Cold winds (but intention matters)

Yesterday, another opinion poll confirmed that the social democrats continue their downward slide while the Sweden Democrats are now at a frightening 18.5 per cent. Even if the social democrats have been busy triangulating their message to sound as repressive as possible on immigration, I take some reassurance in what my wise friend Ally said when we discussed whom to vote for in the autumn election while in Israel. At the end of the day, the Sweden Democrats say these things because they are genuinely racist, the social democrats say them because they think that is what the voters want to hear, and that is a quite a significant difference (even if it means playing with fire).

The 6th of June is the National Day of Sweden, a day which just adds to my distaste for parochialism and national chauvinism. There is nothing to be proud of here, only frustration that our progress to a shared and open world remains so painstakingly slow.