Minister since a new government was formed after the 2011 election. She has been known for her quite strict adherence to budget discipline, and has often been the main scapegoat for many leftwingers which had hoped for more leftwing economic policies. This great influence on especially economic policies has meant that she has been named the most powerful person in Denmark several times. In the last Nyrup Rasmussen regering (1998-2001) she was Minister of Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs, and she has led the Social Liberals since 2007.
The hierarchy seems pretty straight forward in the party. Morten Østergaard, the current Minister of Taxation, was recently given an unprecedented title as "stedfortrædende leder" (something like the substitute leader, i.e. leader when the leader is not there, but not just a regular deputy leader). Østergaard was also deputy leader of the party until he became minister. He is expected to take over Vestager's posts, and then perhaps a minor reshuffle will take place, maybe just for the Social Liberal ministers.
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ingemann
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« Reply #329 on: August 31, 2014, 01:38:29 PM »

http://www.thelocal.dk/20140831/14-detained-trying-to-prevent-faroe-island-dolphin-hunt

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Of course before this start a bigger discussion about killing endangered species.

Pilot whales are not endangered. There are 800 000 of the species in the north Atlantic and beside the Faroese there are little hunt of them.

The 265 000 killed whales are ones killed since the 16th century, in average 627 pilot whales are killed annual, through in some years slightly above a thousand have been killed. Both these numbers are below their natural replacement rate.
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MaxQue
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« Reply #330 on: August 31, 2014, 05:30:48 PM »

I have no issue with hunting whales, but I have issues with Faroes being stuck in the Middle Ages.
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politicus
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« Reply #331 on: September 03, 2014, 07:37:17 AM »
« Edited: September 03, 2014, 09:19:53 AM by politicus »

I have no issue with hunting whales, but I have issues with Faroes being stuck in the Middle Ages.

Old traditions are not necessarily bad or cruel. Its a communal procedure with an egalitarian distribution of the meat to the community.

Its also a humane way of killing. They break the spine with a short spear which kills the dolphins instantly. You can argue about the stress from the whales being driven into shallow water, but its still a short process compared to a cow or pig going to the slaughterhouse. They only hunt flocks that are already close to the coast.

This is a media thing because the sea is "painted" red with blood and that looks dramatic on camera. Otherwise its a more humane procedure than many other forms of hunting and definitely better than the process connected with slaughtering farm animals (often transporting them for hours in crammed lorries, pigs biting and screaming etc.).

Also, if the Faroese should abolish dolphin hunting they would use more meat from industrial style agriculture.
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politicus
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« Reply #332 on: September 03, 2014, 08:53:10 AM »
« Edited: September 03, 2014, 12:37:54 PM by politicus »

To none-Danes: The whole HTS not getting a cushy EU job and Vestager getting one is a pretty significant thing regarding Danish politics because it basically removes any possibility of the government surviving. A leadership change to Mette Frederiksen combined with a  new more average Joe friendly agenda was their last hope and the Social Liberals losing a strong leader, who while far from beloved was at least capable of explaining the rationale behind the government reforms, also weakens it considerably.

On a related note: Denmarks biggest union 3F - which mainly organizes unskilled labourers - has decided not to back SD in the next election. Instead trying to set their own agenda. This underlines how big SDs problems with their traditional base have gotten.

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politicus
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« Reply #333 on: September 03, 2014, 01:32:14 PM »
« Edited: September 03, 2014, 01:36:16 PM by politicus »

The eruption of the Bárðarbunga (cool name..) volcano in Iceland has now been going on for 4 1/2 days and the lava stream will soon reach the glacial river Jökulsá á Fjöllum which will cause great explosions if it happens.
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MaxQue
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« Reply #334 on: September 03, 2014, 03:16:01 PM »

I have no issue with hunting whales, but I have issues with Faroes being stuck in the Middle Ages.

Old traditions are not necessarily bad or cruel. Its a communal procedure with an egalitarian distribution of the meat to the community.

Its also a humane way of killing. They break the spine with a short spear which kills the dolphins instantly. You can argue about the stress from the whales being driven into shallow water, but its still a short process compared to a cow or pig going to the slaughterhouse. They only hunt flocks that are already close to the coast.

This is a media thing because the sea is "painted" red with blood and that looks dramatic on camera. Otherwise its a more humane procedure than many other forms of hunting and definitely better than the process connected with slaughtering farm animals (often transporting them for hours in crammed lorries, pigs biting and screaming etc.).

Also, if the Faroese should abolish dolphin hunting they would use more meat from industrial style agriculture.

