Scandinavian dream is not quite right (From York Press)

Scandinavian dream is not quite right

10:33am Wednesday 16th May 2012 in Letters

READING David Quarrie’s dream of leaving Europe and joining a right-wing alliance with the Scandinavians (Letters, May 9) left me at last with the perfect opportunity to use the expression LOL.

I mean it in its “laugh out loud” sense and not in the “lots of love” form preferred by David Cameron in his text messages to Rebecca Brooks.

For Mr Quarrie’s dream to be viable there would have to be governments in Scandinavia to have right-wing alliances with, surely?

All the governments of Scandinavian countries are coalitions of different parties. They all have a long history of leading on environmental and social issues. They lead the way on clean energy and tackling climate change. Even countries with a broadly centre-right government coalition, such as Sweden, are pro-European.

Norway, the one Scandinavian country not in the EU, is way ahead of most countries on the environment. In the wake of the mass murders conducted by Breivik last year, the nation firmly rejects any right-wing agenda.

Denmark has a left-wing government and Finland a coalition of all the parties.

So unless Mr Quarrie’s plan also includes ordering the Scandinavia nations to adopt the politics of his choice, his dream must remain a dream.

Christian Vassie, Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.