Letters | 8 September 2016

What Swedes don’t say

Sir: Tove Lifvendahl is, unfortunately, exactly right in her analysis of Swedish immigration and asylum policy (‘Sweden’s refugee crisis’, 3 September). Those in Sweden who support free movement and free trade feel it has long been obvious that the consensus in the riksdag would lead to disaster.

Last autumn saw a celebrity-studded ‘Sweden Together’ celebration of the open-border immigration policy. Then, just six weeks later, we experienced the closure of borders and passport controls enforced on the Öresund bridge connecting Sweden to Denmark. The flow of immigrants is now at five per cent of its peak, but the Öresund region, or the Greater Copenhagen area — a trade integration project painstakingly developed over a period of more than 30 years — was put into liquidation overnight. Danes have been selling their Swedish homes to move back to Denmark. Swedes have quit their Copenhagen-based jobs.

It could all have been avoided had a mature and measured policy discussion taken place in Stockholm. If there is one thing the Swedes ought to learn from the Brits, it would be how to maintain a broad and dynamic public debate — warts and all. Every so often we hear British tabloids accused of lowering the tone of debate. Sweden stands as an example of what happens if frank discussion does not take place.
Henrik Jönsson
Malmö, Sweden

Bragg’s north

Sir: As a native of Sussex whose mother hailed from Tyneside and who has spent most of his adult life in the north-east, I share Kate Chisholm’s irritation at Melvyn Bragg’s arrogant proclamation of northern superiority in his recent Radio 4 series (Arts, 3 September). He has squandered the legacy of respect built up over many years of In Our Time, and thrown away the opportunity to present a balanced treatment of an important subject, giving us instead a mixture of self-indulgence and prejudice.