Sweden is about to hold a referendum on whether to sign up for the suicide pact better known as the Euro. Current indications are, thankfully, that the ‘no’ side is going to prevail (although, interestingly – in a contrast with the British political scene – most opposition to the currency is found on the left), despite the fact that the campaign in favor of the EU’s single currency has been far, far better funded than that of their opponents. The occasional British euroskeptic has, however, been flying over to help the ‘no’ side, perfectly reasonable in the context of an open debate and perfectly logical in the context of a ‘union’ moving (however regrettably) towards permitting voting on the grounds of EU rather than national citizenship.

EU enthusiasts are never comfortable with awkward democratic phenomena such as dissent and, as this story from the Observer reveals, their Swedish rank and file is no exception. The wild comments about foreign ‘loonies’ from former Prime Minister Carl Bildt (he’s a once promising politician who managed to blow Sweden’s best chance at sustainable center-right government, and has long since retreated from electoral combat to a more ‘respectable’ role in Europe’s international establishment) are typical of a side that knows it has lost the intellectual argument.