Stoltenberg: Labour will win more votes than the Conservatives (Dagsavisen)

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is convinced that the Labour Party will win the general election this autumn. Yesterday he celebrated the opening of the election campaign season with a ferocious attack on Conservative Party leader Jan Petersen – who gave as good as he got. Nevertheless, Mr Petersen was forced into a narrow defeat in a debating match which marked the start of the election campaign, with polling day just one month away. Despite opinion polls which look more like obituaries for the Labour Party than anything else, Mr Stoltenberg is convinced the Labour Party will wipe the floor with the Conservatives come polling day. "Of course we will win more votes than the Conservatives. That goes without saying," was his bombastic assertion after yesterday’s debate.

Labour promises tax breaks for the low paid (Aftenposten)

Tax was a central issue during yesterday’s first election campaign debate between Jan Petersen and Jens Stoltenberg. The Labour Party will cut taxes for low income groups, promised Mr Stoltenberg during the debate. He would not say how the tax cuts would be achieved, but underlined that they would benefit those earning under NOK 289,000 a year.

Civil servants given veto over public service reform (Aftenposten)

Jørgen Kosmo, the Minister for Labour and Government Administration, has told all government departments that no state agencies must be closed down or merged together without the approval of the trades unions involved. The Government’s objective is the modernization of 97 state agencies. According to vice president Kristin Clemet of the Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry (NHO), Mr Kosmo’s instructions represent a democratic problem and amount to an act of submission to the trades union movement. Ms Clemet fears that the reform of the public sector will be botched if the unions and other professional interest groups are given too much power. "If the Government follows up Mr Kosmo’s words with actions, this is a very positive move," said Turid Lilleheie, leader of the Norwegian Civil Service Union (NTL).

DnB gambles on no to Sampo (Dagens Næringsliv)

Den norske Bank (DnB) is refusing to increase its bid in order to achieve a Norwegian solution to the Storebrand takeover controversy. DnB chief executive Svein Aaser believes that any movement on the part of DnB would lead to a bidding war, which is why he is sitting quite still and waiting for Sampo’s application to acquire Storebrand to be rejected. Orkla’s board of directors has unanimously voted to extend its acceptance of Sampo’s bid until 21 September, while the National Insurance Fund has extended its acceptance until 30 September. Orkla and the National Insurance Fund each control almost 10 per cent of Storebrand’s shares.

SAS board under increasingly heavy fire (Aftenposten)

Shareholders in Sweden and Denmark have turned up the heat on SAS chairman Harald Norvik and the rest of the company’s board of directors over the Maersk scandal. "The SAS board has been ‘asleep at the wheel’," according to a Danish politician, while Sweden’s prime minister has called the illegal price fixing between SAS and Maersk Air a scandal. But while the storm surrounding SAS rages on, Harald Norvik believes the board of directors of which he is chairman has a clear conscience.

Scare tactics on cigarette packs (Verdens Gang)

Colour photos showing blackened lungs and damaged teeth and gums could be the first thing you see when you pick up a pack of cigarettes. Norwegian authorities are working to make it compulsory to print pictures of the damage which can be caused by smoking on cigarette packets, according to a consultation document published yesterday by the Health and Social Affairs Ministry. The document proposes the introduction of legislation making it compulsory to print pictures on cigarette packets showing human organs which have been damaged by too much smoking.

Worth Noting

• Almost a thousand readers gave us their verdict following the televised debate between Messrs Stoltenberg and Petersen yesterday. The result? 56 per cent gave the victory to the Conservatives. (Dagbladet)

• Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg convinced the sceptics during yesterday’s crucial debate with Conservative leader Jan Petersen. 50 per cent of those voters who are as yet undecided gave the victory to Jens Stoltenberg. Only 21 per cent of those same floating voters said Jan Petersen gave the best performance. (Verdens Gang)
• DnB’s management has admitted for the first time that incorporating Storebrand into the organization will be no easy matter. "It will be demanding and will take time," said Gunn Wærstad, head of DnB’s insurance subsidiary, Vital, and a member of DnB’s corporate management team. (Aftenposten)
• The profitability of the fish farming industry doubled during the bonanza year of 2000. The industry’s pre-tax profit reached some NOK 4 billion. 2001 is expected to be a more normal year with profits reaching around NOK 2 billion. (Aftenposten)
• The savings banks which were affected by last week’s computer chaos enjoyed bulging bank accounts last weekend as a result. This gave them two days in which they earned enormous amounts of interest, possibly tens of millions of kroner, which rightfully belonged to other people. The Consumer Council has called on the banks to automatically transfer this type of windfall back to their customers. (Aftenposten)
• Holiday resorts are tired of holiday home owners enjoying all the services provided by the local authority without actually paying for them. According to the mayor of Tjøme, tourists should pay their taxes to the local authorities in which they are staying during the holiday months. (Dagbladet)
• If the new national opera house at Bjørvika, Oslo, is built the way its architects intend, almost half of the audience will have to rely on their hearing alone. A rival firm of architects has concluded that the design will lead to the audience having problems seeing the stage. The original architects from the firm, Snøhetta, disagree. (Aftenposten)

Today’s comment from Dagsavisen

SAS is in the grip of its worst ever crisis. Revelations about its illegal cooperation with the Danish airline, Maersk Air, is indicative of a corporate culture more usually associated with companies from less developed democracies than those in Scandinavia. After a period of vacillation and claims that management knew nothing about the affair, SAS has changed its tune. The Danish deputy chief executive has been fired, while the company’s president and chairman have both decided to eat large amounts of humble pie and apologise profusely to SAS’s owners, customers and employees. SAS has promised to clean up its act. The question is whether it is possible for the company to win back public confidence with its current senior management and board still in place. SAS’s problems are not restricted to Denmark alone. In Sweden SAS is being investigated by the authorities following allegations of illegal cooperation with another company. In this country SAS’s planned acquisition of Braathens has also made waves. If SAS is allowed to take over Braathens, the company will have a monopoly on domestic air travel in Norway. It seems as though SAS’s basic business concept is to eliminate all competition.