I've often said that in Denmark it can be hard to figure out where the state ends and the private sector begins - that's even more explicitly the case with the unions. Many - if not most - of the rules governing the labour market (rules that, in - say - France, would be made by Parliament) are negotiated, regulated and enforced by the labour unions, and the most important unemployment benefit scheme is managed by the unions - indeed it grew out of purely private unemployment insurances provided by the unions.

Thirty years of uninterrupted rule by syndicalists and pre-Schröder Social Democrats will do that to a country :-P

- Jake

640 kiloton should be enough for anybody