Conservatives see downturn in the polls (Verdens Gang)

Support for the Conservatives has fallen by three percentage points, according to today’s poll from VG and TV2. But party chairman Jan Petersen is still smiling. Norsk Gallup’s poll on behalf of VG and TV2 puts support for the Conservatives at 31.5 per cent. The Labour Party nudges forward to 22.5 per cent, up a mere 1.5 percentage points from last week. Labour’s improvement is due to the fact that more people are now willing to say how they would vote if the election were held tomorrow. The Labour Party has benefited from the fact that more voters have decided to come down off the fence. As many as 100,000 new voters have been added to the poll’s representative sample, but this still means that only 60.4 per cent of those polled are prepared to answer the question.

EU Ambassador not informed (Dagens Næringsliv)

EU Ambassador Gerhard Sabathil met with Foreign Ministry officials yesterday, and admitted that he had not known that Norway believes it can still use the Gas Negotiation Commission (GFU) to negotiate gas sales with countries outside the EEA. Any agreement between Norway and Poland on the sale of Norwegian gas will end up being reviewed by the European Commission. However, officials from both the Foreign Ministry and the Petroleum and Energy Ministry have told DN that they do not think the EU will overrule a gas sales agreement between Norway and Poland.

Bondevik not ruling out cooperation with Labour (Aftenposten)

Kjell Magne Bondevik is not ruling out a collaboration with the Labour Party after the election. "But it is not very likely," said Mr Bondevik during yesterday’s party leader debate on TV2. According to the results of TV2’s latest poll, which were presented in yesterday’s "Election Tabloid" programme, Mr Bondevik is way out in front of the other prime ministerial candidates in terms of popularity. 34 per cent of the voters said they would like to see Mr Bondevik return to office as prime minister after the election on 10 September. 23 per cent said they would prefer Jens Stoltenberg to stay in office, while 19 per cent had Conservative Party chairman Jan Petersen as their first choice.

No help for SAS from Oslo Stock Exchange (Aftenposten)

The Oslo Stock Exchange has said it will not help SAS choose who should investigate the Maersk scandal. This decision gets Harald Norvik off the hook. As chairman of SAS, Mr Norvik will be under investigation, an investigation which could lead to him being given the sack. It would not have looked good if the Oslo Stock Exchange, also chaired by Mr Norvik, were to be involved in selecting his investigators. None of the Scandinavian stock exchanges want to get embroiled in the clean-up operation going on within SAS. Yesterday, the stock exchanges in Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen all decided not to participate in the selection of the team whose task will be to investigate both SAS’s management and its board of directors.

Four times more nuclear pollution (Nordlys/Dagsavisen)

Radioactive pollution from Sellafield in the UK could increase fourfold over the next few years. Sellafield is by far the largest source of radioactive pollution along the Norwegian coast, and threatens the reputation of the Norwegian fisheries industry. According to the newspaper, Nordlys, the news that emissions from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant are likely to increase substantially is contained in a document produced by the plant’s owners, BNFL. The document was leaked to a local environmental group in Sellafield. The Norwegian environmental foundation, Bellona, has now gained access to the document. "Increased emissions are clearly in breach of the commitments made by the British government," said atomic physicist Nils Bøhmer of Bellona.

200,000 schoolchildren not covered by local authority insurance (Nationen)

When the new school term starts this week, a third of all schoolchildren will not be covered by local authority insurance. Each year around 20,000 children are injured while at school or attending local authority nurseries. Without insurance they are forced to manage with the accident treatment benefits provided under the National Insurance Scheme. Earlier this year, therefore, the Education Ministry asked all local authorities to take out a special insurance policy to cover their schoolchildren. But only two-thirds of local authorities have actually done so.

All army reservists to be checked (Aftenposten)

Every single one of the country’s 83,000 army reservists is to be investigated. The Army wants to weed out individuals with neo-nazi sympathies, links to criminal motorcycle gangs or other criminal convictions. The objective is to minimize the risk of military weapons being used for criminal purposes. The Army also want to prevent people who are not fit to have firearms at home from knowing where the Armed Forces store their weapons and ammunition.

Worth Noting

• For four weeks now it has been possible to cast an advance vote at one of the Post Office’s many branches. So far 74,186 people have made use of this opportunity and voted in advance. This is more than twice as many as during the same period four years ago. (NTB)
• Despite the pleas of the various political parties, an increasing number of shopping centres are refusing to allow them to use their premises for election campaigning. The major chains currently give the go-ahead, but with strings attached and only in the final run-up to the election. Previously there was nothing to stop the parties putting up campaign posters and setting out their election pamphlets in the public domain. (Vårt Land)
• This is Jens Stoltenberg’s latest campaign promise: Norwegian hospitals will be able to treat up to 100,000 more patients each year without it costing the Government a single krone more than today. "Next year we will be starting our efforts to release resources corresponding to NOK 4.5 billion. This will be achieved solely by improving the way hospitals are organized," said Mr Stoltenberg. (Verdens Gang)
• SAS has come under fire for failing to report a near miss. According to the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board, the pilots of one SAS aircraft lost their bearings and flew far too close to another SAS plane which was coming in for landing at Gardermoen Airport. The two planes were in real danger of colliding. The air traffic controllers on duty at the time were praised by the accident investigators for their alertness. The same cannot be said for the SAS pilots involved. (Dagbladet)
• The Finnish company, Sampo, has extended its deadline to Storebrand’s shareholders, who now have until 28 September to accept its bid. (NTB)
• The highly criticized phone-in polls in which viewers are asked to vote on the issues being debated in the controversial current affairs programme, "Holmgang" are a money-spinner for TV2. The television channel can earn up to NOK 85,000 per programme. (Dagbladet)

Today’s comment from Dagsavisen

The EU Ambassador to Norway apologised yesterday for the comments made by one of the EU delegation’s diplomats, who had described Norway’s attitude to the EU’s Gas Directive as ‘nonsense’. This should heal any possible rift between Oslo and Brussels to both sides’ satisfaction. Which just leaves the Sampo affair. Our bet is that this knotty problem can also be untangled diplomatically – after the election.