World Forums

Marko:

But you said BT have earned their dominant position, and that is just plain and simply not true. They were granted their dominant position by the government which retained ownership interest in the company until 1993. Since market liberalisation, BT have maintained the dominant position that they inherited, not earned one.

Vertical integration is a severe restraint on competition, because it creates a very high barrier of entry. That is why all former telecoms monopolists in Europe have been broken up.

Leo:

See how it works... State-run post office is OK with European socialists, it's not a monopoly, but the allegedly dominant telecom is

First, show me where I have said anything that can be interpreted as support of post-office monopolies.

Second, liberalisation of the EU post market is well under way. Parcel distribution has been liberalised already, and full liberalisation is scheduled to take effect in 2007.

Boye, sorry I just noticed you're number 14 on that list of Liberal party candidates for the Norwegian election. Congrats for that.

What does that mean exactly? You will contest a seat? I don't know how the Norwegian system works, neither am I actively involved in any political party so I've never seen the selection process by various parties in action, so to speak.

Thanks.

Well, yes, I'm contesting a seat, but I don't really have a realistic chance since I'm nominated as number 14 in a 16-seat constituency for a party that will do well to win two seats.

For me to win a seat I must get a personal vote from around 50% of the Liberal party voters to override the party's nomination priority, or the Liberal party will have to get at least 80% of the total votes in my constituency. But it's only my first election, so I see this primarily as a great learning opportunity.

Thanks, Boye for explaining. I can see it would be difficult for you to get a seat, but I imagine you'd move up that list in future elections with experience.

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for. Since taking over as leader of my constituency's Young Liberals branch last autumn, I've really learnt a lot and met a lot of people. Being part of the head team for the upcoming election campaign in this constituency will be a great experience, even if winning a seat for me personally seems unlikely to say the least. I've been involved a bit with the local media, but of course media interest will increase manifold in the weeks before the election and that could be an interesting challenge. It's also been fun to get to know top level politicians, including government ministers, on a more personal level - and knowing that I can just give them a call or drop an e-mail if I have something to comment on or complain about.

Boye

Good luck. I hope some 50 years from now, in some old folks' home I will be telling stories of how I knew a "young Boye" :)

Hehe, if you do that, I may even pop by that old folks' home on my state visit to the USA.

Nationalism rears its ugly head

17th of May is Norway's national day and, of course, a day of nationalism. This is for the most part positive nationalism, that is, pride in one's own country without fear or hate of other countries or nationalities. 17th of May is also a celebration of democracy, as it is celebrated in memory of the signing of the 1814 Constitution which was inspired by the French and American revolutions in the late 18th century.

However, this year, the celebrations in Oslo will have an ugly feel to them after the Oslo government decreed that the Sami flag be banned from the parade. The Sami flag, the flag of the native population of the northern parts of Norway which were colonised in the 16th century onwards, is an official flag of Norway equal to the Norwegian flag with the white and blue cross on a red background. The national government has protested the decision, but cannot overrule it.

Interestingly, the Conservative party sits in both the national and Oslo governments, but its Oslo coalition government is with the far-right "Progress" Party which has stood firm on the slogan "One country, one people, one flag". Still, this is more than a party-political issue. Even the Oslo Labour Party and the Oslo Christian Democrats sided with the city government. Elsewhere in the country, the same parties favour no restrictions on what flags can be used, whether they be official Norwegian flags or completely foreign. In border towns, it is not uncommon to see Swedish flags on official flag masts and in the parades.

Alas, in Oslo, ugly nationalism reigns. Therefore, I bought a Sami flag today and will carry it in the national day parade. Flag makers report record sales of Sami flags, so it could be a memorable manifestation for a minority that only as recently as the 1970s were allowed an education in their own language.

Boye

Are the Sami of Northern Norway the same people as Saami of Northern Finland and parts of Northern Karelia?

Yes. The Sami people originally came from beyond the Ural mountains and settled in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland, and north-western Russia (Karelia and northwards) before anyone else.

Today, no county in Norway has a larger number of residents of Sami origin than Oslo. That has made this case about Sami flags in the 17th May celebrations even more significant. The Sami flag has been allowed previously, but since the decision by the city government to outlaw it, flag makers are reporting record sales, and they have sold far more Sami flags than there are Sami people in Oslo. That sends a strong signal of solidarity with the Samis and a strong signal against discrimination. Overtures of "one country, one people, one flag" - and you're almost waiting for the "one führer" at the end of that slogan - belong to the past. Here's hoping the national day celebrations in Oslo will be a celebration of democracy and egalitarianism, rather than the ugly nationalism that the city government seeks to promote. I just hope people will not forget this day when it's time to go to the polls again in 2007.

A group of soldiers in the Norwegian KFOR forces have released a video where they make a mockery of their operations in Kosovo and how they're going to bomb "Serbian bad guys" to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Kokomo"...

Unsurprisingly, the Norwegian Army has condemned the video and launched an investigation.

You can see the video here: http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks ... 040097.ece

LOL Not bad at all. Perhaps it should be Norway's entry to the Eurovision this year?

The "camp" undertones (some parts of the video looked a bit gay) would render it even more suitable to the spirit of Eurovision.

I hope some 50 years from now, in some old folks' home I will be telling stories of how I knew a "young Boye"

Marko,

I'm ahead of you my good man. Boye has already promised me a ticket when he becomes EU president.

Happy Norway Day

Forza Samis

Thanks. I'm just popping by this morning to wave the flag on the 191st anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.

