Gaullist? It comes from the former French leader Charles de Gaulle. One little thing, the word Tory originally meant an Irish thief (mainly cattle).

Swedes actually do not kill themselves particularly frequently. (Where did he get that from?) Finns and Estonians do… which makes me wonder if God is Russian.

Here in Finland, god has traditionally voted for Kokoomus (National Coalition) in the south and kepu (Center party) in the North. Sometimes maybe christian democrats, but they are usually allied with kepu. Yeap, enough reasons to give shotgun some head.

I’ve always felt that the agrarian Center’s role in Finnish politics quite curious: farmers seeing themselves as arbiters between left and right. But it makes sense in one way: farmers want to own their own land (like the hidden porvaris they are), but they also want state subsidies, like leftists.

Yet it still amounts to freeloaderism.

As to the Christian Democrats, so many of them have adopted the rhetoric of the Social Democrats as to be sometimes undistinguishable. It seems that if only the sossut were not so flippant about religion, the two could easily merge.

You think the Tories in the UK are the ‘God’ party? You must be joking. Labour is far more likely to play the ‘Christian Socialist’ card that anyone on the right. That said, religion is nothing more than a very minor influence politically in Britain (I do not say ‘UK’ because in Northern Ireland it clearly is a significent matter) but when it does get trotted out, it is usually by someone on the left.

Perry: interesting. I, too, see Finnish social democrats behave like “Christian Socialists” (I like that term).

Curiously, The Bimbo of Finland was an atheist before she took office, but as the president automatically becomes the nominal head of the state Lutheran Church of Finland, this became a little bit of a problem. So she “converted”, post-haste, to please those that weren’t all that pleased having an atheist as the head of their church.

You think the Tories in the UK are the ???God??? party? You must be joking. Labour is far more likely to play the ???Christian Socialist??? card that anyone on the right. That said, religion is nothing more than a very minor influence politically in Britain (I do not say ???UK??? because in Northern Ireland it clearly is a significent matter) but when it does get trotted out, it is usually by someone on the left.

I do agree this, especially the links between the party and the larger Christian Church, i.e. Ruth Kelly (the education secretary) and the Opus Dei, the increasing development of church schools and their government funding, Tony Blair and has on the fence attitude to Catholic Church (he been told off by the church for taking the communion), the recent anti-blasphemousness bill…