How the nordic nations are inspiring Britain

“Everything is ­comfortable, everybody is taken care of, everything works,” he says. “That’s opposed to here in London where ­everything is quite uncomfortable. Healthcare standards are not great, for instance, and public transport struggles. You only need a bit of snow or too much heat and they shut down. It’s frustrating.” Persson is not alone in this view. After all Nordic countries regularly top lists of the best places to live in the world – and what’s not to like? “When most people think of Scandinavia, they think about blondes and about having fun,” says Fraser ­Nelson, the editor of The Spectator magazine who writes frequently about ­Sweden. “Most of the associations are positive. Sex, Swedish women and social ­liberation. Some of the associations might be myths but that’s the reputation. There’s an idea over here that if it’s Swedish it must be good.” Now, it seems, it is an opinion that our coalition Government shares – for perhaps slightly different reasons. Where once it was the Left that looked to Scandinavian countries such as Finland, Denmark, Norway as well as Sweden for inspiration, principally because of their high tax rates and public spending, now it is David ­Cameron who is extolling the virtues of our Nordic cousins.

This week the PM is hosting nine Nordic and Baltic leaders for a two-day London summit, a “free-thinking exchange of ideas” where sustainable growth, innovation, equality and well-being will be discussed. The idea was born last November when Swedish leader Fredrik Reinfeldt came to visit Cameron. By all counts the two ­leaders are quite close: Cameron invited Reinfeldt to his home when he was in opposition and he and his Swedish counterpart communicate regularly by text message. There is much that ­Cameron could be influenced by. “For a start, when Reinfeldt came to visit Cameron in November, the Prime Minister was stunned to see that he had an all-female entourage of eight Swedish women,” says Nelson. “Now that wouldn’t happen here.” No doubt that was a result of the Scandinavian promotion of women – but perhaps the best example of the ­Nordic influence in action over here is Education Secretary Michael Gove’s plans for Swedish-style “free schools” which would involve parents and teachers running their own schools independent of state control but still funded by the taxpayer.

“The education system in Sweden is great,” says Nelson. “No one there talks about needing to go private but what the Government here loves is the fact that the Scandinavians let markets run the health service and the education service. Yes, the Scandinavian model is to take loads of money away from the people in tax – and their tax rates are far higher than ours – but rather than try to organise their schools and hospitals themselves, they’re happy to allow people to do it on contract. “Anyone could set up a school in Sweden if they wanted to and the government would pay you to do it. Why the Tories like Sweden is because they can do what they’ve always wanted to do – privatise – but rather than say ‘we’re going to privatise education’, they can say ‘we’re going to base it on the Swedish model’. That’s a lot more attractive-sounding.”

Indeed while Sweden may be commonly viewed as a very social democratic country with high public spending, the country has actually done a lot to introduce market forces into education and into their version of the NHS. Many of their radical reform policies were introduced back in the early Nineties when Sweden in ­particular (but also Finland and ­Denmark) were plunged into a huge fiscal crisis. Education, health, ­welfare and social services were all re-­examined, paving the way for the introduction of free schools, education ­vouchers, foundation hospitals and tough welfare reforms aimed at ­getting people back to work. Unveiling the 1995/6 budget, the Swedish Finance Minister Goran Persson announced: “No other ­government in Europe has the strength to do what we are doing.” And the measures worked.

“The experience of Scandinavian countries in the Nineties has had a huge influence here when it comes to our Government’s approach to reducing the deficit,” says Neil O’Brien, director of the Policy Exchange think-tank. “During this last recession the Swedish government didn’t end up with a big deficit at all – and in fact it’s now one of Europe’s most thriving economies – because after their ­experience in the Nineties they came up with a whole new set of rules.” T he government increased tax and cut public spending while their reforms reduced the ­welfare bill. O’Brien adds: “In so far as we have seen spending cuts in most areas, we are following the Nineties’ Swedish model. They talked about a ‘cheese slicing’ approach to reduce public spending, which is an obscure Scandinavian reference, but basically means that every single government department has to take a hit. That has been something which has been quite influential here.”

Another area of influence involves Scandinavian (as well as Baltic) ­technology and innovation. “Skype, for example, is a company set up by a Dane and a Finn in ­Estonia,” adds O’Brien. “Scandinavian mobile phone companies (think Nokia) have also developed in an innovative fashion and now with the conversation moving from austerity and cutbacks to encourage growth, that’s becoming very interesting to the UK Government. “A lot of the people attending ­Cameron’s summit are entrepreneurs in the area of science and innovation. That’s quite a hot topic and shows that we are looking to the Nordic model.” Speaking of a “Nordic” model is not always useful, of course, given that the Nordics are in some ways a disparate group of countries: ­Denmark has only a 10th of the land and Iceland a 30th of the population of Sweden, for instance, while Iceland has been floored by the financial crisis.