Hej to members of the Scandinavian Politics mailing list,
Three items.
1. The cartoons-of-Mohammed crisis rolls bizarrely and depressingly on, with former Danish foreign minister, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, urging the editor of Jyllands-Posten to resign. Meanwhile, France's President Chirac today echoed the Swedish and British foreign secretaries in declaring that, while he naturally supports freedom of expression, publication of the pictures was "an 'overt provocation'" and that "any subject matter that could hurt other people's convictions should be avoided" (paraphrased on the BBC News website). The general message - that freedom of expression if great, as long as you don't exercise it - is of course a triumph of both logic and principal.
As well as my colleague Jacob Christensen's very informative blog (http://blog.jacobchristensen.name/), the online encyclopedia Wikipedia
(www.wikipedia.org) already has a comprehensive section on the saga.
2. I have scandalously neglected the recent Finnish presidential election. A good account in English is provided by Helsingin Sanomat:
www.hs.fi/english/article/Tarja+Halonen+elected+to+second+term+as+President+
after+close+race/1135218562413
3. Finally, Mary Hilson of University College London has kindly offered members of the list an exclusive preview of her summary of Nordic politics in 2005, which she's compiled for the Annual Register (a journal that, according to its website, "began publication in 1758...[and]...is now published by Longmans"). Mary writes that the Register's editor "has agreed that I can circulate this to the list, as long as it is made clear that this is appearing in the Annual Register and that it should not be quoted or cited without permission." It might well be useful for some on our mailing list. I attach the entry.
Best,
Nick.
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Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) | Department of Political Science, Umeå University | SE-901 87, Sweden | www.pol.umu.se
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