Political centre on its deathbed (Nationen/Klassekampen/Dagen)

The political centre as a viable government alternative is on its way out of Norwegian politics. According to today’s opinion polls, carried out by Sentio-Norsk Statistikk on behalf of Nationen, Dagen and Klassekampen, if there had been an election today, the Centre Party, Liberals and Christian Democrats, who took office together only two and a half years ago, would have won only 15 seats between them. The Conservatives and the Progress Party would together have a parliamentary majority. Anne Enger Lahnstein, who masterminded the centrist coalition, believes its demise is due to the fact that no one is touting the political centre as a government alternative any more. So its slide comes as no surprise, she says. While Labour and the Conservatives are struggling, and support for the centrist parties has plummeted, Carl I. Hagen presides supreme at the top of the Norwegian political right. At the opposite end of the scale, Kristin Halvorsen and her Socialist Left Party are eating their way steadily into the Labour vote. The Socialist Left Party is more popular than the Conservatives, and stands three per cent higher in the poll than the three centrist parties combined.

Paradox of power (Vårt Land)

Parties which take office generally lose 20-30 per cent of the vote, with the second largest participant in a coalition coming off worst. Everyone except Thorbjørn Jagland lost ground when in office. The Christian Democrats are not alone in losing a slew of voters once they have taken office, even though the party is the worst hit so far. In the past 20 years, it has almost never been a good idea to form a government in order to win votes, according to Vårt Land’s analysis of the past eight governments. The analysis is based on the general election results and the polls taken ahead of changes of government between elections.

Local and central government employees to join forces in LO (Aftenposten)

Frustrated by the fact that industry is grabbing the limelight, both within the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the public debate, the LO’s local and central government unions have decided to look into the possibility of joining forces. In the period up until the LO congress in 2005, the two unions will prepare reports and a discussion paper on how public service employees should organize themselves in the future. The Institute of Applied Social Science (FAFO) has already been asked for assistance.

Commission of inquiry postponed (NTB)

The Labour and Government Administration Ministry has told NRK that the new commission of inquiry into the 1982 Mehamn air crash will not now be announced tomorrow as had been planned. This is because the Storting must first vote on a proposal to set up its own parliamentary commission into the accident, and this will not take place until next week. The postponement has been made in consultation with the President of the Storting.

RAF refuses to comment (Aftenposten)

There appears no willingness whatsoever on the part of the British Ministry of Defence or the Royal Air Force to comment on recent claims relating to the possible cause of the Mehamn air crash in 1982. "We are aware that the Norwegian government will now undertake a new inquiry into the accident. We will provide the Norwegian authorities with all the help we can in connection with the inquiry. But we do not wish to make any comment while the inquiry is still taking place," said Sue Lloyd at the British Ministry of Defence. The new information which has emerged on the Mehamn accident is also developing into a news story in the British media.

40 illegal immigrants arrested in major sweep (Verdens Gang)

Around 40 illegal immigrants were discovered during a major police sweep, code-named Operation Advent. The operation has been going on nationwide and will be stepped up even further in the next few days. Yesterday afternoon and evening the police checked a large number of cars and other vehicles at the border crossings at Svinesund and Ørje. So far the police are satisfied with their results. "I can confirm that the action has given results in several police districts, also with regard to offences other than illegal immigration," said Runar Kvernen at the Police Directorate. In addition to exposing illegal immigration, the action has turned up evidence of counterfeit money and the theft and forgery of travel documents, among other things.

Growth in oil traffic along Norwegian coast (Aftenposten)

Russia’s four largest oil companies signed a letter of intent yesterday to build an oil pipeline from Siberia to Murmansk. This will lead to a growth in the transportation of oil along the Norwegian coast. The oil will be shipped by supertanker to markets in western Europe and the USA. An accident could have a catastrophic impact on fish stocks in the Barents Sea. Russia already sends small oil tankers from the oil fields in northwest Russia down along the Norwegian coast. With a new oil terminal in Murmansk, 3-4 supertankers loaded with 300,000 tonnes of oil could pass the Norwegian coast every single week.

Found a tonne of unfit meat (Dagbladet)

In November alone, the Food Control Authority in Follo county has found one tonne of unfit meat at supermarkets belonging to the Meny chain. The Food Control Authority in Follo county has branded Meny the worst offender among the food chains. On Monday Meny was caught red-handed with two-year-old meat in its storage freezers. "Meny has shown an alarming attitude. The chain has been caught out for the fourth time, which shows a disrespect for the law," said Health Minister Dagfinn Høybråten, who has now announced his intention to take drastic action against shops which are repeatedly found to have violated the food regulations.

