Progress Party way ahead (Nationen)

Carl I. Hagen leads the country’s far and away most popular party, according to the July poll carried out by Sentio-Norsk Statistikk for Klassekampen, Dagen and Nationen. The Progress Party has the backing of 30.6 per cent of the electorate, up a whopping 5.1 percentage points from June. Since the election last year, support for the party has more than doubled. "Support for the Progress Party is the expression of an almost permanent sense of discontent in parts of the population," said Fredrik Engelstad, head of the Institute for Social Research. The government coalition parties slid by a combined 3.1 percentage points, of which 2.8 points were down to the Christian Democrats. This marks another record low for the party.

Stoltenberg looking for coalition with Socialist Left, Centre and ChristianDemocratic parties (Verdens Gang)

Jens Stoltenberg believes the time is more than ripe for a majority government. He has issued a specific invitation to the Christian Democrats, Socialist Left Party and the Centre Party. "Norway needs a majority government. It would provide the security and predictability which the country needs at this time," said Mr Stoltenberg. "We cannot continue with a situation in which minority governments zigzag from side to side and take no responsibility for the country’s overall political direction," he added. Mr Stoltenberg is reluctant to take power without the backing of the Storting, as he did after the previous Bondevik-led coalition was ousted over the gas-fired power station issue. "Next time the Labour Party takes office, it must be with the support of other parties – either as a majority coalition or through a set of explicit agreements with the other parties to provide a parliamentary foundation on which it can govern," he said.

Minister rejects criticism over student financing proposal (Dagsavisen)

Education Minister Kristin Clemet (Con) does not fully understand the Labour Party’s opposition to the ‘privatization’ of the State Educational Loan Fund. "Karita Bekkemellem Orheim cannot have registered that it was the Stoltenberg government which asked for this review," she said in an interview with the Newspapers’ News Agency (ANB). "The Bondevik government is just following up the recommendation for a further analysis of the two models that were initially proposed. The State Educational Loan Fund will continue to function as an institution, but we are looking at whether the operative services could be carried out by other people," said Ms Clemet.

Inadequate controls on foreign aid money (Verdens Gang)

The Office of the Auditor General has questioned whether the Storting has adequate control over the billions of kroner which are spent on environmental projects in developing countries. The Office of the Auditor General has now discovered several areas which are open to criticism. From 1998 to 2000 NOK 3.8 billion was allocated to environmental aid. In a recent report to the Foreign Ministry, the Office of the Auditor General has presented its findings. The inquiry ‘indicates’, as it says in the report, that the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) has not complied with the Foreign Ministry’s order to set up a reporting system to show the results of its environmental aid. NORAD’s routines are particularly weak when it comes to evaluating the environmental impact of the projects under investigation. The Office of the Auditor General have reprimanded the ambassador in Sri Lanka for not doing a good enough job of checking up on the projects. NORAD has neglected to establish a new system for evaluating the environmental impact of aid projects, despite the fact that the Foreign Ministry had said that this was a precondition for receiving aid funding.

No loss of revenue from alcohol tax cut (Dagbladet)

The state could probably cut alcohol taxes to Swedish levels without any dramatic loss of revenue. This controversial claim has been thrown into the debate on alcohol taxes by Ådne Cappelen, head of research at Statistics Norway, and one of the country’s leading economists. It comes as unwelcome news for Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, himself a teetotaller. "I do not think that the state would lose a lot of revenue if Norway’s alcohol taxes were reduced to Swedish levels. Norwegians could stop crossing the border to shop in Sweden to such an extent that increased sales in Norway would compensate for the loss of tax income," said Mr Cappelen.

‘Hopeless’ spouses thrown out (Aftenposten)

Imported spouses have an insecure existence in Norway. An increasing number of arranged marriages with spouses brought in from abroad end on the rocks. The families ask the police and the Immigration Directorate for help when they want to send ‘hopeless’ spouses back home again. After they have been dumped by their other halves, they are thrown out of the country. Twenty or so ‘imported’ husbands and wives, who have come to Norway as part of an arranged marriage, have been sent home in shame in the past 12 months.