My issue is more their intense social conservatism and traditionnalism. I do not care about hunting non-endangered whales. I mean, in Canada, we have the same media circus about seal hunting.
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ingemann
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« Reply #335 on: September 03, 2014, 03:25:51 PM »

My issue is more their intense social conservatism and traditionnalism. I do not care about hunting non-endangered whales. I mean, in Canada, we have the same media circus about seal hunting.

They're a bunch of fishermen living on some isolated cold inhospitable rocks in the North Atlantic, most people who want a tertiary education have to leave the island for Copenhagen; how can you expect them to be anything other than conservative and traditional. Are you really so intolerant and myopic, that you can't live with a bunch of isolated rural people not being the most social liberal people in the world.
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MaxQue
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« Reply #336 on: September 03, 2014, 03:32:57 PM »

My issue is more their intense social conservatism and traditionnalism. I do not care about hunting non-endangered whales. I mean, in Canada, we have the same media circus about seal hunting.

They're a bunch of fishermen living on some isolated cold inhospitable rocks in the North Atlantic, most people who want a tertiary education have to leave the island for Copenhagen; how can you expect them to be anything other than conservative and traditional. Are you really so intolerant and myopic, that you can't live with a bunch of isolated rural people not being the most social liberal people in the world.

I'm not intolerant and myopic. I'm thinking they are neglected and not offered decent opportunities from the Danish government. They are being treated as a backward colony, no wonder they stay stuck there.
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politicus
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« Reply #337 on: September 03, 2014, 03:40:41 PM »
« Edited: September 03, 2014, 03:44:25 PM by politicus »

My issue is more their intense social conservatism and traditionalism. I do not care about hunting non-endangered whales. I mean, in Canada, we have the same media circus about seal hunting.

They're a bunch of fishermen living on some isolated cold inhospitable rocks in the North Atlantic, most people who want a tertiary education have to leave the island for Copenhagen; how can you expect them to be anything other than conservative and traditional. Are you really so intolerant and myopic, that you can't live with a bunch of isolated rural people not being the most social liberal people in the world.

I'm not intolerant and myopic. I'm thinking they are neglected and not offered decent opportunities from the Danish government. They are being treated as a backward colony, no wonder they stay stuck there.

Apart from foreign policy, the justice system, currency matters and defense they have the status of an independent country. So it isn't really up to the Danish government to develop the islands. They get a state grant of about 110 mio. US dollars a year from Denmark, but are otherwise self financing.

While its more social conservative than most of mainland Scandinavia the Faeroes are not a backwards place.
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ingemann
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« Reply #338 on: September 03, 2014, 03:52:01 PM »

My issue is more their intense social conservatism and traditionnalism. I do not care about hunting non-endangered whales. I mean, in Canada, we have the same media circus about seal hunting.

They're a bunch of fishermen living on some isolated cold inhospitable rocks in the North Atlantic, most people who want a tertiary education have to leave the island for Copenhagen; how can you expect them to be anything other than conservative and traditional. Are you really so intolerant and myopic, that you can't live with a bunch of isolated rural people not being the most social liberal people in the world.

I'm not intolerant and myopic. I'm thinking they are neglected and not offered decent opportunities from the Danish government. They are being treated as a backward colony, no wonder they stay stuck there.

They have had home rule since 1948, which mean outside the administration of the judicial branch, the military, citizenship, foreign and monetary policy, they have autonomy, they receive annual 400 million $, they're represented in the Danish parliament. So no they're not treated as a colony, they're treated as a autonome region, which they are, and if you think we should start some kind of cultural imperialist agenda to "civilise" them, well that's you're welcome to think, I just find it intolerant and myopic.
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politicus
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« Reply #339 on: September 04, 2014, 03:58:39 AM »
« Edited: September 04, 2014, 04:07:34 AM by politicus »

My issue is more their intense social conservatism and traditionalism. I do not care about hunting non-endangered whales. I mean, in Canada, we have the same media circus about seal hunting.

They're a bunch of fishermen living on some isolated cold inhospitable rocks in the North Atlantic, most people who want a tertiary education have to leave the island for Copenhagen; how can you expect them to be anything other than conservative and traditional. Are you really so intolerant and myopic, that you can't live with a bunch of isolated rural people not being the most social liberal people in the world.

I'm not intolerant and myopic. I'm thinking they are neglected and not offered decent opportunities from the Danish government. They are being treated as a backward colony, no wonder they stay stuck there.

They have had home rule since 1948, which mean outside the administration of the judicial branch, the military, citizenship, foreign and monetary policy, they have autonomy, they receive annual 400 million $, they're represented in the Danish parliament. So no they're not treated as a colony, they're treated as a autonomous region, which they are, and if you think we should start some kind of cultural imperialist agenda to "civilise" them, well that's you're welcome to think, I just find it intolerant and myopic.

