FIREWORKS
One of the things that Danes go nuts about, along with flags and candles, is fireworks. Not every day, and certainly not on 5 November (when we moved into our house 9 years ago, I invited all of our neighbours to a Bonfire Night evening, an interesting exercise in cultural cross-pollination!). But whenever there is a national event, and always at midnight on New Year's Eve. There is a small hill up the road from where I live, and from there you can see the nearby town 3km away completely lit up for the first hour of the new year, as most of its inhabitants let off a succession of ever bigger/brighter/noisier fireworks. And on a clear night - which it was this year - you can look the other way over the bay and see the same thing happening 15km away. An airplane flying over the country at that time would think that a spontaneous revolution had broken out.
Like most things today, these fireworks are not made in Denmark, but in China (which has its own long tradition of such things). Unfortunately, Chinese fireworks are not always made in super-safe factory environments; equally unfortunately, they are not always imported into Denmark in scrupulously legal fashion, or stored properly.
This can cause problems, particularly in the build-up to New Year, when the majority of fireworks are used up. In November 2004, a fire started at a (legal) firework warehouse in Kolding when an employee dropped a load of rockets while he was unloading a 40-foot container from China. The fire service was called; but before they could put out the fire, the container exploded, killing one fireman and injuring seven others. The authorities withdrew and evacuated the area, letting the fire spread to the main warehouse, which then duly exploded. That explosion measured 2.2 on the Richter scale and flattened - literally - 12 businesses and 75 houses in the surrounding area. Total damage was estimated to be kr.750 million (more than US$100 million).
On Saturday it happened again, albeit on a more modest scale. In a village not far from Kolding, an explosion took place at an (illegal) firework warehouse in a disused barracks. A number of houses have been damaged, the village has been evacuated; at least two people have been killed.
When money is involved, people will always take risks. But to me, this is just daft. Fireworks are dangerous; Chinese fireworks are doubly so.
Walter Blotscher
Monday, 10 October 2011
Sunday, 9 October 2011
THE PERILS OF POLITICAL COMPROMISE
The new Danish Government is a classic compromise. Its core of the Social Democrats and Socialists had (respectively) bad and very bad elections, and the red block only won a tiny majority because the very left-wing Enhedslisten and the centrist Radikale Venstre had very good ones. As a result, the SD/S/RV Government programme is widely viewed as a Radikale Venstre blueprint. As one political commentator put it, Social Democrat Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt will have to pay a very high political price for being the first woman to get her hands on the top job.
A price that is already being paid. An opinion poll taken after the announcement of the Government programme on the opening day of the new Parliament showed that the red block has already lost its majority. Governments inevitably become unpopular over time, but to be unpopular before you have started is quite unusual. Not surprisingly, it is the Social Democrats and - especially - the Socialists who have lost ground. The latter lost 7 of their 23 seats in the election, so there are a lot of disgruntled ex-MP's and disappointed non-Ministers in the party, a feeling exacerbated by the Tax Ministry's being given to a 26-year old Socialist whippersnapper who failed to get elected as an MP. There are grumblings of unrest in the party, a feeling that it has accepted a Faustian bargain of power at the expense of its principles; true Socialists fed up with Social Democratic trimming and Radikale Venstre bossing will leave it for the politically pure Enhedslisten, a process which has already started.
All of which suggests a strong hand is required on the party tiller at this time. However, the Socialists' leader Villy Søvndal has made the same mistake as the Conservatives' Lene Espersen did in the last Parliament by taking the job of Foreign Minister in return for being the Coalition's junior partner. In quick succession, Ms. Espersen ruined her reputation for competence and lost the leadership of her party, which then had a truly terrible election. It would not surprise me if Mr. Søvndal and the Socialists suffered the same fate, and for the same reasons.
Walter Blotscher
The new Danish Government is a classic compromise. Its core of the Social Democrats and Socialists had (respectively) bad and very bad elections, and the red block only won a tiny majority because the very left-wing Enhedslisten and the centrist Radikale Venstre had very good ones. As a result, the SD/S/RV Government programme is widely viewed as a Radikale Venstre blueprint. As one political commentator put it, Social Democrat Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt will have to pay a very high political price for being the first woman to get her hands on the top job.