BTW, Marko, yeah they do look a bit gay, especially during that water fight. They don't represent Norway at Eurovision, but trust me, the ones we sent are very much in line with the spirit of Eurovision, except their song which is a bit untraditional, to say the least, by ESC standards. You'll see what I mean come Saturday.

Wig Wam qualifies for final



Norway's ESC hopes qualified for the final today, and are being hailed as one of the favourites to win the contest, along with Greece and Romania. Personally, I think Moldova will be a tough challenge as well.

Running order for Saturday's final:

1. Hungary
2. UK
3. Malta
4. Romania
5. Norway
6. Turkey
7. Moldova
8. Albania
9. Cyprus
10. Spain
11. Israel
12. Serbia & Montenegro
13. Denmark
14. Sweden
15. FYR Macedonia
16. Ukraine
17. Germany
18. Croatia
19. Greece
20. Russia
21. Bosnia & Herzegovina
22. Switzerland
23. Latvia
24. France

How is it possible to celebrate one constitution and then, without as much as catching a breath, campaigning on behalf of another constituion that will render the former obsolete? Those Europeans@LOL

How about a ESC Prediction Tournament? Ah, no, wait a minute, it's too late for that... :P

Leo:

How is it possible to celebrate one constitution and then, without as much as catching a breath, campaigning on behalf of another constituion that will render the former obsolete?

Does the US Constitution render the California Constitution obsolete?

As for the 17th May celebrations, they are a celebration of the liberal ideas from the French and American revolutions on which the 1814 Constitution were based and not a celebration of the document per se. The Constitution was one of the most liberal constitutions in the world back then, and it instituted a separate Norwegian parliament which was the beginning of democracy in Norway. However, thankfully the Constitution has been amended many times since 1814. By today's standards the original 1814 Constitution would be very authoritarian.

Felix K:

It's not too late. The final is tomorrow.

Here's my top 5:

1. Moldova
2. Norway
3. Romania
4. Greece
5. Switzerland

Boye,

I don't know squat about this year's ESC competition except that the song that starts for Germany is extremely boring, and that a top 15 finish for Germany would be a major surprise this year.

Anyway, here's my unqualified prediction: Norway will score many points from their Scandinavian neighbors, while the points from Eastern Europe will be equally shared between Romania and Greece. As a result, Norway will win by a narow margin, with Greece second and Romania third.

"By today's standards the original 1814 Constitution would be very authoritarian."

You haven't seen authoritarian yet, but you will soon:)

United States vs California? The comparison is lame, preposterous and funny at the same time.

It is also very telling, in a sense how little intellectual honesty Europhiles have about consequences of their grand project, which only politically blind can overlook.

Felix:

You're forgetting about Moldova. They will get top points from the ex-Soviet bloc, plus good points across the board.

Leo:

No, what's lame, preposterous and funny at the same time is the assumption that an international treaty combining five different treaties into a single Constitutional Treaty somehow renders national constitutions obsolete.

Boye:

what happens in case a national constitution somehow contradicts the EU constitution? Will the latter overrule the former or not? And which court will decide such matters? The EU Court or the national constitutional court? I'm not sure if this matter is settled as of yet, and even in case the EU understands that the EU Court will always have the final say, you can bet that not all national constitutional courts will agree.

Felix:

Judicially, the national constitution is the supreme law, and a treaty cannot be entered into if it violates the national constitution. If a constitutional court (or supreme court or whatever) declares a treaty to be unconstitutional, then the national constitution must be amended before the treaty can be ratified. Thus, a declaration of incompatibility has to be made prior to ratification, and subsequently a constitutional amendment has to be made in order for ratification to legally proceed. Ireland last amended its constitution when it ratified the Treaty of Nice.
The German Constitutional Court heard a case about the compatibility of the Treaty of Maastricht with the German Constitution back in 1993, and declared that the Treaty was compatible.

But once an EU treaty has been ratified and entered into force, it is above national law, and the relevant court for deciding any dispute is the European Court of Justice. This principle was established through a series of landmark rulings starting in 1963 on an issue of conflict between Dutch law and the Treaty of Rome's provisions for free movement of goods. The ECJ basically declared that the Netherlands could not enforce its own laws when to do so would be in breach of a Treaty article. The supremacy of EU law has been accepted, if not explicitly then implicitly, by both common law and civil law countries. The reasoning of the British House of Lords, for example, was that the supremacy of EU law is compatible with British parliamentary traditions on the basis that the ultimate decision to withdraw from the EU, and thus also EU law, rests with the British Parliament.

None of this changes with the "Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe" which is the formal name of the treaty which merges five treaties with amendments into one single document.

This week is the last week of the election campaign in Norway. The Liberal Party are gaining in the polls, and the support is now at just below the 4% mark, which is the threshold for proportional representation (which means 6-7 seats). Local polls also suggest that we could win direct representation from three constituencies, including Akershus which is where I'm doing most of my campaigning (5.3% in the latest poll). Below is a national poll from TV2, which gives the Liberal Party 3.9%:



RV - Red Electoral Alliance (communists)
SV - Socialist Left Party
AP - Labour Party
SP - Centre Party (agrarian, socialist)
V - Liberal Party
Krf - Christian People's Party
H - Conservative Party
Frp - Progress Party
Andre - Other parties

Coalitions:
SV+AP+SP (with tentative support from RV)
V+KrF+H (with tentative support from Frp)

Latest poll:

Today is election day. We've been gaining in the recent polls, but it's so close the only thing we know for sure is it's going to be a cliffhanger.





Kp = Coastal Party (regional northern party)