Axel Fougner asks a good question in a comment to my post on how the Conservative's are abandoning their tax cut promise. In reply to a question about what particular expenses I thought we should make cuts in, I listed agricultural subsidies, sick pay, unemployment benefits and a few other things. Axel replies:

Bjorn in your reply to Gill Doyle your opinions match EXACTLY those of most conservatives (hoyre). In fact I dont think its a coincidence that you list the same "budget wishes" as the conservatives. You seem to be disapointed with the way they let us down about the tax cuts, we all are. However I am not so sure if that justifies supporting a party (progress) who may have changed a lot and become more "likeable" on the surface, but still consists mainly of people I dont think you wanna be associated with. Anyway, since you give excellent explanations and I am kind of questioning my affiliation with the conservatives as well, could you maybe explain what possible advantages voting for the progress party could bring, if you are really serious about this.

The Conservatives have some good people, and their principles are ok, but many decades of Labor dominance seem to have given them a social democratic frame of reference. This shows - for instance in their (apparent) willingness to abandon tax cuts in favor of welfare state maintenance. Their partnership with the centrist Christian People's Party is a factor, but it can't explain why the larger party in a coalition abandons its most important election promise for no good reason. Why should a genuine conservative party in a social democracy find it difficult to think of public expenses to make cuts in?

Both Labor and the Conservatives have radical elements (mostly in the youth parties), but at the end of the day they're caretakers of the same system. They're highly skilled caretakers, if that's what you want, there's no doubt about that, but what the Norwegian right needs is a genuine conservative/libertarian frame of reference, and an injection of fresh ideas, new thinking. The Progress Party provides both. On foreign policy they take inspiration from American conservatism, (which unlike the Norwegian kind is in good health), and their libertarian core principles give them a fundamental skepticism of taxation, welfare statism and the public sector that should be taken for granted by any party that claims to be an alternative to social democracy. We need a party that cries out whenever some politician thinks of a new tax, and the Conservatives isn't that party. They're more likely to invent new taxes to make up for an unexpected budget deficit. The Progress Party too seems to have adopted social democratic ideas, but when they do, at least they often do so in an original way. In any case I'm not concerned with the areas where the Progress Party are just like all other parties - I'm concerned with the areas where they're different.

I'm not sure what undesirable elements in the Progress Party Axel is referring to - Vidar Kleppe was kicked out years ago, and good riddance. (Though not a racist, he's certainly an idiot.) The charge of racism was always exaggerated, but now it's ridiculous, and I think it's telling that these charges have been toned down considerably in the last couple of years. (The accusations are now of poor taste and sensationalism.) This doesn't mean I approve of all its members - by its populist and oppositional nature it probably attracts more than its share of village idiots - only the ones I hear about.

We still don't know how power will change the Progress Party, whether they'll abandon their principles or perhaps screw things up by implementing their principles in a bad way, but at worst, I think the Progress Party will be useful as a provider of fresh right-wing thinking into our political mainstream. We've seen this often enough in the past - for instance, I believe we have the Progress Party to thank that our immigration debate is less immature than Sweden's. At best they may actually be our ticket away from social democracy, but I don't have very high expectations of this happening in the near future, (in fact I hope it doesn't - I want reform, not revolution. Too many people have been taught to depend on the state to remove that support all at once.) It's worth a try, at least.

I feel no particular allegiance to the Progress Party, and I may well end up voting for the Conservatives again one day, but I probably won't until they pick up two things from the Progress Party: Their foreign policy perspective, and their basic skepticism of government and taxation. (As a start, look to Denmark.) Norway needs a genuine right wing, not right-oriented social democrats.

I agree with you 100% Bjørn.

There are precious few "real" conservative and rightwing parties left in Western Europe. Most parties that call themselves "conservative" are in all reality just bleak and pathetic copies of Social Democrats.