Minister rejects relocation cost estimate (Dagsavisen)

Labour and Government Administration Minister Victor Norman has rejected categorically that it will cost NOK 1.3 million per head to move civil service jobs to locations outside Oslo, and points to Sweden as proof that such a move can be profitable. Yesterday he met representatives of the LO civil servants union at its traditional conference in Gol. He was prepared for a rough ride – and got one. The plans to relocate public agencies out of Oslo was just one of the issues he was forced to defend. Dagsavisen carried a story yesterday about employees at the Directorate of Labour who were afraid of losing their jobs. The calculation they have presented to the Prime Minister shows that it would cost NOK 1.3 million to move one job out of Oslo. Mr Norman denied that he was pushing his relocation proposal though simply out of principle. "We will not be proposing the relocation of public bodies unless the financial benefits outweigh the costs," he said to Dagsavisen.

Labour "understands those who choose to flag out" (Dagens Næringsliv)

The Labour Party wants a new round of debate on conditions for seamen and the shipping industry in Norway. "I understand those who flag their ships out after the budget settlement between the Government and the Progress Party," said Labour’s Olav Akselsen, who chairs the Storting’s Business and Industry Committee. He now wants to force the Government to take another look at the issue. "The Conservatives and the Christian Democrats both made clear promises to the seamen’s unions and the shipping industry before the general election. But those promises were forgotten after just a few weeks in office," said Mr Akselsen, who took steps in May to win broad political backing for a net wages scheme for Norwegian seamen.

1. Worth Noting

• The Government Petroleum Fund is taking a bold gamble. It is putting "everything" into shares, after losses of NOK 40 billion in the third quarter. The Petroleum Fund and its chief executive Knut N. Kjær are investing almost exclusively in shares, despite swingeing losses in the past year. The Fund has invested around NOK 75 billion in shares since the middle of the year.
  (Dagens Næringsliv/Wednesday)
• Three Norwegian experts on nuclear weapons have been selected as weapons inspectors and are standing by to travel to Iraq. They could be in place as early as December. A further five experts are probably on Hans Blix’s list, and could be called up to search for chemical weapons in Iraq.
  (Dagbladet)
• The Government expects to save huge sums by tightening up the rules for family reunification. People who have been granted a residence permit on humanitarian grounds will in future have to have a job before they can bring family members to this country.
  (Aftenposten/Wednesday)
• Ulf Larsstuvold, the private investigator who has been looking into the Mehamn air crash, has received over 600 reports in the past week concerning the accident, whose cause has never been fully explained. "In the past few days details and people have emerged which have made the picture clearer," he said.
  (Aftenposten)
• A survey carried out by Dagsavisen shows that Oslo has fewer police officers on duty to protect ordinary citizens than any other capital in the Nordic region.
  (Dagsavisen/Wednesday)
• Electricity prices have hit a record high and the power utilities are blaming the weather. Klassekampen can show how the power companies have deliberately emptied their hydro-electric reservoirs to drive domestic electricity prices up as high as possible this winter.
  (Klassekampen)
• Fisheries Minister Svein Ludvigsen has issued 90 controversial new salmon farming licences in record time. Environment Minister Børge Brende has responded by banning emissions of environmentally hazardous chemicals from those same fish farms.
  (Dagbladet)
• The ruling coalition parties and the Progress Party have joined forces and are asking the Government to propose changes to the legislation regulating the public disclosure of party funding. All contributions over NOK 20,000, whether in the form of cash or other types of support, will in future have to be publicly disclosed.
  (Aftenposten)

2. Today’s comment from Aftenposten

Last year the Christian Democrats went into the election campaign under the slogan, "Vote for a Prime Minister". The slogan became reality, but both Kjell Magne Bondevik and his party have felt the impact of the fact that the government Mr Bondevik now leads was not the party’s first choice. One of this week’s two opinion polls, which showed that support for the Christian Democrats has slumped by almost half since the election, was carried out while the ruling coalition parties were trying to reach a budget agreement with the Labour Party. The other poll was carried out during the second, decisive round of negotiations with the Progress Party. It would therefore be too simplistic to interpret the Christian Democratic Party’s slide as a result of negotiating ploys in one direction or the other. Nor should the Prime Minister feel sure that his forecast of renewed popularity once the voters discover that "they will be better off next year" will come true. The greatest dilemma by far facing the Christian Democrats is perhaps that the secularization of society and the weakening of countercultures gives less room for the party’s traditional political profile. Instead, Mr Bondevik must compete with Carl I. Hagen over who has contributed most to the fact that people "will be better off next year". As long as the PM is not even strong enough to prevent Mr Hagen from playing his cynical and duplicitous game of marketing his own alternative budget, while at the same time donning the mantle of the Government’s "responsible" saviour, it will be difficult – also in this area – for a vulnerable Christian Democratic Party to score political points.