Jacob Christensen

Cheeky England are investigating Kasper Schmeichel’s international status to see if he can ditch Denmark.

(Mirror.co.uk – via Politiken)

My colleague Flemming Juul Christiansen has written a good round-up of the last week’s events in Danish politics. I hope, that it will be posted on the PSA Scandinavian Politics website. If not, I shall try to convince Flemming to publish it somewhere.

Meanwhile, I’ll repeat a comparison between 2007 and 1990:

• The government has a plan. So do the Social Democrats. Just as 1990.
• Privatisations and outsourcing are not political issues. The government and SD play the same game with regard to health and welfare services.
• The Social Liberal Party (Det Radikale Venstre) is not in the government.
• The Conservative Party is in government but unlike SLP between 1988 and 1990, neither MPs nor party members see a realistic alternative.
• Conservative voters might be the biggest market for Ny Alliance.
• The Danish People’s Party is in the government fold. So are its voters.
• Unlike Poul Schl�ter in 1990, Anders Fogh is not worn out.
• Iraq is not an issue in Danish politics. No, really.
• Helle Thorning-Schmidt is not Svend Auken. For better or for worse.
• Except for the Conservatives, Ny Alliance and Radikale Venstre, no-one (parties or voters) want a tax cuts.
• Well, the property tax is another matter.

Andrew Gelman has read Geoffrey Wheatcroft‘s “The Strange Death of Tory England“.

So have I. (Last year).

Highly recommended.

Wheatcroft seems to have a thing for lost and disgraced causes: He has also written a book about the Tour de France.

I have a new toy. It is called AppleTV. Buying such a thing might be considered a bit silly as iTunes Store doesn’t includes movies in Sweden, but being able to access podcasts via the TV is really fascinating. The YouTube-integration is – depending on your point of view – awesome or the best guarantee that 50.000 lawyers won’t be out of work anytime soon.

• FANet – Sygefrav�r i finanssektoren
  (tags: denmark labourmarket socialpolicy publichealth)
• Slate Magazine – More Cowbell
  Why Max Roach was jazz’s greatest drummer.
  (tags: music jazz maxroach obituary)
• VoxEU – Should market liberalisation precede democracy? The citizens� point of view
  Empirical evidence based on an innovative new dataset suggests that democracy generates some popular support for the market, but economic liberalisation does not clearly enhance the support for democracy.
  (tags: research politicalscience economics democracy development academic)
• CrookedTimber – Democracy and Unipolarity
  The paper tries to answer the question of why America invaded Iraq and, more broadly, what the invasion of Iraq says about America�s strategic position, foreign policy choices and public opinion over foreign policy.
  (tags: academic politicalscience foreignpolicy iraq research)