Let's speculate on the new Finnish gov't

Imagine a Finland where instead of career politicians you will have people like the True Finns in government. They are such a marginal party that that has made such huge gains they will inevitably resort to putting some of their larger vote share-getters from the provinces into government. We will have a government with two years experience from local politics deciding the course of the nation, and there is nothing we can do about it.

I miss the days when the True Finns were the kind of party that would put Sulo Aittoniemi, a "sheriff" up as a presidential candidate. A humour candidate for a humour party, getting humour votes from people who like to turn up and have a laugh on election day. People who take "rotestilaulu" from Simo Salminen ironically seriously.

Irwin Goodman

There's a real tradition of a ne'er-do-well protester right up from Irwin Goodman to Paleface in Finland and it is a good tradition. A noble tradition, really. A tradition of someone who says it like it is and isn't afraid of the "crooks" and the "cons" in government. But really, in a country such as Finland it was never more than a stereotype. You cannot have a country that ranks the lowest on the corruption index, while having this supposed huge need for a person to call out all these corrupt politicians. You cannot have one of the most developed welfare states in the world while supposedly having a state committed to screwing the average joe sixpack out of their fair share. It is just not possible.