Finally, after several weeks of hard struggle the budget and tax bill is done. Tomorrow morning it will be presented at a press conference, staring Maud Olofsson and Roger Tiefensee.
This event couldn't pass unnoticed by the very friendly high-tech computer environment of course and with a perfect timing my computer went on strike. And in Sweden we have this wonderful system of "sympathy strike", so the Xerox machine of course joined the computers in an alliance of unholy strike.
Tomorrow is also the end of the "general write about anything you like, you are a parliamentarian after all-period" and a huge number of motions have been presented to the parliament, and the hm… "variety" is truly breathtaking.
This topic, the "variety" of the various motions, have been discussed pretty extensively, both at editorial pages at svd.se [pdf], and at blogs such as erixon.com and gudmundson.
I blame the system to some extent where the parliamentarians are only permitted to submit motions during a very brief period of time. This "general write about anything you like, you are a parliamentarian after all-period" of about 2-3 weeks is boosted, like nothing else. If the MPs could submitt bills whenever they felt like it, I believe that the actual number of motions would be decreased.
I'm about to get back home to enjoy some 4 hours of sleep. After all, it's 4 hours more than I got last year the night before the budget was to be presented. Who knows, maybe in 30 years I'm back into a 40 hour work week like those people who have a life. You know, the people who sometimes get out into the big room with the blue ceiling (aka sky).