Region would be too weak a word. The Faroese are recognized as a people and  a nation (in the cultural sense) by the Danish government and are increasingly treated as a separate country more  than an autonomous part of the realm, among other things because they are outside of the EU, this was last seen when we had to boycot their fishing vessels from using Danish harbour facilities when they had the fishing conflict the the EU.

The Danish grant ("bloktilskud") to the Faroes was 633 mio. kroner in 2013, so 100 mio. $+, not  even close to 400 mio. $

But you are far from alone in assuming we give them a lot more money than we do:

http://www.knr.gl/da/nyheder/et-flertal-af-den-danske-befolkning-tror-f%C3%A6r%C3%B8erne-f%C3%A5r-flere-milliarder-i-bloktilskud-hvert-%C3%A5

For non-Scandinavians: The article states that a majority of Danes believe the Faroese get billions of kroner from the Danish treasury every year. 48%, like Ingemann, believe its 2 billion+ and 8% even thinks its 10 billion+ (which would be close to 2 billion $ for a population of 48.000!).
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politicus
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« Reply #340 on: September 05, 2014, 10:22:33 AM »
« Edited: September 05, 2014, 10:36:44 AM by politicus »

Denmark has agreed to participate in the US led "core coalition" to coordinate the fight against ISIS. The other countries asked are Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Canada and Australian. So we are the only small country. Hercules transport planes to carry weapons to the Kurdish forces and humanitarian aid will be the main Danish contribution, but it might also include deployment of special forces later on.

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Miles
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« Reply #341 on: September 07, 2014, 11:43:04 PM »

Swedish pol criticized for praising David Duke:

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MaxQue
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« Reply #342 on: September 08, 2014, 01:21:25 AM »


Centre Party! I doubt than Swedish Cheese will be happy. He is a member of that party, after all. I expected SD.
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Diouf
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« Reply #343 on: September 19, 2014, 07:41:58 AM »

Greens leave Finnish Government

First they were 6, then they were 5, and now they are 4... parties in the Finnish government as the Vihreä liitto (Green League) decided to leave the government over its decision to press forwards with the plan of building a new nuclear power plant. The government now has a very slight majority, 102 seats out of 200. One of these seats is the Speaker who does not vote. The next election will take place at the latest at 19 April 2015.

http://www.elp.com/articles/2014/09/greens-leave-finnish-government-over-nuclear-energy.html

The Green ministers were not the only ones who voted against the decision. 4 of the 6 Social Democrats voted against as well, but their party leader and Minister of Finance Antti Rinne voted for. One of the Swedish People's Party ministers voted against as well.



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politicus
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« Reply #344 on: September 24, 2014, 12:20:36 PM »
« Edited: September 24, 2014, 12:37:12 PM by politicus »

Two weeks before the Liberals hold their party congress popular former Minister of Defence Søren Gade has resigned as Chairman of the interest organization Foods and Agriculture due to a dispute over the future organizational structure. When party chairman Lars Løkke was in trouble in the expense affair this summer Gade was mentioned as a possible new party chairman, but chose not to challenge Løkke. He denies any interest in returning to politics, but that hasn't stopped the media from speculating.

----------

A more realistic challenge to LLR would a comeback for his predecessor.

A poll shows that 44% of Liberal voters wants Lars Løkke as chairman, while only 18% prefer his rival Deputy Chairman Kristian Jensen, but no less than 62% would prefer a return of former chairman Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who resigns as NATO General Secretary on October 1, just before the Congress. With all the trouble going on in the party observers speculate if AFR will try to challenge LLR, if he wins this will basically make him a shoe-in to return as Prime Minister. The question is if AFR wants to return to Danish politics, or is looking for some lucrative international consultancy or lobbyist job. Anyway, LLR now looks a lot less secure in the chairman seat than he did in June after strongarming Jensen into not challenging him.
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politicus
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« Reply #345 on: September 25, 2014, 05:03:39 AM »
« Edited: September 25, 2014, 06:31:35 AM by politicus »

DR is running a story about the DPP bleeding members from their more traditional conservative wing - especially in Jutland.

Its not big names: local board members, ex-councillors and an ex- Youth League chairman, but still interesting that their conservative members seems to had enough of the party left wing turn. Normally the party is very disciplined (apart from racist cooks, who once in a while mess up things), but with old SDs and union representatives drifting to DPP and party leadership trying to appeal to dissatisfied public employees and unemployed workers things seems to have gotten a tad too red for the genuine right wingers.

Its the leaderships policies on public spending, employment benefits, being against cuts in corporate taxes and flirting with the trade unions, that they are dissatisfied with.

As one of them says: "When they are to the left of the Social Democrats on distribution policies, then its simply too much".