A price that is already being paid. An opinion poll taken after the announcement of the Government programme on the opening day of the new Parliament showed that the red block has already lost its majority. Governments inevitably become unpopular over time, but to be unpopular before you have started is quite unusual. Not surprisingly, it is the Social Democrats and - especially - the Socialists who have lost ground. The latter lost 7 of their 23 seats in the election, so there are a lot of disgruntled ex-MP's and disappointed non-Ministers in the party, a feeling exacerbated by the Tax Ministry's being given to a 26-year old Socialist whippersnapper who failed to get elected as an MP. There are grumblings of unrest in the party, a feeling that it has accepted a Faustian bargain of power at the expense of its principles; true Socialists fed up with Social Democratic trimming and Radikale Venstre bossing will leave it for the politically pure Enhedslisten, a process which has already started.
All of which suggests a strong hand is required on the party tiller at this time. However, the Socialists' leader Villy Søvndal has made the same mistake as the Conservatives' Lene Espersen did in the last Parliament by taking the job of Foreign Minister in return for being the Coalition's junior partner. In quick succession, Ms. Espersen ruined her reputation for competence and lost the leadership of her party, which then had a truly terrible election. It would not surprise me if Mr. Søvndal and the Socialists suffered the same fate, and for the same reasons.
Walter Blotscher
Saturday, 8 October 2011
MAKING JAM
All that fruit from the freezer has to be used for something. And I have enough crumble to last me a week at least. So the rest is going to be used for making jam. This is not something I have ever done before; but my mother-in-law knows how to do it, and has told me how. By tomorrow evening I should have ten jars of strawberry, raspberry and redcurrant mix.
Walter Blotscher
All that fruit from the freezer has to be used for something. And I have enough crumble to last me a week at least. So the rest is going to be used for making jam. This is not something I have ever done before; but my mother-in-law knows how to do it, and has told me how. By tomorrow evening I should have ten jars of strawberry, raspberry and redcurrant mix.
Walter Blotscher
Friday, 7 October 2011
WAGE COMPARISONS
One of the reasons for some people's advocating that Greece leave the Euro is that any new Greek currency would immediately depreciate. That in turn would reduce Greek wages (in Euro terms), something which is both currently impossible and absolutely necessary if Greece is to regain its economic competitiveness.
I am not so sure. I was in England last week, when the new rates for the minimum wage took effect on 1 October. They are £6.08 an hour for those over 21, £4.98 for those between 18 and 20 and £3.68 for those under 18. Translated into Danish kroner at a rate of 8.5, this gives roughly Dkr52, Dkr42 and Dkr32 respectively.
Seen with Danish eyes, those rates are terrible. My daughter is 17 and has a part-time job at the local bakery, exactly the sort of job that attracts the minimum wage. She gets paid about Dkr60 an hour (i.e. almost double the equivalent for someone of her age in the U.K.), plus extras if she works on Sundays or after 6pm. It's also almost 20% more than a 21-year old would get in the U.K. My son worked as an 18-year old as a lifeguard at the local swimming pool, and got quite a bit more than Dkr100 an hour.
So what, you may say? Wage rates don't take account of taxes and/or living costs, and so are a crude comparison. I accept that; though I would have to say that a part-time job in Denmark rarely generates enough income to become taxable, and living in rural Fünen must surely be cheaper than living in (say) London. My real point is that nobody is saying that Denmark should devalue the krone (which is tied to the Euro) against the pound, so that Danish wage levels equalise with Britain's.
In other words, things are a tad more complicated than the headlines suggest. We should remember that, the next time a politician suggests booting the Greeks out of the Euro.
Walter Blotscher
One of the reasons for some people's advocating that Greece leave the Euro is that any new Greek currency would immediately depreciate. That in turn would reduce Greek wages (in Euro terms), something which is both currently impossible and absolutely necessary if Greece is to regain its economic competitiveness.
