Disregard what the policy actually is for a moment.
The changes announced on Tuesday were particularly difficult for the Social Democrats’ junior coalition partner, the Green party, seen as the most refugee-friendly of Sweden’s main political parties. The Greens’ deputy prime minister, Åsa Romson, broke into tears as she announced the measures.
“This is a terrible decision,” she said later, admitting that the proposals would make life even more precarious for refugees.
But quitting the government would have made a bad situation even worse, she added.
But of course I won’t be giving up my car, driver, extra money, nice office and better pension sa a result, of course not.
Not that it’s a better excuse, but since the Social Democrats only got 31% of the vote last year and have been polling less than that consistently for months, the Greens pulling out will most likely force an early election in which Sweden Democrats will surely increase their share. Some recent polls have even suggested they could become the largest party, which is probably the Green Party’s worst nightmare.
“However, a UN official in Stockholm, who asked not to be named, commented: “The last bastion of humanitarianism has fallen.””
Better see if you can elect a new populace, then, chum.
So they are now officially “far-right” then?
What exactly is the rationale behind quitting a post, a party, or a coalition because of a disagreement over a single policy? It’s impossible to please 100% of the electorate; it’s nigh impossible to please even 50%. The Tories won just 36.9% of the popular vote at the last election.
The argument that you can better influence policy from inside rather than outside still holds. Quitting can only effect change if it triggers a new election; or if it’s en masse.
Prime example: Robin Cook resigning from the Cabinet in 2003 over the Iraq war. Didn’t make a jot of difference.
No difference to the war, but it did make a huge difference for Robin Cook. Suddenly he was a revered elder statesman, rather than the philandering lefty twat he’d always been.
Didn’t save him from a mystery death tho’ did it.
That’s exactly what they’ve been trying to do by flooding the country with ‘refugees’.
Didn’t save him from a mystery death tho’ did it.
Heart attack on a mountain walk in the company of his family, IIRC. Nothing mysterious about it at all.
David Kelly’s suicide, on the other hand…
‘Didn’t save him from a mystery death tho’ did it’.
If it was a ‘mystery death’ his wife must have been complicit, because she was with him at the time.
Robin Cook said he intended to vote against the Government’s motion to go to war and he didn’t feel he could do that while being in the Government, which seems reasonable. Taking the rest of his speech at face value, it seems entirely reasonable to resign on such a matter of principle as going to war. Or you’re complicit in that decision, aren’t you?
Some political commentators suggested it looked like he was on his way out anyway if Blair had any say in the matter.
If I resigned every time my boss made a decision I disagreed with, I’d be out of a job.
If you think your boss has made a dreadful error and his decision will ruin the company, then by all means jump ship. However in Robin Cook’s case that doesn’t mean just quitting the cabinet: that means leaving the party, the parliament, and preferably the country. Anything less is admitting that it’s not such a bad mistake.
Um yeah. I tried to suggest the issue was a particularly weighty one. A similarly weighty issue might be the abolition of criminal trials or completely shutting down ‘the free press’. I don’t know where you work.
Anyway he said he resigned because he intended to vote against the Government, not because of a mere disagreement.
Tim Newman – “Heart attack on a mountain walk in the company of his family, IIRC. Nothing mysterious about it at all.”
So the only witnesses were the people who stood to gain financially? Not mysterious at all really.
@ SMFS
Depends on how big his salary was and whether it had a 50% widow’s pension attached. I reckon they were better off financially while he was alive.