Uproar in Labour women’s camp (Dagbladet)

The internal strife within the Labour Party continues. And now it is the party’s women who are squabbling in public. They feel that Karita Bekkemellem Orheim is wrongly interpreting a resolution they passed at their annual conference for her own ends when she claims it means they want gender quotas to apply to the party’s top leadership team. Trond Giske’s supporters in the Labour Party’s women’s movement feel aggrieved by the women’s movement’s leader. The fragile compromise was already falling apart by the time the women’s annual conference concluded on Sunday night. "The signal from the women’s movement is that we should have women represented at all levels within the party. That is why Karita’s summation is quite wrong in terms of what I have been a party to," said Synnøve Konglevoll, Labour representative and member of the executive committee of the party’s women’s movement.

Crossed wires for Labour and Christian Democrats (NTB)

Relations between the Labour Party and the Christian Democratic Party have cooled dramatically after resolutions adopted by the annual conference of the Labour Party’s women’s movement. On Tuesday Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik demanded clarification of what the Labour Party intends to do with the additional cash benefit for children under three and private schools. "This is important in terms of the political climate during the budget negotiations," said the PM. "The Labour women’s proposal to refuse financial support to private religious schools is astonishing. The resolution smacks of intolerance and a lack of respect for parental choice. I expect Jens Stoltenberg will come out and clearly say he does not support this view," said Mr Bondevik. Incoming Labour leader Jens Stoltenberg says that he sees nothing wrong with disagreeing on important issues linked to family and gender equality policies. "It would be more serious if this disagreement made it impossible for us to cooperate," writes Mr Stoltenberg in an e-letter. In the letter he makes it clear that many of the proposals adopted by the Labour Party’s women’s movement are controversial and will not become Labour’s official policy.

Progress Party crushes Labour in the north (Dagbladet)

Carl I. Hagen does not know why four out of ten inhabitants in northern Norway say they will vote for his party. The Progress Party has incredibly strong support in the north of Norway, and is the country’s most popular party by far, according to MMI’s latest poll carried out on behalf of Dagbladet and NRK. Nationwide, the Progress Party has the support of 27.3 per cent in the poll, making it the country’s most popular party. The Labour Party musters the backing of 21.1 per cent of the electorate, the Conservatives 17 per cent, the Socialist Left Party 13.8 per cent, the Christian Democrats 8.9 per cent, the Centre Party 5.3 per cent and the Liberals 2.6 per cent.

SAS could lose deals worth NOK 2 billion (Aftenposten)

The secret key account discounts which Norwegian companies have agreed with the airlines could be banned, warns the Norwegian Competition Authority. For SAS this could mean the disappearance of deals worth NOK 2 billion. The accumulation of bonus points on domestic flights was recently abolished, now key account agreements could go the same way. If that happens SAS will, within a short space of time, have lost two important weapons in the battle to attract business customers.

Employees do not believe in large wage rises next year (Dagens Næringsliv)

Norwegian employees do not think they will receive a substantial wage hike next year. According to a survey commissioned by the Norwegian Central Bank, they expect wage rises to be far lower than the level forecast by Central Bank Governor Svein Gjedrem. The Central Bank has commissioned Norsk Gallup Institutt AS to measure the expectations various interested parties and experts have with regard to future wage and price inflation. The survey will be carried out four times a year. Surveys of this kind have not previously been carried out on a regular basis, though it is common in other countries. The Norwegian Central Bank explains its initiative by pointing out that expectations with regard to future inflation rates can play a role in determining the actual level of inflation.

Government will not take responsibility for Think (NTB)

The Government will not allocate funds to keep the Think electric car in production. This probably means the Think plant in Aurskog will have to close. "It is true that Ford has the intention of finding new investors. But their starting point is hopeless, given that they have sunk NOK 650 million in the development of a new version of Think which will not be produced," said Trade and Industry Minister Ansgar Gabrielsen (H). Yesterday he announced the Government’s decision not to provide funds for further production.

A thousand jobs in danger (Dagens Næringsliv)

One thousand employees at Aker Kværner’s offshore construction yards in Norway could be laid off this winter. The yards are currently engaged in a desperate struggle to win new contracts. 40 employees at the Rosenberg yard in Stavanger have already received lay-off notices. "More are on the way. The situation is under review on a week by week basis. As many as 300 people could by laid off at Rosenberg alone," said senior union official at the yard, Einar Risa. The yard now hopes to win the contract to assemble process equipment for the LNG plant at Melkøya, which is part of the Snow White gas field. This would provide work for 750 people.

