Low taxes work

I ration my writing about Sweden. As CoffeeHousers know, I can extol its virtues with room-emptying conviction. But it’s now a few days since its election, and as far as I can tell no English publication has told the extraordinary story of its conservative victory – and the economic turnaround driven by the largest tax cuts in Swedish history. It is now the fastest-growing economy in the West. I tell the story in the political column of this week’s magazine (subscribers, click here), but I will summarise it for CoffeeHousers here.

Normally, conservatives are elected in Sweden as a kind of light relief, to punctuate decades of leftist rule. They’re usually thrown out after one term, and the social democrats get back to taxing the bejesus out of the country. But Fredrik Reinfeldt, a charmless bald bloke who keeps in touch with David Cameron by text message, has just won a second term – and with the greatest vote in his party’s history.