Fed up with Labour’s grumpy old men (Dagsavisen)

Ingunn Yssen, former Labour State Secretary, now leader of the Gender Equality Centre, says the current debate surrounding the party is mostly reminiscent of ‘Jurassic Park’ – ancient party veterans with no good vision for the future. "One of Labour’s problems after Gro Harlem Brundtland left has been that the party has lost legitimacy among women voters. Labour has stopped taking women seriously," said Ms Yssen.

Labour support tumbles (Aftenposten)

The Labour leadership wrangle has obviously had a negative effect on support for the party, which dropped 4.1 percentage points to 22.4 per cent in Opinion’s January poll. The underlying figures show that Labour has lost one in three of those who voted for it at the September 10 general election. Most of these voters are sitting on the fence, though a significant number have defected either to the Conservatives or the Socialist Left Party. According to this poll, the Conservatives are once again the country’s largest party, with the backing of 23 per cent of the electorate.

Four counties each (Dagens Næringsliv)

Thorbjørn Jagland and Jens Stoltenberg will each address four Labour branch AGMs this spring. Most of the remaining branches are probably behind Mr Stoltenberg. The Labour Party leadership decided who would be visiting which branches last week – before the national executive committee meeting and Mr Jagland’s sudden collapse. It is a tradition that the branch AGMs are visited by a senior party leader who kicks off the debate with a speech on the ‘political situation’.

Anger and disbelief (Dagbladet)

Friends of Benjamin Hermansen, who was killed in January 2001, refused to accept that the two accused of his murder had been jailed for 16 and 15 years respectively, in Norway’s first ever conviction for a racially motivated murder. The youngsters of Holmlia, where the murder took place, have been waiting for this day for over a year. They believe the sentences were far too lenient. The prosecution had demanded 21 years in prison for both of the accused.

Unions make small demands (Verdens Gang)

Around this time every year shop-floor workers belonging to the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) have banged the drum and announced inflated wage demands. This year they are being shockingly moderate. This can partly be explained by the fact that they have just completed an exceptionally lucrative round of local negotiations. They also see that a moderate general wage rise at this spring’s national negotiations will result in a major hike in domestic purchasing power.

NOK 1 billion in fraud and accounting errors (Aftenposten)

When the Customs Administration audited 787 Norwegian companies last year they uncovered fraud and accounting errors relating to VAT and other indirect taxes to the tune of NOK 1 billion. The Customs Administration says the figure is record high. 22 of the cases are so serious that they have been reported to the police. Errors were uncovered at 70 per cent of the companies audited.

Airlines still collecting abolished tax (Aftenposten)

For years SAS and Braathens lobbied for the abolition of the airline passenger tax. In December they got their way – but they are still collecting the tax from passengers. The Finance Ministry is, to put it mildly, irritated with the airlines and expects them to sort out the mess ‘very quickly’. The airlines have promised to make amends, and will refund the money to passengers.

Worth Noting

• Thorbjørn Jagland’s wife, Hanne Grotjord, has accused the press of acting ‘intolerably’ and in a ‘provocative’ way following her husband’s illness. (Dagsavisen)
• According to social anthropologist Marianne Gullestad, the debate about racism in Norway makes light of the problem. Politicians, journalists and experts help strengthen people’s prejudices against immigrants, she says. Ms Gullestad has been studying the thought processes which form the basis for Norwegian attitudes to immigrants for four years. (Vårt Land)
• With just seven Norwegian soldiers serving in peacekeeping operations for the UN, Norway has become chairman of the committee in charge of the UN’s peacekeeping operations, with an annual budget of NOK 35 billion. (Dagbladet)
• Police in Oslo’s affluent western boroughs have been inundated with incensed lawyers and other wealthy professionals who are at each other’s throats over some minor matter. Feuds between neighbours are a daily occurrence on the capital’s west side. (Dagbladet)
• Leaders of the Norwegian Farmers’ Union support Agriculture Minister Lars Sponheim’s aim of eradicating farms with milking herds of 13-14 cows. 11,000 farms would be affected by Mr Sponheim’s plan. This represents a 50 per cent cut in the number of dairy farms in Norway. (Nationen)
• HM the King has decided that Princess Märtha Louise will lose the title ‘Her Royal Highness’. She will also lose her allowance under the Civil List. She will therefore be free to work and earn her own money. The change comes into effect on 1 February. The Princess is to set up her own company – Prinsesse Märtha Louises Kulturformidling. (Aftenposten)

Today’s comment from Dagsavisen

After the murder on 26 January last year of 15-year-old Benjamin Hermansen in the Oslo suburb of Holmlia, we wrote that if the murder proved to have been racially motivated, Norway would have passed a watershed in its history. In that case we would be facing a situation we have only seen in other countries, like neighbouring Sweden or the southern states of America – the home of the Ku-Klux-Klan. The murder was racially motivated. And a new and miserable chapter in Norway’s history has been written. Norway and Norwegians have never been able to boast of being a country and a people free of racists and nazis. But never before in peacetime has a racially motivated murder been committed on Norwegian soil. Until now. The verdict is also historic because in its judgment the Court said that the racist motive was an aggravating circumstance requiring a stiffer penalty. In other words, a new precedent has been created for sentencing in this kind of murder case. The murder last year provoked anger and deep despair in the Norwegian people. In Oslo thousands of people took to the streets in a massive demonstration of feeling. However, the clamour for a nazi-free society has died to a whisper – so quiet it is barely audible. Let yesterday’s verdict act as a wake-up call and a reminder of what this issue is all about.