Haakon Lie with unexpected support for Pape!

[arildno]

As everybody knows, Oslo's local Labour Party is in uproar, because Tom Pape decided to vote against the party line and thereby secured that the new US embassy will be built in the Huseby area in Oslo (as the Americans themselves have wanted).

Pape, who has been called disloyal and undemocratic by Jan Bøhler (leader of Oslo's Labour Party) now receives the support from the old giant Haakon Lie (who is 100 years old, and was the secretary general in the national Labour Party for about three decades).


What thoughts have you made on these issues:
1. Should the US embassy be moved from Drammensveien to Huseby?
2. Has Pape been disloyal?
3. Should Haakon Lie shut up&die?

[TheStatutoryApe]

1) I have no clue.

2) Ofcourse, though I have also had some respect for politicians with guts to go against what's expected of them.

3)I like the sound of this one, so I'll say yes.




Any way... what exactly is the problem with where they want to build the embassy? Sorry for my ignorance of Norwegian affairs.

[arildno]

Any way... what exactly is the problem with where they want to build the embassy? Sorry for my ignorance of Norwegian affairs
The Huseby area is one of the uppest class districts in Oslo, and the inhabitants don't want their recreational woodlands cut down.

If the Huseby Woods are cut down, the rich guys must travel for half an hour to other recreational areas, rather than for 5 minutes, as it is today.

For some unfathomable reason, the local Labour party empathized with the plight of the rich guys in this particular case..

[TheStatutoryApe]

Is it maybe because there is something special about these particular trees. Is it a rare habitat or anything like that?

[arildno]

This little gem illustrates quite nicely, I think, just how bizarre Norwegian politics is from time to time..

[arildno]

Is it maybe because there is something special about these particular trees. Is it a rare habitat or anything like that?
Nope. Just another (tiny) piece of the same pine&fir woodlands that covers 70% of our capital's municipality. :smile:

[TheStatutoryApe]

Hmmm... so then it's not necessarily a bad thing that Pape went the other way on this then? Are there other problems?

[arildno]

Hmmm... so then it's not necessarily a bad thing that Pape went the other way on this then? Are there other problems?
Not that I know of.
In fact, the present US embassy (in Drammensveien) lies in the heart of our capital (a stone's throw from the Royal Palace), and the extra security measures the Americans have demanded around their embassy would have made a lot of nuisance for the local population (in terms of moving about in the centre of our own capital).

By removing the embassy to the Huseby area, these problems won't surface.


The only strange thing about the whole affair is that the opponents almost managed to kill off this development.

In my view, Tom Pape is a hero.

As a note, Haakon Lie has a standing in Norway as a combination of Franklin D. Roosevelt&Joseph McCarthy (yes, I know, Norwegian politics IS weird..)

[Bystander]

(snip)For some unfathomable reason, the local Labour party empathized with the plight of the rich guys in this particular case..

Real estate scam? Or scams? Downtown "development" and block-busting the ritzy neighborhood vs. unknown sums under the table to block the project vs. those unknown sums being insufficient?

[arildno]

Real estate scam? Or scams? Downtown "development" and block-busting the ritzy neighborhood vs. unknown sums under the table to block the project vs. those unknown sums being insufficient?
Actually no:
The local Labour party decided they might win a few voters in the Huseby area in the general election last September by going against the relocation of the embassy to Huseby.

However, they hadn't cleared this issue with the national labour party (who won the election this year). The prime minister (from their own party) has wanted to move the embassy to Huseby, but the local party bosses was against it all the same. They almost managed to thwart the national government's wishes on this issue..

[Bystander]

Actually no:
The local Labour party decided they might win a few voters in the Huseby area in the general election last September by going against the relocation of the embassy to Huseby.

Normal politics.


However, they hadn't cleared this issue with the national labour party (who won the election this year). The prime minister (from their own party) has wanted to move the embassy to Huseby, but the local party bosses was against it all the same.

Huseby bribes local bosses --- again, normal politics.

They almost managed to thwart the national government's wishes on this issue..