TAXIS AND POLITICS

Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's Social Democratic Prime Minister, is in the middle of a difficult reelection campaign, which opinion polls suggest he will lose. Although personally popular, it seems that voters are fed up with his party, and want a change.

In order to try and turn the campaign round, Mr. Stoltenberg tried an unusual tack. In June he spent an afternoon working as a taxi driver in Oslo, talking to ordinary citizens about their concerns. Their conversations were of course video'ed, and have now been put out on the party's Facebook site and such like.

It was a bold stunt. But probably not enough to secure him the Prime Minister's office.

Walter Blotscher