Good Bye Mr Blair

Well its finally all over and Tony Blair has stepped down as the UK Prime Minister and Gordon Brown has taken over.

Luckilly sitting here in Sweden I feel quite ambivolent to it all. I'm much more concerned about changes to the property tax laws the Swedish government is discussing and much less about whether Gordon Brown can fix the educated, health, welfare etc... problems of the UK.

Which is all very good and proper as this is my home now and I may never return to live in Britain again. So has Tony Blair been a good Prime Minister for the UK ? Was he a good Prime Minister for Sweden for that matter?

Tony Blair pulled off the almost impossible task of pulling the Labour party around and thrusting them into power 10 years ago by re-branding the party and ditching the old policies which the electorate had so many times said not thanks to. Britains certainly voted for 'New Labour' not the old labour party.

Fast forward to 2006 and this became the model for Fredrik Reindfeldt's New Moderata which also finally managed to overturn years of Social Democratic rule. The New Labour movement showed that it was never too late to change and adapt to the modern politics of the day and turn a tired old party into one which the people would actually believe in and vote for.

Maybe Sweden has also benefitted from the British Governments stance on Europe. With France, Germany and many of the other European countries rushing to take up the Euro, the British government stood out as the only major economic power to say, 'No, we want to control our own ecenomy'. If Britian had joined up I have no doubt that countries like Denmark would have followed suite and so too would Sweden as Swedes always vote with the Danes (you just have to watch the Eurovision Song Contest to see this).

The result would have been that Sweden would have been bogged down in the poor economic growth of the other Euro block countries (although I guess Finland has not done too badly).

Finnally Tony Blair played a strong role in securing peace in Notheren Ireland so we should all be hopeful he can work some magic in the Middle East in his new role as peace envoy (although it is an odd choice to appoint a peace envoy to a region where he has already invaded two of the countries and has been pushing the UN to impose greater sanctions on a third ????)

All change at the Bish

This evening I got the chance to drink in the newly refurbished Bishop's Arms pub. They have made some major changes to the bar, drinking and dining areas which are very new and flash but do take something away form the character of the place.

The Bish was always the one true 'English Pub' in Västerås (don't get me started on what is wrong with the Oliver Twist). It might not have the ale selection or quality of the Akkurat pub in Stockholm, but it did capture that intimate pub atmosphere you get in English pubs where you can sit amongst the other drinkers and feel that you are all part of the family. The term pub is an abbreviation for 'Public House' and the old Bish felt like a public house where everyone was welcome to come in and drink.

The new Bish by contrast has gone down the sad route of so many refurbished English city pubs in that the open friendly atmosphere has been replaced by smaller eating areas where you go to eat with a private group rather than sitting amongst a mass of other people. Also the bookshelves are such a goddamn cliche!!!

What is it that makes pub interior designers think they can throw in a load of old books and suddenly it creates a traditional 'old world' atmosphere. Take it from me, the shelves full of old books only serve to date a pub in that they prove it was refurbished in the last ten years or so.

Of course you should ALWAYS judge a pub by the beer and one very pleasant surprise for me this evening was the Bödeln Indian Pale Ale from Västerås's own Hantverksbryggeriet which was really excellent and my only gripe was that the glass was too small and it should really have been served in a pint measure.

I have been told that the beer is brewed by a group of researchers from Mälardalens Högskola, which just goes to show what happens when you take a group of academics and put them to work on something really useful for a change.

Were the dildos really necessary?

The English are well known for being a bit uptight about sex. Its all part of the culture of remaining in control and keeping things private, where the only things remaining stiff are the upper lips.

Being a modern bloke I'm much more relaxed about these things but even I was surprised to open up the local newspaper this weekend (VLT) to see a two page review of different dildos and sex aides. I guess the context for this was that it was the midsommar edition and the midsommar pole is basically a huge phallic symbol. I'm just not sure its what I want to see first thing in the morning while eating breakfast...

This does however reinforce the English stereotype of the Swedes as being more sexually open and promiscuous. I don't really see this stereotype now I live in Sweden but the problem is that in the UK the most well know Swedes as Svennis, a man who would do well to exercise the same kind of 'ball control' as his players, and Ulrika Jonsson, who is Britain's top Eurotramp. Ulrika was not only linked to Svennis, but also, and this puts her in a real class of her own, when called upon to host a UK version of the bachelor...slept with the bachelor.

The third most famous Swede in the UK is of course the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show and although he was never involved in any sex scandals was never the less regularly seen in his kitchen choking the chicken...

Midsommar

Midsommar is a good time to start a blog about life in Sweden as it is the biggest holiday in Sweden and has no parallel in England. The closest thing would be a May Day celebration or a harvest festival. Both exist to celebrate summer and the renual of life and both include dancing around a pole and merry making with your friends and neighbours.

The big difference though is that the whole thing is taken much more seriously here in Sweden. It really does feel bigger than Christmas. People begin talking about midsommar weeks before the event and everybody keeps asking each other, 'What are you doing for midsommar?. It's a time for families to meet up and enjoy the long sunlit day and be thankful that the winter is a distant memory and soon the summer holidays start.

Of course this all sort of falls apart if you don't have a family or if your family is in another country. Even my wife's parents are out the country at this time of year so we really have nobody but ourselves to make merry with. In previous years this has put a real downer on the day and it became just like any other long weekend (except all the shops were shut). I felt very left out and lonely seeing everyone enjoying themselves and socialising, like it was just one giant party and I hadn't been invited.

Things only changed when my son was born as I felt it was my duty to make sure he never felt left out of Swedish life, so now we go to the local midsommar celebration every year and join in the singing and the dancing. I realised it was all just a state of mind and all I needed to do to feel I belonged was to sit back and enjoy the atmosphere of people coming together and sharing a common experience.

Still, when I woke up to feed my daughter at 3.00am this morning, the rain was pounding against the window, but I could still here drunken laughter coming from the neighbourhood and maybe I've got it all wrong and that's the real spirit of midsommar.