DK:

Ten years ago Swedes were looking at Europe from the outside, and thinking things like

"- we've got

... the world's most refined life-style

... the highest standard of living in the world

... the most mature social organisation

... liberated women

... humane treatment of farm animals

... enlightened educational policies

... equality of man and woman, husband and wife, parent and child, teacher and student, official and client

... a generous immigration policy

 

"- only wanted children are born

"- we're neutral in military questions

"- we're part of a passport- and customs-free Scandinavia, with all that that means

(though we've already lost Denmark to Europe, and it looks like Finland is going too)

"How could we join a European community and loose all that?

A very few voices there were, which expressed a vision where

• these things were compatible with a membership of a larger community
• perhaps everything in our own garden perhaps wasn't quite so rosy as we liked to think
• perhaps other people might even have come a bit further than we like to think, might even - perish the thought! - have something to offer us in a partnership ...

One of most widely-knowledgable and boldest of them was Swedish Radio's foreign correspondent Herman Lindqvist...