I am not so sure. I was in England last week, when the new rates for the minimum wage took effect on 1 October. They are £6.08 an hour for those over 21, £4.98 for those between 18 and 20 and £3.68 for those under 18. Translated into Danish kroner at a rate of 8.5, this gives roughly Dkr52, Dkr42 and Dkr32 respectively.
Seen with Danish eyes, those rates are terrible. My daughter is 17 and has a part-time job at the local bakery, exactly the sort of job that attracts the minimum wage. She gets paid about Dkr60 an hour (i.e. almost double the equivalent for someone of her age in the U.K.), plus extras if she works on Sundays or after 6pm. It's also almost 20% more than a 21-year old would get in the U.K. My son worked as an 18-year old as a lifeguard at the local swimming pool, and got quite a bit more than Dkr100 an hour.
So what, you may say? Wage rates don't take account of taxes and/or living costs, and so are a crude comparison. I accept that; though I would have to say that a part-time job in Denmark rarely generates enough income to become taxable, and living in rural Fünen must surely be cheaper than living in (say) London. My real point is that nobody is saying that Denmark should devalue the krone (which is tied to the Euro) against the pound, so that Danish wage levels equalise with Britain's.
In other words, things are a tad more complicated than the headlines suggest. We should remember that, the next time a politician suggests booting the Greeks out of the Euro.
Walter Blotscher
Thursday, 6 October 2011
A GOOD AND BAD DAY
Do you ever have a good and bad day? Well, I had one today.
The bad bit came after I had moved things around in the barn in preparation for bashing out the concrete floor and putting in a new pipe connecting the storm drains on either side. The light on the freezer that has long sat in the barn was blinking furiously, and that was followed shortly afterwards by smoke coming out of the cooling unit, and then fire. It was a crappy old freezer, so that didn't upset me too much. What did was having to empty the thing. I now have a fridge stuffed full of vast quantities of formerly frozen fruit (there will be crumbles galore next week), the remains of last Christmas' turkey, lots of (ex-)frozen green beans (which I don't like very much), plus all the meat chunks that have sat in the freezer since my daughter went vegetarian. And at some point I have to get the freezer to the dump.
The good bit came when my mother-in-law dropped by shortly afterwards to help me plant my seven Hans Christian Andersen-variety rose plants that I bought this week. They will fill out the little circle that I have built for them in the middle of the new lawn that is part of the 2011 Project, and give a splash of red in the midst of an otherwise sea of green. My mother-in-law thought that the plants had terrific root systems, and that they will come up very nicely next spring (the probability of which was increased markedly by her planting them rather than me). Even better, I don't have to do anything to them during the winter, I just have to pull out any neighbouring weeds and wait.
The up and down day was completed when I went for a cycle ride at 5.30pm with two others in a howling gale. Going west directly into the wind, we were struggling at times to do 10km/h; on the way back, we were doing over 50km/h and cruising.
Walter Blotscher
Do you ever have a good and bad day? Well, I had one today.
The bad bit came after I had moved things around in the barn in preparation for bashing out the concrete floor and putting in a new pipe connecting the storm drains on either side. The light on the freezer that has long sat in the barn was blinking furiously, and that was followed shortly afterwards by smoke coming out of the cooling unit, and then fire. It was a crappy old freezer, so that didn't upset me too much. What did was having to empty the thing. I now have a fridge stuffed full of vast quantities of formerly frozen fruit (there will be crumbles galore next week), the remains of last Christmas' turkey, lots of (ex-)frozen green beans (which I don't like very much), plus all the meat chunks that have sat in the freezer since my daughter went vegetarian. And at some point I have to get the freezer to the dump.
The good bit came when my mother-in-law dropped by shortly afterwards to help me plant my seven Hans Christian Andersen-variety rose plants that I bought this week. They will fill out the little circle that I have built for them in the middle of the new lawn that is part of the 2011 Project, and give a splash of red in the midst of an otherwise sea of green. My mother-in-law thought that the plants had terrific root systems, and that they will come up very nicely next spring (the probability of which was increased markedly by her planting them rather than me). Even better, I don't have to do anything to them during the winter, I just have to pull out any neighbouring weeds and wait.
