Hej to all on the Scandinavian Politics list,
Two items.
1. PSA CONFERENCE 2007. It’s time once again for us to apply for panels at
the PSA’s annual conference (www.psa.ac.uk/2007), which next year will be
at the University of Bath on April 11th-13th.
The deadline for panel proposals is just a few weeks away, on September
30th, so send ideas for panels and individual papers to me as soon as you
can. We didn't manage to organise any panels last year, so let's make a
special effort this time. For those of you who haven't been to a PSA
conference before, I can say that the atmosphere is usually relaxed and
constructive, so no one should be apprehensive about presenting research,
even if the paper submitted is still work in progress. I could think of
presenting something along the lines of "Europe and party organisational
change", but it's very likely that we can accommodate papers with rather
different themes.
There will also be the chance for postgraduate students to receive a
modest subsidy for their travel costs and conference fees from our group's
funds. Anyone who's interested, or who can think or someone who might be
interested, should get in touch with me.
2. SWEDISH CAMPAIGN LATEST. As many will have heard, the hacking scandal
that blew up at the start of the week has definitely not fizzled out. The
chief hacker, the press secretary of the Liberals' youth wing, was
immediately sacked. But on Tuesday the national party's own press
secretary, who seems to have used information from the Social Democrats'
intranet to schedule Liberal policy initiatives, took a "time-out" (sic)
from her job after being questioned by the police. Then, just a few hours
later, the Liberal party secretary resigned, after he admitted knowing
about the intrusion way back in March. He'd apparently told the chief
hacker then that it had to stop. But he failed to make sure that it did
stop – and, worse, he lied on Monday about how much he'd known and when.
No one has yet suggested that the party leader, Lars Leijonborg, knew
anything about the instrusion until last Sunday. But he, too, failed to
come clean until Tuesday about how much the party secretary had known, and
Leijonborg's own position seemed thus to be crumbling. His questioning by
journalists on TV tonight, scheduled long ago, might be his last chance to
recover his standing.
Now, I wonder if the reaction to this political espionage has been
somewhat over the top. Everyone agrees that the Social Democrats' intranet
security was pathetically weak. But the hitherto embattled ruling party
has, of course, seized gleefully on the affair (and usually not as crassly
as the Social Democrats' own party secretary, who responded to Liberal
suggestions that they were overdoing their indignation by accusing
Leijonborg of acting "like a rapist who blames his victim"). The prime
minister, Göran Persson, has taken the opportunity to come over all grave
and statesmanlike. Certainly, although the scandal wasn't discussed, he
was in crushing form in last night's TV debate with Fredrik Reinfeldt, the
opposition Alliance's informal leader. Reinfeldt also gave a decent
account of himself. But there are already indications that Liberal support
will be hit hard by the scandal, and the Social Democrats clearly feel
that they now have every chance of retaining power.
Best,
Nick Aylott.