Fisheries Minister refuses to withdraw salmon farming licences (Aftenposten)

Fisheries Minister Svein Ludvigsen (Con) is refusing listen to the demands of MPs from the Socialist Left and Labour parties, and withdraw the salmon farming licences he has controversially put out to tender in 13 wild salmon areas. "We will not be withdrawing the licences. The salmon farming industry has waited for years for these licences," said State Secretary Thorild Widvey. She denies that the Government is placing unacceptable pressure on the Storting. "The Government has presented its proposition. We have balanced the interests of the industry with the need for conservation," she said.

Worth Noting

• Starting tomorrow domestic airline passengers will have to forego bonus points on their flights in Norway. Bonus points on domestic flights have allowed passengers to take around 400,000 free flights a year. Government ministers will retain their gold cards despite the fact that they have been working against SAS. They have banned the bonus points scheme and dumped SAS as the main supplier of flights for government employees. (Aftenposten)
• This autumn Social Affairs Minister Ingjerd Schou (Con) will send 6,000 managers of nursing homes and other care institutions on leadership courses. "Good organization is the key. We have an enormous potential for improvement in this area," said Ms Schou. (Dagbladet)
• Stein Erik Hagen is thinking of suing Den norske Bank (DnB) following the collapse of the merger between DnB and Storebrand. Mr Hagen is a major shareholder of Storebrand, and the value of his shares has plunged by NOK 400 million since the merger was called off. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• Finn Kristian Marthinsen, the Christian Democrats’ legal affairs spokesman in the Storting has proposed that Muslim prisoners be given the opportunity to speak about spiritual matters with a prison imam. "Experience shows that Muslim prisoners who have regular spiritual conversations with an imam are inspired to self-knowledge and find it a great help in breaking with their criminal past," said Mr Marthinsen. (Dagsavisen)
• In 2000 60 per cent of those applying to go to theological college to qualify for the clergy were women, 40 per cent were men. Sociologist Knut Oftung believes the clergy’s role as comforter and poorly paid care worker is less and less attractive to men. (Vårt Land)

Today’s comment from Dagsavisen

In yesterday’s Dagsavisen Social Affairs Minister Ingjerd Schou rejected a call from the Church City Mission to set up smoking rooms where heroin addicts can learn to smoke heroin instead of injecting the drug. The Minister’s reason for her rejection of the proposal says a lot about Norway’s drug policy. "We maintain our vision of a drug-free society, but we will look at measures which are particularly able to reduce the damage caused by drug abuse. I do not see that smoking rooms today represent such a measure. Any positive effects must first be documented." What has the so-called ‘vision of a drug-free society’ to do with smoking rooms or other measures which can improve the lives of heroin addicts? Are the chances any greater that Norway will achieve its utopian goal from the 1970s of a society totally free from drugs when addicts are shooting up and overdosing in a pigsty down by the docks rather than smoking heroin in a shelter run by the Church City Mission? There are no indications from the history of Norwegian drug treatment to make us think so, rather the opposite. But with the authorities’ beautiful vision intact, Oslo heads the list as the drug overdose capital of Europe. There are a number of reasons for this, and perhaps the city’s death rate is not comparable. But one thing is certain, many drug abusers live is squalor and die of an overdose. And an important reason for this is the Norwegian habit of injecting drugs and taking a cocktail of different narcotic subtances. The Social Affairs Minister wants any positive effects from teaching addicts to smoke to be thoroughly documented first. How are the effects to be documented if no such measure is initiated? It is precisely this kind of thinking which made Norway wait so long before introducing methadone treatment. That reluctance and hesitation has cost many drug addicts their lives. Have another think, Ms Schou, and don’t listen quite so much to your advisers.