The up and down day was completed when I went for a cycle ride at 5.30pm with two others in a howling gale. Going west directly into the wind, we were struggling at times to do 10km/h; on the way back, we were doing over 50km/h and cruising.
Walter Blotscher
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
THE PREMIER LEAGUE AND E.U. LAW
Karen Murphy, the landlady of the Red, White and Blue pub in Portsmouth, has just done European football afficionados (of which there are many) a big favour. In 2006, she was fined for showing live Premier League matches accessed from a Greek service provider and using a decoder, which was cheaper than that available in the U.K., usually via Sky. Selling the rights to an exlusive provider in each country was one of the main ways in which the Premier League has massively increased the value of its brand (and one of the main ways in which Sky has come to dominate U.K. sports television).
Ms. Murphy appealed; and, since the case involved matters of E.U. law, it was referred to the European Court of Justice. On the specific point at issue, Ms. Murphy won hands down. The single market really is a single market, and suppliers can't ban consumers from accessing cheaper foreign suppliers by blocking their decoders. The ECJ comes in for a lot of stick at times, notably from the U.K., so it's worth noting this case. This was a victory for the little man (well, woman) and his pleasure against big businesses trying to restrict access to that pleasure; and will almost certainly result in a change in which the Premier League sells its television rights abroad.
However, not everything is clearcut. Although the sport itself can't be protected by copyright (which would otherwise have trumped the single market rules), the ECJ ruled that other parts of the broadcast, such as graphics, music and logos, can be. So if the Premier League choose to transmit live games with these things incorporated - as they will - you still need permission to show foreign broadcasts.
The case now comes back to the U.K. courts, who will have to disentangle the respect merits of the diametrically opposing rulings on access and content. Let's hope the judge in question is an Arsenal supporter, who likes to watch football in his local pub.
Walter Blotscher
Karen Murphy, the landlady of the Red, White and Blue pub in Portsmouth, has just done European football afficionados (of which there are many) a big favour. In 2006, she was fined for showing live Premier League matches accessed from a Greek service provider and using a decoder, which was cheaper than that available in the U.K., usually via Sky. Selling the rights to an exlusive provider in each country was one of the main ways in which the Premier League has massively increased the value of its brand (and one of the main ways in which Sky has come to dominate U.K. sports television).
Ms. Murphy appealed; and, since the case involved matters of E.U. law, it was referred to the European Court of Justice. On the specific point at issue, Ms. Murphy won hands down. The single market really is a single market, and suppliers can't ban consumers from accessing cheaper foreign suppliers by blocking their decoders. The ECJ comes in for a lot of stick at times, notably from the U.K., so it's worth noting this case. This was a victory for the little man (well, woman) and his pleasure against big businesses trying to restrict access to that pleasure; and will almost certainly result in a change in which the Premier League sells its television rights abroad.
However, not everything is clearcut. Although the sport itself can't be protected by copyright (which would otherwise have trumped the single market rules), the ECJ ruled that other parts of the broadcast, such as graphics, music and logos, can be. So if the Premier League choose to transmit live games with these things incorporated - as they will - you still need permission to show foreign broadcasts.
The case now comes back to the U.K. courts, who will have to disentangle the respect merits of the diametrically opposing rulings on access and content. Let's hope the judge in question is an Arsenal supporter, who likes to watch football in his local pub.
Walter Blotscher
Monday, 3 October 2011
THE DANISH GENERAL ELECTION (6)
The election may have been on 15 September, but it was not until today that Prime Minister-designate Helle Thorning-Schmidt could formally announce a 3-party Government made up of her Social Democrats, the Socialists to their left and the Radikale Venstre to their right. As I said would be the case, the negotiations between the parties were protracted and difficult, and required serious compromises. The Radikale Venstre's deal with the former Government to scale back efterløn was, by force of necessity, accepted; which in turn meant that the proposed "12-minutes extra" policy was dropped. The idea of extending the working week from 37 hours to 38 (hence 12 minutes extra a day) was the left's alternative to efterløn reform, but was always a fairly weedy policy, since it would only have come about if the unions and employers had wanted it (and that seemed, for different reasons, unlikely). The weakness of their flagship policy on the economy was - in my view - the main reason the Social Democrats had such a bad election, so I suspect that deep down, Ms. Thorning-Schmidt is quite relieved to be able to ditch it. In return, she gets approval for a stimulus package, a traditional Keynesian pump-prime of infrastructure spending.
