Phil, when did you contact the parties and did you contact the campaign organizations too? You must understand that SDP has far greater resources as a bigger party.

@Anonimous: the fact of biger size doesn’t exuise the smaller party’s unreasonable ignorance of internet media.

Igor, no it doesn’t, if they just decided to ignore you. But I think there could be some practical obstacles. I know someone who works for Kokoomus, and it’s very very busy over there…

This is the new beginning of Phil’s political conversion to socialism, Welcome home, comrade!!

But how many listeners do you have ? And to be honest “just dumping programmes” when you have thngs better to do maybe doesn’t inspire confidence in them.

Sure you don’t charge for the service and it is a hobby for you of interest to maybe a couple of hundred people, but sadly all have to be wary.

Of course, one might think that Halonen’s supporters are so worried about losing that they will try anything

You must understand that SDP has far greater resources as a bigger party.

That may be the case, but it doesn’t take too many resources to reply with “Sorry, we just don’t have the time and resources to do this.”

I got a reply from Kokoomus much faster.

Hi American blogger!

I’m not so keen on politics, but i just wanted to say hello.
I post in English on Sundays.

Rita

@Anonimous: No, I think so there is a “too many cheefs no indians” phenomena is have place. In my opinion, the structure and resources of both parties are equal. I have happened to communicate with many representatives of one of candidates’ campaign office (our company made some web design things for them), and I could say that there were too many persons to decide, and every advance step took crazy amount of time because of that.

Maybe in Phil’s case they simply doesn’t know who must to answer him?

(our company made some web design things for them), and I could say that there were too many persons to decide

Ha ha. Those Kokoomus types all want to be managers. Everyone’s way too important to be a regular worker.

“Ha ha. Those Kokoomus types all want to be managers. Everyone’s way too important to be a regular worker.”

Yeah, well my friend has mostly escorted old people to ballots (on request) and poured coffee for people visiting Cafe Niinistö. And he has masters in organizational sciences and a second masters in economics in brewing…

“And he has masters in organizational sciences and a second masters in economics in brewing…”

That really doesn’t make him politically “important” at all…

“That really doesn’t make him politically “important” at all…”

So you think the guys who decide about a web design are “politically important”?

A billion curses!!! I blame MOOSES (aka Paavo Lipponen). Curse those socialists with their Niinistö=>NATO at the last minute. This was the last time I’m ever ever ever voting for anything.

Oh fuck. That twat O’Brien will probably confirm his visit. I hope it’s -35 and he freezes his ginger rug off. That’s before he falls through a railo, of course.

“Kokoomus on the other hand completely ignored all my e-mails.”

Maybe they were too busy building “the best campaign ever”…

So if the campaign was The Best Ever, how come they didn’t win. Lousy candidate? What’s their excuse?

“So if the campaign was The Best Ever, how come they didn’t win. Lousy candidate? What’s their excuse?”

There’s not need for _any_ excuses. Sauli Niinistö came very close to Tarja Halonen, and the “right wing” showed they’re not just a small minority in Finland. If Keskusta (“Center”) and Kokoomus (“Right wing”) join their forces in Parliament elections in 2007, they could have a real possibility to form the next government.

What’s most important, now we know 48% of Finnish people don’t people these welfare talks of social democrats without any facts based argumentation. Halonen has repeated the welfare state doctrine from the beginning of her campaign without even once telling what it actually means. For example, why do we have have over 200 000 unemployed people if we’re doing so well?!

Oh, sorry. a few brain disturbances.

I meant to write “… Finnish people don’t believe…”

If they’ve any sense, they’ll say the Kepu rank and file betrayed them, and try to ignore the uncomfortable fact that their own rank and file stiffed Aho last time around, and that farming folk have long memories. But even in defeat, Kokoomus are coming out of this well made-up: their pin-up boy stomped the Centre Party man, even if Niinistö could not turn a centre-right plurality in the country and Parliament into a majority of the votes.

Somehow I don’t think, in the overall scheme of things, appearing on Phil’s podcast would have helped much in that department. Being a bit less gung-ho on getting us into NATO might have counted more.

Tero… have you never LOOKED at the make-up of Parliament? This country elects more MPs of the Centre-Right than it does from the Left. And has done so for MANY years. Simply add together the voting percentages for the Centre, Kokoomus, the Swedes, and the God Squadders, and you’ll get over 50% without trouble. Throw in the populist ultra-right True Finns and you are into 55% territory. With 119 seats. So the country’s all prepared for that, thank you very much, if it happens – and it happened under Aho of course – but anyone with HALF a brain could tell you that two centre-right parties are going to find as many reasons to hate each other’s guts as they are to work together. For crying out loud, they are competing for the same voters.

And anyone who calls Kokoomus “right-wing” really needs their bumps felt.

So Phil, when can we expect to see you shaking hands with Eero Heinäluoma as the newest member of the SDP? (Hey come on, these pro-SDP posts are starting to frighten me…)

Has Phil been kidnapped by SAPO? Expected a rantette just after 8pm and here we are, silence, nearly 12 hours after the crack of doom announced that Tarja would continue.

Has Phil been kidnapped by SAPO? Expected a rantette just after 8pm and here we are, silence, nearly 12 hours after the crack of doom announced that Tarja would continue.

My ADSL box broke yesterday afternoon. I was connecting from my phone and it’s too much of a pain in the ass to write from there. Plus I was crying so hard I couldn’t possibly touch a keyboard.

Sounds like a typical Finnish reaction. It is very similar compared to when one applies for a job at a Finnish company. Often the reaction is also nihil.Faceless society with faceless individuals and political parties?!?