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Diouf
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« Reply #346 on: September 25, 2014, 05:37:21 AM »

DR is running a story about the DPP bleeding members from their more traditional conservative wing - especially in Jutland.

Its not big names: local board members, ex-councillors and an ex- Youth League chairman, but still interesting that their conservative members seems to had enough of the party left wing turn. Normally the party is very disciplined (apart from racist cooks, who once in a wile mess up things), but with old SDs and union representatives drifting to DPP and party leadership trying to appeal to dissatisfied public employees and unemployed workers things seems to have gotten a tad too red for the genuine right wingers.

Its the leaderships policies on public spending, employment benefits, being against cuts in corporate taxes, flirting with the trade unions, that they are dissatisfied with.

As one of them says: "When they are to the left of the Social Democrats on distribution policies, then its simply too much".

This is indeed a quite interesting development. Most people will probably prefer to stay in the DPP since it's a way better career opportunity than leaving, but there must be quite some discussions internally. Someone like Morten Messerschmidt, their very popular MEP with a seat in the party's executive board, has often talked about cutting the number of people on benefits, reducing the possibilities for early retirement and so on. He probably sees himself as quite similar to a right-wing Tory, whom he has just allied with in the EP. He currently seems like the heir apparent in the party, so he might hope that he can be the next party leader and turn the party somewhat rightwards in economic policies, but he can't be happy about the policies they are currently proposing.

Morten Uhrskov Jensen, who is an author and comments in the prominent newspaper Jyllands-Posten, is currently the party leader of Dansk Samling (Danish Unity). He has been quite critical of DPP and their leftish turn. He is not that much focused on economic questions, but on value questions, especially the EU. His party wants complete withdrawal from the EU, and severely criticizes DPP for not wanting the same, and argues vehemently that DPP should have removed their confidence in the previous government when it signed the Lisbon Treaty. On immigration, he also argues that the DPP is too vague, and that it is obvious that Denmark must leave all international conventions on these issues, so there can be a complete stop for immigration from "third world countries" to Denmark. If DF gets a very influential power role after the next election, then Danish Unity might get some cases, like the Lisbon Treaty one or related to the increase of refugees from Syria, where it can argue against DF's leniency towards the government it's supporting. I wouldn't rule out that they could then get a breakthrough and get 3-4 % of the votes from hardcore DPPs and current non-voters.
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politicus
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« Reply #347 on: September 26, 2014, 11:34:05 AM »
« Edited: October 02, 2014, 06:47:22 AM by politicus »

Danish contribution to the fight against ISIS will be 7 fighter jets (F16), 1 Hercules transport plane, about 140 guys to man them and provide support functions and 100+ military instructors to train Iraqi Kurds and the Iraqi army.  All in all 280 soldiers. They are only to operate in Iraq, not Syria. According to the Ministry  of Defence there is an agreement that the US and the Arab allies operate in Syria and the other Western countries in Iraq.

Only the Red-Green Alliance is going to vote against the contribution, which will be send off next week.
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politicus
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« Reply #348 on: September 30, 2014, 03:09:32 PM »
« Edited: October 02, 2014, 01:50:50 PM by politicus »

Greenlandic PM Aleqa Hammond has gone on leave while an expense scandal is being investigated. She used roughly 20.000 $ on private hotel bills, shopping and airfares which she only repaid on September 8 after media exposure. Its not big money, but Greenlanders are fed up with politicans using public money for their own good, so the public pressure is intense. Her predecessor as PM Kuupik Kleist has also used a smaller sum of public money for private purposes and has relinquished his seat in the Inatsisartut (Parliament) - he was leaving politics after the next election anyway, but a sad way to go for the best Premier Greenland has ever had IMO. The opposition demands an election, but Hammond managed to avoid that for the time being - keeping her 1 seat majority coalition intact despite strong internal criticism in the government parties.

Hammond was buhed out by 500-600 protesters  (in a town with 17.000 inhabitants), when she left the annual church service in connection with the opening of Parliament today.

pics from demo
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politicus
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« Reply #349 on: October 01, 2014, 07:53:16 AM »
« Edited: October 01, 2014, 02:02:12 PM by politicus »

The centre-right party Atassut has left the Greenlandic government, which is now a one party minority government consisting only of PM Aleqa Hammond's social democratic Siumut.

Before the party's decision to leave their Deputy Chairman Steen Lynge (who was Minister of Health) had already left the government together with two Siumut ministers: Nick Nielsen (Minister of Culture and Church) and Jens-Erik Kirkegaard (Minister of Business and Labour Market). With Atassut and the two Siumut veterans out of office Hammond's government looks increasingly shaky.

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