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Polly\’s Paradise

You know how Polly T keeps going on about how Sweden is so wonderful, the Nordics are the people we should be emulating?

The birthday party case takes state intervention to a new level. Before the beginning of lessons the boy had cheerfully threaded his way through the class handing out invitations. When the teacher spotted that two children had not received one he confiscated the invitations.

“One of the children had not invited my son to his own birthday party,” explained the father of the boy, who lodged an official complaint with the parliamentary ombudsman. “The other one had been bad to my son for six months. You do not invite your antagonists.”

That was not convincing enough for the headmaster or government deputies. “I believe the staff acted correctly, in a model way,” said Lars Hansson, of the Swedish Liberal party, one of the four ruling coalition partners in the country.

“It is their duty to reject any forms of insulting behaviour. To eliminate individual children from parties is not acceptable.”

Yup, they\’re so communitarian that the invite list to an 8 year old\’s birthday party is a matter for the State.

Somehow I just don\’t see that quite catching on here: perhaps, contrary to Polly\’s desires, we\’re just not a social democratic nation?

15 thoughts on “Polly\’s Paradise”

  1. “Somehow I just don’t see that quite catching on here”

    Tell that to Harriet Harperson. It’s just the kind of thing that she’d bring into law. Only it would be dressed up as a “right to dignity” or some such nonsense, with the police enforcing it (getting the kid to accept a caution, natch).

    Still, your original point still stands: this collective insanity represents the high-water mark for socialism in Britain. It won’t get any worse, and the pendulum is already swinging back.

  2. Oh, god, it appears to be true, and that article has even worse examples:

    “The Swedish pressure group Children’s Rights in Society publicised recently 1,895 complaints by children about the way their parents used the household computer to access pornographic websites or sex chatlines. The Government is now looking into the problem.”

    Yup, parents are being spied on and reported to the authorities by their children!

    Remind me (at risk of a Godwin)- which side were these people on in the Second World War…?

  3. I’m coming to the point of view that we ought to stop and be thankful for the existence of our tabloids (particularly the Sun and Mail). They are a bulwark against this sort of socialitarianism.

  4. “However, the parent(s) could have taught the birthday boy a valuable lesson had they delivered the invitations through the post rather than at school.”

    That lesson being – ‘Don’t trust anyone in authority – they might be informers’.

    Actually, that’s something I would teach my kids, if I lived in Sweden!

  5. It shouldn’t be a legal issue, and I disagree with the school policy here. However, the parent(s) could have taught the birthday boy a valuable lesson had they delivered the invitations through the post rather than at school.

  6. “Remind me (at risk of a Godwin)- which side were these people on in the Second World War…?”

    Mixed. Officially neutral, but collaborated. Swedes served in Waffen SS “Viking”. They also supplied Germany with vital iron ore and ball bearings. There were deportations to Germany of Norwegian resistance fighters and fleeing Jews.

    Sweden also had a eugenics programme until the mid-70s (mind you, eugenics was a very popular approach for dealing with the underclasses, with early adherents including Churchill and Keynes).

    The country is quite authoritarian. It yacks about human rights, but has just passed an eye popping spying law that taps all internet traffic in and out of the country. I suppose it’s all to be expected after decades of socialism.

  7. “You do realise that Sweden currently has a TORY government?”

    You don’t even know what the word “Tory” means. You are an idiot. Go away.

  8. Remind me (at risk of a Godwin)- which side were these people on in the Second World War…?

    I think that they can boast of being neither on Hitler’s side nor Stalin’s.

  9. “I think that they can boast of being neither on Hitler’s side nor Stalin’s.”

    I’m sure I read a slogan about that. Went something like “Neither Moscow nor Berlin, but National Socialism.”

  10. You should read the English language paper for Sweden – they really regulate especially heterosexual males.
    Though the Muslims seem unrestrained there.

  11. So Much For Subtlety

    Mark Wadsworth – “Damn. JuliaM beat me to it. I do have a valid excuse though.”

    Yes but did one of your children turn you in for it though?

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