THE average Brit’s perception of Sweden is a liberal paradise where everyone looks like a Nordic supermodel, lives in modern, Ikea-styled homes and leads a harmonious “hygge” existence of cosy togetherness.
Yet it has just taken a dramatic swing to the right amidst voter concerns over immigration.
New Swedish PM, Ulf Kristersson, is presiding over a coalition that involves three centre-right parties and the support (in return for “extensive influence” over policy) of the Sweden Democrats — a far-right party that was once treated as a political pariah, but has just taken 20.5 per cent of the national vote.
For two decades, Sweden has been generous in accepting non-European refugees and housing them in large urban areas just outside major cities.
But, as The Times reported at the weekend, this well-meaning gesture has resulted in feelings of segregation, undeniable poverty, the growth of violence between drug gangs and, consequently, increased concern from voters about how immigration is being managed.
So now, even the establishment parties are now talking about freezing asylum numbers at the bare minimum allowed under EU law, deportations and making access to benefits based on learning to speak Swedish and signing up to the country’s shared “common values”.
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“Immigration to Sweden has been unsustainable,” says Kristersson citing poor integration, unemployment, and insecurity while announcing a “paradigm shift” on immigration policy.
Meanwhile, over in Italy, Giorgia Meloni is settling in as the country’s first female Prime Minister, presiding over the most right-wing government since the Second World War.
Trying to fix the country’s woeful economic problems will be her first job, but it’s no secret that she feels Italy’s migration policy has been overly lenient and risks turning the country in to what she calls “the refugee camp of Europe”.
As a taster of what might be to come, she said last month: “The smart approach is, ‘You come to my house according to my rules’.”
Now Rishi Sunak has the top job, all of the above should be at the forefront of his mind as he starts the journey that, he hopes, might lead the British public to actually vote for him at the next general election.
And his re-appointment of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary is a good start given her tenacity and understanding that something has to change.
Since 2018, the number of migrants crossing the channel in small boats has now surpassed 75,000 — equivalent to the population of Harrogate and East Kilbride.
This isn’t about women, children and desperate refugees fleeing persecution.
We have always been, and should remain, a welcoming haven to those in genuine need.
And to that end, we should continue our talks with France to set up efficient processing centres that, once checked, allow people to enter here legally and, most importantly, safely without having to board the flimsy dinghies operated by illegal traffickers.
No, the issue is economic migrants — primarily young men — who find cash-in-hand work and send the money home while rarely investing in a local community or, as highlighted in numerous articles, arrive here and join drug gangs either willingly or otherwise.
Our new PM has to sort out the economy and make some difficult but necessary decisions over public spending, but equally he shouldn’t under-estimate (or worse, dismiss) the electorate’s ongoing concerns over uncontrolled immigration.
He ignores it at his peril, as the fate of Sweden and Italy proves.
FOUR Just Stop Oil activists at the weekend glued their feet to the Abbey Road zebra crossing made famous by The Beatles.
Wearing hi-vis jackets, they arrived at 1pm and weren’t removed by police until 2.40pm – meaning 100 minutes of inconvenience for the motorists who, reportedly, “were unable to pass”.
But the photo shows that, with a little creative thinking by the police, cars could have been directed to drive slowly around the obstruction via the wide pavements while pedestrians could use the blocked road.
Thereby leaving the not very awesome foursome to stew in their own glue until a) they needed the loo or b) felt hungry.
This tactic worked in Germany when activists glued themselves to the floor of a car showroom and staff simply switched off the heating and left them there overnight.
After grumbling about lack of food, no bowl being provided to urinate or defecate in, and another leaving for medical treatment because his glued hand became swollen, the protest was a damp squib.
So the next time a group of entitled twerps throw soup, potato or whatever over a painting and glue themselves to the wall, why not just leave them there, rope them off as an exhibit under the guise of “performance art” and let the rest of us watch while they rapidly unravel?
COMEDIAN Jack Dee has been reminiscing about his pre-fame days as a waiter.
“People would come in and say, ‘Can we have the grumpy waiter for our stag do because he was hilarious last time, he was so rude to everyone’,” he recalls.
He confesses to putting extra hot water in the finger bowl “for someone who snapped their fingers at me” so he scorched himself.
All of this resonates, for I was once the world’s grumpiest barmaid.
In the Eighties, I worked at a pub in South London frequented by braying yuppies and if I didn’t like their tone when ordering, I would simply wander off and serve someone else.
When they eventually demanded to know where their drink was, I would reply: “As you didn’t bother to ask nicely, I served someone with manners instead.”
Luckily, the landlord found my transparent unsuitability for the job a source of great amusement and refused to fire me.
LIZ TRUSS shook hands with the Queen just two days before she died, announced the sad news to the nation outside Downing Street, gave a reading at the funeral and was photographed shaking the hand of our new monarch, King Charles, all in the space of a couple of weeks.
In other words, straight after taking office she was parachuted in to a level of global visibility that most world leaders can only dream of.
And yet still she mucked it up.
It beggars belief.
ANOTHER major headache our new PM needs to address – and fast – is the number of people dying unnecessarily from cancer because of the NHS failures to tackle the disease.
Doctors missed 100 cases every day in 2020 because of lockdown, and now the average person waits 55 days for treatment, making the UK one of the worst countries in Europe in which to contract cancer.
But it is the human stories, rather than statistics, that hammer home the harsh reality faced by those desperate for treatment.
Like Lizzi England from Daventry, for example, who was 29 and pregnant with her third child in 2019 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She had a mastectomy before giving birth, underwent chemo and several rounds of radio-therapy and, last year, was told her cancer has spread and is now incurable.
But obviously, she wants to stay alive for as long as possible for the sake of her children.
Last week, she posted: “I’ve been chasing the progress of receiving my new treatment today as I haven’t heard anything.
“I had my scan on August 19 where it confirmed my cancer was growing.
“I’m two months from that point! . . . why is there no f***ing urgency.”
Why indeed. Breast cancer alone kills 31 people a day. That’s one every 45 minutes.
Whether treatment is curative or palliative, every patient deserves a sense of urgency.
AFTER Kim Kardashian’s grandmother “MJ” advocated the pleasures of having sex in front of a roaring fire, the reality star reveals she tried it out with former lover Pete Davidson.
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“We had sex in front of the fireplace in honour of you,” she tells 88-year-old Mary Jo.
As a piece of grandmotherly advice, it makes a change from passing on recipes I suppose.
