On The Path To Defeat

Today, the governing Social Democrats produced their manifesto for the September 17th general election.

It was their chance to set the agenda for the debate in the days and weeks ahead.

It's too early for a definitive judgment, but the initial one could only be that they blew it.

There was certainly the usual avalanche of different hand-outs and expensive promises. Massive new amounts are to be spent on making it somewhat better to be unemployed.

But the nearly universal reaction by commentators was that instead of spending resources on making it somewhat better to be unemployed, the focus should have been on creating the conditions for new jobs.

The Social Democrats seems to have lost the priviligie to formulate the agenda of the political debate.

That's normally just the beginning of even bigger losses ahead.

On the trends of today, they are heading for defeat.

But an election campaign is a long, changing and dramatic event.