The conservative party in Norway is a prime example of this. In reality, it's idea of conservatism is to at any given offer 95% of the welfare state the Labor Party proposes. It's both sickening and pathetic.

I see no other alternative for people on the right in Norway than the Progress Party.
Aside from its sometimes populist flair, it IS libertarian at its core. The party has been at the forefront of lowering taxes and fighting state monopolies for 30 years. Much more so than the anemic Conservative Party.

Besides that, the Progress Party is the lone voice of reason when it comes to foreign policy as well. Here, the party has shown that is is willing to take a principled stand against popular opinion, and that deserves respect.

The Progress Party is the only real choice for us on the right.

Takk for oppmerksomheten ;)

My question may have been a good one but Im actually just 16, without any real knowledge of politics, especially since Im kind of busy here on the other side of the world right now...

Anyway, I think that even though there is no denying that the conservatives have "strayed from the true path", one shouldnt forget the fact that they are in coalition with two other less conservatives parties, and the christians peoples party has found sly ways to strongly limit the amount of conservative legislation passed. I believe, as many other conservatives, that had we not been carrying the christian peoples party around like an iron ball in a chain so to say, we would have been able to pass new conservative legislation quicker and more effectively than now. Now however, the conservatives are stuck with the uneasy task of finding ways to fill the gaps in the budget due to all the additional welfare imposed by the christian peoples party, and I think its an unfair role that the conservatives should not have to play...

I may sound like a blind supporter of the conservatives now, but I am not, at least I hope Im not. It is just that the progress party is (and I disagree with Johan here) THE popular party of choice if you are one of those "village idiots" as Bjorn so elegantly put it, and though their foreign policy may be admirable now, we'll just have to wait and see what happens when a progress party government increasingly becomes a possibility. I think that then, they too will compromise...

GREETINGS FROM A JEWISH-AMERICAN FRIEND.MOST CONSERVATIVE PARTIES IN EUROPE LIKE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN THE USA,AS WELL AS THE LIKUD AND THE SO CALLED "RIGHT WING" PARTIES IN ISRAEL TALK "TOUGH" UNTIL THEY FORM A GOVERNMENT.SOMETIMES THEY ARE ACTUALLY MORE LEFT WING THEN THE "SOCIALIST,LIBERAL" PARTIES THEY REPLACED.PLEASE ADD MY NAME TO THIS LIST.

I have read this page with great interest. and would like to present some opinions on this issue.

Firstly that the conservatives have abandoned their promise to cut taxes. Through the 4 years they have been in government about 22 billion norwegian krowns have been given as tax cuts. The largest amount ever, regardless of what opinion your are of, this is a massive tax cut! The issue that one can argue is that too much of this taxcut has been given to businesses, hence leaving the average norwegian taxpayer feeling that the taxcuts for them are too small to make a difference.

A strict fiscal policy has always been a substantial part of the conservative platform, when they governed Norway in a world with severe economic problems due to the World Trade attacks and the SARS epedemic the growth in the economi slowed down and unemployment went up. This caused the fiscal situation to tighten and larger taxcuts were deemed politically impossible.

I must add that through these years the government has proposed several cuts in welfarespending, (medical subsidies, subsidies of mariners and streamlining many of the social securities, f.eg cutting the time one can be unemployed with unemployment pay from 3 down to 2 years. (agricultural subsidies have been cut too)

These are good conservative policies that have slimmed the welfarebudget, and created posibilities for taxcuts.

The progressparty seemed to be fairly popular here, can i remind you that they have eagerly abandoned a tight fiscal policy, stopped the government selling off publicly owned companys to the privat markets, ensured that the government invested money in projects like IT Fornebou! And they pushed throug large childcare subsidies when they forced the government to set a fixed rate for all kindergartens in Norway, mostly benefiting the wealthy that now get of by paying substantial lower amounts then they did before for childcare. All these are prime egsamples of the Progress party not following a liberal economic policy, but acting like a Social Democratic party!

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