The fatal mistakes of Sweden’s David Cameron

Cool, calm Sweden can still produce a surprise from time to time. Yes, our economic recovery has been the best of any major European country. Yes, our finance minister, the earringed and formerly pony-tailed Anders Borg, is hailed as the best in the world. And yes, our government has somehow managed to cut taxes so the disposable income of the average Swede is 18 per cent higher than before the crash. But when Swedes were asked to pass verdict on all this, in last weekend’s election, we decided to kick out the government.

David Cameron has had another small northerly country to worry about of late, but the fate of his friend Fredrik Reinfeldt, the now-deposed prime minister, ought to alarm him. Both were elected leader of defeated conservative parties in their late thirties, both billed themselves as modernisers. Reinfeldt was even invited to address the 2006 Tory party conference, conveying the news that Tory modernisation worked.