Socialist Left Party calls for lower limit for local authority spending on schools (Dagsavisen)

The Storting should introduce a lower limit for local authority spending on primary and lower secondary schools, according to the Socialist Left Party’s Rolf Reikvam, deputy leader of the Storting’s Education Committee. Mr Reikvam is fed up with the quality of schooling varying so much from local authority to local authority, and that a lack of resources makes it impossible in many areas to realise the goals laid down in the national curriculum. Figures from Statistics Norway show that the amount of money spent by local authorities on the primary and lower secondary school sector in 2001 varied from NOK 45,000 to NOK 148,000 per pupil.

Worth Noting

• "The most important thing in this year’s budget process is to demonstrate responsibility so that we can save jobs and relieve the pressure on interest rates," said Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik in a speech in Drammen yesterday evening. He added that this would require some unpopular spending cuts.
  (NTB)
• Norsk Hydro’s market value has slumped by a massive NOK 32 billion since Eivind Reiten took over as chief executive last year. Yesterday he admitted that he does not have any fancy tricks up his sleeve to boost the company’s share price. When the stock market heard this, Norsk Hydro’s share price sank even further.
  (Aftenposten)
• The penalty points scheme for motorists, which was to have come into effect no later than 1 January 2004, could be shelved before it has even begun. The issuing of penalty points could prove to violate the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This question was raised yesterday when the Supreme Court started proceedings to decide whether Norway’s current practice of confiscating motorists’ driving licences is in breach of the ECHR.
  (Aftenposten)
• Sales of spirits at the Vinmonopolet, the state-run wine and spirits retail monopoly, will increase and people will start drinking more wine and beer as a result of the recent deaths from methanol poisoning, according to professor Ragnar Hauge, an expert on alcohol and substance abuse.
  (Aftenposten)
• Norwegian hospitals have received supplies of methanol antidote from Sweden because there have been problems getting the antidote from the French producer. The Østfold Hospital’s two emergency units in Fredrikstad and Moss have only enough antidote to treat three new patients, according to senior consultant Odd Helge Hudneri.
  (NTB)
• The Storting is to debate proposals to relax the Working Environment Act’s restrictions on overtime. The executive committee of the Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions has called on the Storting to reject the amendment. The union committee feels that current levels of permitted overtime are sufficiently flexible to meet companies’ needs.
  (NTB)
• 35 per cent of all employees regularly work at other times than between 8 am and 4 pm – the majority due to shift work or rotating work patterns – according to figures from a survey of the labour force carried out by Statistics Norway.
  (NTB)
• If the number of dairy farms were cut to a third of current levels, it would boost the rural economy by NOK 3.4 billion, according to researchers from the Agricultural University of Norway (NLH).
  (Nationen)
• The Institute of Marine Research at Flødevigen has reported an exodus of cod due to the warmth of the seawater during the whole of August and to the present. Cod prefer seawater with a temperature of 10-15 ⁰>C.

Today’s comment from Klassekampen

It is 30 years since Norway first said no to EU membership. Developments since 1972 have been complicated. On the one hand the EU has been moving in the direction of becoming the union all its supporters denied it was. The EU is increasingly taking the shape of a supranational state whose executive branch is not fully under democratic control. On the other hand, Norway has increasingly become incorporated into the EU through the EEA Agreement, and it is said that Norway has adapted its legislation to EU directives more fully than any other nation in the world. As such membership of the EEA is deeply disturbing. At the same time it must be underlined that adaptation to EU directives alone is not a good enough argument to take the next step and become a full member of the EU. For that to be the case it would have to be proved that Norway would gain a substantial measure of influence by becoming a member. And that has not yet been proved. Another argument in favour of Norwegian membership of the EU has been the rivalry between the EU and the USA, where Norway is supposed to stand shoulder to shoulder on the "European side". We doubt whether that would be in Norway’s best interests. Norway must accept that we are a small country on the periphery of Europe, with relatively little influence. The minute amount of influence Norway would gain by joining the EU does not counterbalance the consequences of membership in terms of weakened democracy and the transfer of greater authority to the European Commission. At the same time it is obvious that the EEA Agreement is a problem. It is implicit in the enlargement of the EU that Norway will have to pay more to renew the EEA Agreement. The European Commission’s demand for more money should provide a good opportunity to initiate a debate on all aspects of the EEA Agreement.