Jacob Christensen

…Sweden has a new Minister for Trade after Sten Tolgfors who was moved to Defense last week as a replacement for Mikael Odenberg who left in protest against cuts in the defense budget: Ewa Bj�rling.

I’m not quite sure if I shall consider all of the incoming minister’s breaches against various parts of Swedish legislation a feature that makes her look human or if this is a person, you would not want as your neighbour. She is a Reader in Medicine. You have been warned.

Anyway, the political implications seem to be negligible.

This blog’s reader has pointed out to me that Kai Lindberg served as Transport Minister (or to be more precise: Minister for Public Works) from 30 August 1955 to 28 November 1966. That is 11 years and 3 months (save a few days). Flemming Rasmussen served as Transport Minister from 27 November 2001 to 12 September 2007. 6 years and 9 1/2 months.

We now also know that “forever” is 40 years and 9 1/2 months.

• Out – Hans Christian Schmidt (Food, Agriculture and Fisheries; Lib), Flemming Hansen (Transport; Cons)
• Transferred – Eva Kjer Hansen (From Social Affairs to FAF; Lib)
• In – Jacob Axel Nielsen (Transport; Cons), Karen Jespersen (Social Affairs; Lib)

That Flemming Hansen is replaced is a no-brainer: He is 68 and had announced that he would step down as an MP at the next election. He is the longest-serving Minister for Transport since – well, forever. Axel Nielsen is an up-and-coming Conservative: He is relatively new in national politics but described as a political talent.

Schmidt will be made chairman of the Liberal parliamentary group. It could be seen as a degradation, but not of the humiliating kind. Moving Kjer Hansen from Social Affairs to Food and Agriculture is a sideways shuffle – the portfolio is important to traditional Liberal voters, less so to new Liberal voters.

That leaves Karen Jespersen. We should note that she is the first Danish politician since Gustav Rasmussen to serve in governments of different colour. Unlike Jespersen who is a professional politician, Rasmussen was a career diplomat who served as Foreign Minister, first under the Liberal Knud Kristensen from 1945 to 1947 and then under the Social Democrat Hans Hedtoft from 1947 to 1950. In Rasmussen’s case, the switch was not politically motivated – Rasmussen lacked a sense for party politics and the Social Democrats in 1947 lacked politicians with experience from international politics.

The best Swedish match to Jespersen would be Carl Tham who was originally a Liberal but switched to the Social Democrats in the mid-1980s. Tham was party secretary from 1969 to 1975 and then a minister in the Liberal government from 1978-1979. After switching to the Social Democrats, he became Minister for Education between 1994 and 1998. (Note the ten-year quarantine in Tham’s case)

On the other hand I think it is fair to say that Tham never was as well known to the general public as Jespersen who in a journalistic and political career spanning 35 years has made a fascinating and high-profiled journey – always in tune with the times – from radical socialism over social democracy to a peculiar brand of neo-conservatism.

It is possible to say much more about Jespersen. I may get back to that.

Bonus information: The last reshuffle of this kind was made in August 2004. About six months before the 2005 election.

Press release from the PM’s Office.

Update: I would just like to note that Lars Bille confirmed my suspicions – Karen Jespersen is a unique case in Danish politics. No Danish politician with the exceptions of Rasmussen and Jespersen has ever changed sides and held government office for different parties.

Michael Shermer in Scientific American, via Mark Thoma:

Data and theory are not enough. As primates, humans seek patterns and establish concepts to understand the world around us… We are storytellers. If you cannot tell a good story about your data and theory� that is, if you cannot explain your observations, what view they are for or against and what service your efforts provide�then your science is incomplete. The view of science as primary research published in the peer-reviewed sections of journals only, with everything else relegated to �mere popularization,� is breathtakingly narrow and naive. Were this restricted view of science true, it would obviate many of the greatest works in the history of science, from Darwin�s On the Origin of Species to Jared Diamond�s Guns, Germs, and Steel…