The suspense mounts as Sweden's EU membership referendum on Sunday approaches. In spite of extreme maldistribution of propaganda resources, and in spite of all groups within the elite going for a YES, there is 50/50 situation in the opinion. Some polls give a small leadership for YES, other polls for NO. And there is no clear tendency over time. But due to the extreme and one-sided elite, media and advertising pressure, I predict a slight victory for the YES side in Sweden. If there is NO there, however, one could have canceled the Norwegian referendum on Nov 28, because the outcome will be overwhelmingly NO. But if Sweden says YES, then the situation becomes less clear. The latest Norwegian poll, from the first week of November, says on the question "how will you vote on EU membership" (i.e. not biased by some given assumption by the pollster "- if Sweden says YES"): YES NO 30.2 (-1.3) 47.7 (+2.7) (source "GALLUP" Co.) Numbers in parentheses are changes from the week before. These figures are quite stable, different polls from the spring and onwards have in general shown no large changes. The EU supporters in Norway have by now lost the fight definitely, at least based un what the unbiased response in the population is. Their only card left now is the possible bandwagon effect of a possible Swedish YES. If Sweden votes YES, my prediction is still a (possibly slight) NO majority in Norway in our referendum. Finally, an aside inspired by very recent election results from you-know-where: If political propaganda in the form of Radio and (especially) TV commercials were not banned in Norway, the YES side would have had a much better rating on the polls today, and would very likely have won the referendum. I have said it before, and I repeat it: Any country where millions of $ (or their equivalent) is a prerequisite for winning elections or other votes, is not a democracy. Cheers, Trond ----------------------------------------------- | Trond Andresen ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) | | Department of Engineering Cybernetics | | The Norwegian Institute of Technology | | N-7034 Trondheim, NORWAY | | | | phone (work) +47 73 59 43 58 | | fax (work) +47 73 59 43 99 | | private phone +47 73 53 08 23 | ----------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- | Trond Andresen ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) | | Department of Engineering Cybernetics | | The Norwegian Institute of Technology | | N-7034 Trondheim, NORWAY | | | | phone (work) +47 73 59 43 58 | | fax (work) +47 73 59 43 99 | | private phone +47 73 53 08 23 | -----------------------------------------------
