EUROPE NEWS

TUPNews is aware this is becoming a love letter to Denmark, so I should acknowledge this letter to the editor I read in the Economist on my train journey from the airport to the centre of town:

“I would agree that “free speech should override religious sensitivities” if the
publication of cartoons deemed insulting by Muslims had taken place in the
tolerant Denmark we knew ten years ago. Unfortunately, they weren’t printed in
that idealised country, but in a Denmark that over the past five to ten years
has slid into an abyss of rampant xenophobia, nationalism, racism, and above
all, a bottomless Islamophobia.”

This wasn’t entirely news to me; I visited Denmark ten years ago, and I have read various articles since along the lines of “Scandinavian socialist dream turns to shit”. Ten years ago, Denmark did indeed seem like an idealised tolerant utopia, and I’d be interested to know how much truth there is the “crap Denmark” thesis.

If TUPNews were a more intrepid reporter, I might have buttonholed a Dane and grilled them good. However, it was inevitable that if I talked politics with any Dane, the subject would unavoidably turn to those fucking cartoons, a controversy that has already bored me within an inch of my life. There was simply no way I was prepared to waste another drop of valuable brain juice on such a discussion, so instead I’ll have to give you a somewhat vague impression of how Denmark has changed over the last ten years.

The Danes remain unfailingly friendly and polite. But there is a slight undercurrent to every transaction that suggests a broad, unarticulated sense of - well, just being slightly pissed off.