Swedish News:

Juholt and Reinfeldt in debate. Naked in Stockholm (Well, almost!). More people in Sweden drink tea. 

  • Juholt and Reinfeldt in debate
    For the first time, Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Håkan Juholt, the new Social Democratic opposition leader, met in a debate at the Riksdag. Both showed bite, at times the tone became decidedly sharp and it was clear that the two represent two entirely different ideological alternatives. While Reinfeldt relied on his usual argumentative technique, putting Sweden in a global perspective; Juholt used emotions as fuel: “What’s behind your decisions, Reinfeldt? From where do you get your inspiration? Have we met the same people? Where have you met the nurses who say their salaries are too high? What teachers told you they have too little to do, and that there could be fewer of them at the schools?” Reinfeldt countered with: “You don’t think Juholt’s proposals cost anything? Well, I do!” Rhetoric expert Elaine Bergkvist at SvT (Sveriges Television AB) concludes: “A combination of Juholt and Reinfeldt would be rhetorical perfection. The question is, does the Swedish people choose someone who leads with brain or with heart? (Reinfeldt and Juholt) have three years to prove they have the combination.”

  • Naked in Stockholm
    Come naked and we will clothe you! A boutique in Stockholm promised clothes to whoever showed up naked. And many took the bait. “(The street) was full of people in underwear waiting to get in,” writes daily Expressen. All night customers had lined up outside the clothing store on Sergelgatan, removing their clothes right before the store opened its doors. Mostly young women and men, but also a mother and daughter, who did it “for fun”, had lined up. Unfortunately the weather was a bit on the cool side. The first hundred customers were given clothes.

  • More drink tea
    How do you take your tea, dear? More and more Swedes are abandoning their cups of coffee in favor of tea. According to a survey done by Sifo (a company in the area of opinion and social research) on behalf of a tea producer, more than one in four Swedes drink tea daily, and 15% drink several cups a day. Over 1200 people were asked in the survey and over 1000 answered the questions. It is mostly in bigger cities that the tea drinking has increased. From having been primarily an evening drink, tea has become an afternoon drink, usually taken at a teahouse or a café. “It is evident that it has become more common to drink tea,” says Ulrika Stenhage, who works in a teashop in Göteborg. “People go from coffee to tea because they feel tea is easier to wind down with.” 6% of the men in the survey said they’d drink more tea if it contained more caffeine. Many believe that tea is healthier than coffee. “Yes, many of our customers have read about the goodness of red and green tea,” continues Stenhage. “And people are curious and willing to try different types of tea.”