After nearly three weeks stuck in a hotel thrashing out a plan for Government (running to 70+ pages), things almost got derailed at the last minute when it came to the doling out of Ministerial posts. Ms. Thorning-Schmidt's loyal lieutenant, Henrik Sass Larsen, withdrew from consideration after the intelligence services had cast doubt on his security clearance because of links to biker gangs. Since he had been widely tipped to be Finance Minister, this was quite a blow. As it was, the new team of 23 includes only two people who have held Ministerial office, and has two Ministers still in their twenties, covering the heavyweight portfolios of health and taxation. Apart from the country's first female Prime Minister, it also has the country's first Minister from an ethnic minority. A fresh team; but also an inexperienced one.
New Governments do things differently in Denmark from the U.K. A couple of the Cabinet, though having political links, are not M.P.s; and five Ministers arrived at the palace to be sworn in by the Queen on bicycles rather than limousines. The tradition is that the outgoing Minister then formally presents the new Minister to his/her department and they exchange gifts, all in the glare of the T.V. cameras. Having to say nice things to an opponent who has just ousted you must test one's emotions and political skills.
Finally, amid all the excitement and media attention of a switch in Government after 10 years, it must be remembered that it is a minority one, dependent on the very left-wing Enhedslisten to get its policies through Parliament. In a day of gushing commentary, they were conspicuous by their absence.
Walter Blotscher
The election may have been on 15 September, but it was not until today that Prime Minister-designate Helle Thorning-Schmidt could formally announce a 3-party Government made up of her Social Democrats, the Socialists to their left and the Radikale Venstre to their right. As I said would be the case, the negotiations between the parties were protracted and difficult, and required serious compromises. The Radikale Venstre's deal with the former Government to scale back efterløn was, by force of necessity, accepted; which in turn meant that the proposed "12-minutes extra" policy was dropped. The idea of extending the working week from 37 hours to 38 (hence 12 minutes extra a day) was the left's alternative to efterløn reform, but was always a fairly weedy policy, since it would only have come about if the unions and employers had wanted it (and that seemed, for different reasons, unlikely). The weakness of their flagship policy on the economy was - in my view - the main reason the Social Democrats had such a bad election, so I suspect that deep down, Ms. Thorning-Schmidt is quite relieved to be able to ditch it. In return, she gets approval for a stimulus package, a traditional Keynesian pump-prime of infrastructure spending.
After nearly three weeks stuck in a hotel thrashing out a plan for Government (running to 70+ pages), things almost got derailed at the last minute when it came to the doling out of Ministerial posts. Ms. Thorning-Schmidt's loyal lieutenant, Henrik Sass Larsen, withdrew from consideration after the intelligence services had cast doubt on his security clearance because of links to biker gangs. Since he had been widely tipped to be Finance Minister, this was quite a blow. As it was, the new team of 23 includes only two people who have held Ministerial office, and has two Ministers still in their twenties, covering the heavyweight portfolios of health and taxation. Apart from the country's first female Prime Minister, it also has the country's first Minister from an ethnic minority. A fresh team; but also an inexperienced one.
New Governments do things differently in Denmark from the U.K. A couple of the Cabinet, though having political links, are not M.P.s; and five Ministers arrived at the palace to be sworn in by the Queen on bicycles rather than limousines. The tradition is that the outgoing Minister then formally presents the new Minister to his/her department and they exchange gifts, all in the glare of the T.V. cameras. Having to say nice things to an opponent who has just ousted you must test one's emotions and political skills.
Finally, amid all the excitement and media attention of a switch in Government after 10 years, it must be remembered that it is a minority one, dependent on the very left-wing Enhedslisten to get its policies through Parliament. In a day of gushing commentary, they were conspicuous by their absence.
Walter Blotscher
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