Happy Danes
King Canute would be jumping in his mortuary chest in Winchester cathedral at today's news that Denmark is the happiest country in Europe. He oversaw a Danish realm which incorporated England, Norway, south Sweden and parts of Finland. It went downhill after his reign and later sided with Napoleon which resulted in its losing Norway and Helgoland and this loss of land and nerve arguably resulted in its neutrality in both World Wars. This was not such a smart move, however, as it was occupied by the Germans from 1940-45. Nowadays its population is only 5m and what makes them happy is a 37 hour working week, one year's maternity/paternity leave, nearly half of which is at full pay and subsidised childcare. They also refused the Euro. The survey's result seems to answer the most famous Danish question:"To be or not to be?"
posted by Whispering Walls at 1:44 pm
5 Comments:
Winchester...I have a cunning plan..
You, King Lear and I take over the Monarchy. We revert to the situation some years ago where 3 princes looked after Great Britain. You would look after the Southern Half of England.
King Lear would look after the North of England and Scotland. I would look after Wales with its original border, to sweep in Bath, Cheltenham, Worcester, Lichfield and Chester. [I might be able to deal with you on Bath if you play your cards right].
We then secede from the EU, and join a much smaller Community of Nations to scoop up Norway, Sweden and whoever we thought was lovely enough to join. They could even have the pound if they wanted it.
Although it might take a while to persuade King Lear of the benefits of higher taxation..
It's a deal
Ah, yes, but look what a small country of 5 million could do if it only had it's own oil......er...
They also have Greenland, if you like wide open spaces.
They eat herring at Christmas.
And they have the oldest monarchy in the world.
I knew I should have gone north instead!
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