Les politiciens britanniques ont un coup de foudre pour la Suède mais l’essentiel leur échappe. (C’est vrai aussi pour les Québécois)
Nothing repels Swedish voters like aggressive politicians. Given Sweden’s history of coalition governments—including the current one, led by Fredrik Reinfeldt, leader of the centrist Moderate Party—they are also practised collaborators. Over the past two decades governments led by the leftist Social Democrats or the Moderates have introduced—with cross-party support—reforms to Swedish education, health care, pensions and tax. These have made a rich and well-run country even more so: on any ranking of national wealth, health and happiness Sweden comes close to the top.
These British Swede fanciers, from both left and right, mostly see only what they want to. The Tories revere Sweden’s success in cutting taxes (albeit from throttlingly high rates). Yet they underestimate the importance of the equality that is a precondition for Sweden’s reforms, (..) Labour slavers over the excellence of Sweden’s public services. Yet it pays too little heed, Mr Borg suggests, to the fiscal discipline that all Sweden’s main parties preach. “If you want to run a big welfare state you need to run surpluses in good times,” he says. “That was a huge difference between the Swedish Social Democrats and the Labour Party. Ours were far more prudent in terms of fiscal policy.”
To cope, British politicians will need to pick up more than the odd snazzy policy from Sweden’s governmental smorgasbord. They must learn the Swedish habit of collaboration, and the spirit of pragmatism that informs it. Only then will they regain public trust, which they have lost entirely, and Swedish politicians have in abundance. In a time of political change, British politicians need to shout less and become, like their Swedish counterparts, more co-operative, more efficient and a little bit more boring.