Hands off, Bondevik (Aftenposten)

Carl I. Hagen does not want "outsiders" like Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik interfering. The budget circus is underway. "Negotiations with the Progress Party will be difficult enough without other people sticking their noses in and messing things up," said Mr Hagen, who yesterday sent an uncommon kind of ‘memo’ to the PM and Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss in which he criticized them for interfering in the budget negotiations currently taking place in the Storting between the Progress Party and the ruling coalition parties. "I read in the papers that the PM was not interested in discussing our demands for a cut in alcohol taxes. But actually it is the Storting which is negotiating the budget. The Government has no role to play there. For us it is irrelevant what the Prime Minister might think about alcohol taxes. I will not put up with meddling by people who are not involved," said Mr Hagen.

Christian Democrats warn against Progress Party budget (Dagsavisen)

Christian Democratic Party mayors yesterday warned party leader Valgerd Svarstad Haugland not to do a deal with the Progress Party over the budget. 66 frustrated mayors and deputy mayors from around the country met Christian Democratic party leaders at the Storting yesterday. But Ms Svarstad Haugland came to the meeting empty handed, leaving the local politicians’ prayers for more cash unanswered. The Government will not change course – politically or economically. "I am convinced that the local government sector would not have been any better off financially with a different coalition in power," said Ms Svarstad Haugland. She added those who attacked the Government’s tax policies should remember that the Labour Party was also in favour of tax cuts.

Seven out of ten local authorities use competitive tendering (Nationen)

A growing number of local authorities are putting their services out to tender. While half of local authorities had introduced competitive tendering in 2000, that figure has now risen to 70 per cent, according to a survey carried out by the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO). However, the extent of tendering varies widely. While only eight local authorities have invited competitive tenders to run their nursing homes, 84 have put rubbish collection out to tender. Only a quarter of local authorities are planning to increase their use of competitive tendering.

Rape record (Dagsavisen)

A total of 144 rapes and attempted rapes were reported to the police in Oslo last year. More than half the alleged offences were committed by people of a different ethnic origin than Norwegian. In 23 per cent of the cases reported to the police the alleged perpetrator came originally from the Middle East, ie the Arabian Peninsula, Turkey or Iran. This is a far larger proportion than the relative numbers of men from such countries living in Oslo. But ethnic Norwegian men are steadily closing the gap.

Initiative to clean up Norwegian fjords (Dagbladet)

Environment Minister Børge Brende is to set up a national council which will be responsible for planning and carrying out clean-up operations to remove toxic sludge from the seabed in Norwegian fjords and harbours. The sludge is made up of toxic chemicals and heavy metals that were discharged from industrial operations in the last century. The concentration of chemicals and heavy metals is so great in several places that it poses a threat to the food chain and the fishing and aquaculture industries.

Little hope for pay moderation (Aftenposten)

Labour and Government Administration Minister Victor D. Norman, employers and unions will today sit down to discuss next year’s pay rises. At the behest of Aftenposten, market research company Opinion asked 68 of the country’s leading economists if they think such a three-way collaboration could succeed. A massive 81 per cent said they doubted it would. Only 13 per cent think that wage rises can be brought down to the same level as our competitors. Finn Bergesen Jr, chief executive of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO), is not surprised by the experts’ misgivings. But Mr Bergesen also believes that much of the trade union movement has been given a fright. "The people who are competing with foreign companies see that wage levels must be cut. If that happens, the chances of a cut in interest rates and a lower exchange rate increases," he said.

Communists destroyed dialogue (Klassekampen)

According to Labour MP Bjørgulv Frøyn: "When the Marxist-Leninists entered the labour market in the 1970s they brought with them a view of the workplace divided into enemy camps. This frightened people away from dialogue." Mr Frøyn believes that this undermined the collaboration between the Labour Party and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO), and lay the foundations for today’s support for the Progress Party. "The LO and the Labour Party represent the same political foundation. We say, ‘create in order to share’. The Red Electoral Alliance and the Socialist Left Party are better at sharing than they are at creating," he said.

Concern in Socialist Left Party (Aftenposten)

The Socialist Left Party, which took the initiative for the opposition parties’ agreement on pre-school day care reform in the Storting, is now concerned over developments in the private nursery sector. "The rise in costs for nurseries has been greater than for other sectors. We have been presented with a bleak financial position, a gloomy picture. This worries me a great deal, and this is now being discussed by the reform’s backers," said Øystein Djupedal, economic policy spokesman for the Socialist Left Party.

Worth Noting

• Professors at the University of Oslo, the Norwegian School of Economics and Business (NHH), and the Norwegian School of Management (BI) earn millions of kroner from part-time jobs in addition to their academic salaries. Kolbjørn Hagen, leader of the Norwegian Association of Research Workers (NARW), is worried by this development and says that "professors should spend their working week doing research".
  (Aftenposten)
• "Norway needs a standardized state school system, and the standardized state school system will survive," said former Labour Education Minister, Gudmund Hernes. He is sceptical about allowing more private schools.
  (Dagbladet)
• Hostility to private schools is much greater among teachers than among parents. Parents also feel that increased competition between schools is of benefit to pupils.
  (Aftenposten)
• One in three deaths among young men under the age of 25 is due to suicide. "While the number of suicides in the population as a whole has stabilized in recent years, the trend is not so positive for young people. For this reason efforts must be channelled into preventive measures aimed at people in this age group, whose lives are cut short through suicide," said professor Lars Mehlum.
  (Vårt Land)
• 34,000 houses on Norwegian farms are standing empty, and one in four farms is uninhabited on a permanent basis. Farmers do not believe this is the result of too strict regulations on farm-ownership. "The problem is that the residency rules are not enforced strictly enough," said Harald Milli of the Norwegian Farmers’ Union.
  (Nationen)
• Believe it or not, Norway heads the list of countries the Swedes would like to see join the EU – even though we are not even candidates. In a recent European opinion poll, 82 per cent of Swedes said that Norway should be allowed to join the EU. Only one in ten Swedes opposes Norwegian membership of the EU.
  (Aftenposten)
• Princess Märtha Louise and her husband, Ari Behn, are expecting a baby in April/May. The baby will be third in line for the throne – at least until Crown Prince Haakon has a child of his own.
  (All newspapers)
• Heavy rain and snow falls today and Wednesday are expected to result in around 2,100 vehicles being involved in collisions or skidding off the road in southern Norway.

Today’s comment from Aftenposten

No Norwegian politician is as good at exploiting official procedure for their own political ends as Carl I. Hagen. His memo to Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik and Finance Minister Per-Kristian Foss the day before the ruling coalition parties and the Progress Party were due to start negotiations on the budget is a textbook example of how Mr Hagen operates when he wants to use the formal rules of the game to ruthlessly humiliate his opponents. But this time Mr Hagen has overplayed his hand. Formally, he is quite right to point out that the negotiations will be carried out in the Storting by MPs belonging to the three ruling coalition parties and the Progress Party. But Mr Hagen knows very well that any settlement with the coalition parties cannot be negotiated in a political vacuum in which the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the Government are assumed to have "finished their work when their proposal for next year’s national budget is handed over to the Storting". Unlike the Progress Party, which only supports a budget settlement when its own budget proposal has been rejected, a government can never disclaim responsibility for the budget that the Storting adopts in the end