Archive for June 6th, 2008
The Internationalised European’s Dilemma
Tomorrow, the Euro 2008 championship begins. This has nothing to do with money (well, it has everything to do with money – perhaps “it has nothing to do with currency” will be more correct) but is the trademarked name of UEFA’s European Soccer Championship.
Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, Denmark is not in the tournament (that’s what having a third-rate national team gets you) so you might think that I could just sit back and relax and enjoy the matches.
Not so fast Poindexter! Let’s go through the groups one by one:
Group A: Czech Republic, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey
One of my cousins is married to a Swiss and lives in Switzerland.
Group B: Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland
Truly the Group of Death – I follow an Austrian ex-student’s blog, the husband of one of my other cousins has a Croatian background (okay, they’ll back Sweden enthusiastically, but still) and I have German friends.
Group C: France, Italy, Netherlands, Romania
One of my friends is part-French and grew up in Paris.
Group D: Greece, Russia, Spain, Sweden
Sweden is an obvious problem, but I must add that one of my friends is married to a Russian.
Update: Somebody at Politiken had a bit of fun by making a list of Swedish national players who were born in Skne, Halland and Blekinge. They could make up a team, actually.
links for 2008-06-06
That’s Entertainment
Honestly, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the entertainment industry is an existential threat to the idea of free speech, open tools, and an open communications network.
Whooops…!
Is it a fluke or will the next week be really exciting?
The poll shows the number of people intending to vote No has almost doubled to 35 per cent (up 17 points) since the last poll three weeks ago, while the number of the Yes side has declined to 30 per cent (down 5 points).
The number of undecided voters is still a significant 28 per (down 12 points) cent, while 7 per cent wont vote.
The massive increase by the No vote since the last poll has mainly come through gains among undecided voters but, even more ominously for the Yes side, it has lost some support to the No camp.
While the final outcome is still in the hands of undecided voters, the clear momentum is now with the No campaign, and it will take a dramatic shift in public attitudes over the next few days for the Yes side to win.
The swing to the No camp has not been prompted by domestic considerations, with just 5 per cent of those opposed to the Treaty saying they are influenced by a desire to protest against the Government.
The reason most often cited by No voters is that they dont know what they are voting for or they dont understand the Treaty, with 30 per cent of No voters listing this as the main reason for their decision.