https://feeds.thelocal.com/ Read the latest news and views from Sweden in English en-us news@thelocal.com (TheLocal) webmaster@thelocal.com (TheLocal) TheLocal RSS Feed Foreigners reading Swedish newspapers – including The Local – are often surprised by the way crime is reported here. In particular, the Swedish convention of almost never naming suspects is something that we, as British and American journalists based in Sweden, constantly grapple with. https://www.thelocal.se/20060622/4150 Thu, 22 Jun 2006 21:36:00 +0200 4150 You might be able to judge a person by the company he keeps, but can you do the same for a political party? It is looking increasingly likely that any government led by the Social Democrats will also include the Left Party in a formal coalition. Is this the issue that could prove the undoing of Göran Persson? https://www.thelocal.se/20060120/2898-2 Fri, 20 Jan 2006 13:20:00 +0100 2898-2 "You can only predict things after they have happened," said Romanian-French playwright Eugen Ionescu. https://www.thelocal.se/20060106/2808-2 Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:49:00 +0100 2808-2 One of the reasons that Sweden is such a great place to live is that it feels like an oasis of calm in a crazy world. Here, we can stand on our pedestal and tut-tut at the anti-terror measures of other countries. But sometimes you have to ask whether Swedes are kidding themselves that Sweden is immune from the dangers of international terrorism. https://www.thelocal.se/20051215/2689-2 Thu, 15 Dec 2005 12:59:00 +0100 2689-2 When the Catastrophe Commission says that Prime Minister Göran Persson is “ultimately responsible” for the failures in Sweden’s response to last year’s Asian tsunami, these are not empty words. For while many people were shown to have failed, the most conspicuous failure of all was the failure of leadership at the very top. https://www.thelocal.se/20051202/2613-2 Fri, 02 Dec 2005 13:57:00 +0100 2613-2 Systembolaget has been trying to persuade the EU this week that an alcohol retail monopoly is the only way to protect Swedish public health. But the result of the advertising campaign has only been to strengthen the impression that Systembolaget – and Sweden’s draconian alcohol regulations – are in their death throes. https://www.thelocal.se/20051125/2572-2 Fri, 25 Nov 2005 15:32:00 +0100 2572-2 Driving a car into central Stockholm is about to get expensive, and people aren’t happy. Polls show that the majority of voters are against the trial of congestion charging that starts in January, but there is surely a case for encouraging people to use their cars less. Question is – why single out Stockholmers? https://www.thelocal.se/20051118/2521-2 Fri, 18 Nov 2005 16:00:00 +0100 2521-2 The sight of young people of immigrant backgrounds rioting in the suburbs of French cities has had repercussions across Europe. In Sweden, people have been looking again at the segregation of Stockholm and Malmö and asking ‘could it happen here’? https://www.thelocal.se/20051111/2478-2 Fri, 11 Nov 2005 14:46:00 +0100 2478-2 Swedish genealogists have taken a beating this week, after they were told that disclosing the ethnic origins of their ancestors was against the law - unless they had got the OK from all living descendants of that ancestor. https://www.thelocal.se/20051104/2423-2 Fri, 04 Nov 2005 13:07:00 +0100 2423-2 The Church of Sweden’s decision this week to bless to gay partnerships has overshadowed a potentially more interesting debate: the government’s proposals to sack civil registrars who refuse to carry out gay ‘marriages’. It has been met by protests from some councils, who worry about registrars resigning. But minor officials quitting is a small price to pay for guaranteeing that the state gives equal rights to all its citizens. https://www.thelocal.se/20051028/2384-2 Fri, 28 Oct 2005 16:24:00 +0200 2384-2 Finally a dose of common sense from Sweden’s unions. The bosses of four of Sweden’s leading trade unions have said that there should be tax breaks for domestic help. Are we finally on the way to dropping the inverted snobbery that has polluted this question for so long? https://www.thelocal.se/20051021/2344-2 Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:06:00 +0200 2344-2 At the latest count, voters at the next Swedish election will have a choice between at least ten political parties. https://www.thelocal.se/20051014/2293-2 Fri, 14 Oct 2005 15:40:00 +0200 2293-2 The revival this week of the controversy over the Vaxholm blockade pits the Swedish government against the European Commission. But it also raises the question of whether it is proper for a government to be sponsored by a special interest group – the union movement. https://www.thelocal.se/20051007/2241-2 Fri, 07 Oct 2005 19:29:00 +0200 2241-2 One of the most vexing things for a foreigner moving to a large Swedish city – and particularly to Stockholm – is finding somewhere to live. https://www.thelocal.se/20050930/2192-2 Fri, 30 Sep 2005 13:25:00 +0200 2192-2 We live in an age when spontaneity has been almost completely airbrushed out of politics by the regiments of deadly dull, media-trained politicians paraded in front of our television screens. https://www.thelocal.se/20050923/2145-3 Fri, 23 Sep 2005 19:36:00 +0200 2145-3 Equality is a Good Thing, and it’s splendid that these days all politicians have to be seen bending over backwards to help women to combine career and children, to see to it that gay people can get married, to fight racism. https://www.thelocal.se/20050916/2105-3 Fri, 16 Sep 2005 20:27:00 +0200 2105-3 If you’re planning to be in Sweden for the next year, I hope you’ve got a good supply of wet towels and smelling salts. It’s going to be tough. https://www.thelocal.se/20050909/2057-4 Fri, 09 Sep 2005 14:03:00 +0200 2057-4 Sweden is nothing if not a mild, peaceable kind of country. So when an American baptist preacher, who appears never to have visited Scandinavia, decides that Sweden is a land of sodomy, bestiality and incest, it sits pretty strangely. https://www.thelocal.se/20050901/2006-5 Thu, 01 Sep 2005 22:44:00 +0200 2006-5