Letter from Denmark: A Tale of Two Speeches

In the week before Christmas a relative of mine had a health scare. This meant several hospital visits, MRI scans, x-rays, blood tests, the list goes on. Prompt action by a competent medical staff at two hospitals saved the day. Observing the doctors and nurses, the ambulances, the technical equipment, I realised how vulnerable these facilities are.

Standing outside catching a breath of air, I began to wonder how I would react if any of these hospitals were bombed by jets of a Western ally. 

What if ambulances arriving at the emergency unit were struck by drones. What if the specialists conducting tests and diagnosis were kidnapped, beaten and humiliated. What if I was left holding the lifeless body of one of my children?

For most normal people scenes like these are unthinkable. And yet. 

I suppose in my state of extreme tiredness my imagination became quite vivid. I sensed that ‘what-if’ could quickly turn into clenched-fist anger, a desire to fight back – a mission to avenge the deeds of the murdering demons. 

‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’

Of course, no one was blown up or kidnapped. There were no massacres in the car park. My only worry was keeping the parking disc updated every few hours. 

The close of 2024 saw the new Danish King, Frederik X, give the traditional New Year’s Eve ‘monarch’s speech’. His mother is a hard act to follow. Anyway, we listened in on the way to our New Year’s venue which was on the historic Stengade in Elsinore. The King touched on domestic matters, joked about someone other than his mother holding the New Year’s speech, and focused on youth and the young. Ukraine got a mention. Palestine did not.

At our Stengade restaurant, New Year’s Eve passed without drone strikes, sniper killings, or massacres of children. We were, after all, in safe cosy Denmark. The last time an act of war took place near here was in the 1940s. Prior to liberation, two Danish partisans were gunned down about 100 metres from our restaurant by the occupying power. The victims were members of the Resistance. Viewed as heroes today, the occupying power labelled them as terrorists. 

We left Stengade to the sound of fireworks and with the tones of Puccini’s ‘Nessun dorma’ in our ears. Who else, other than our Italian hosts, would have staged Puccini arias as the live music?

New Year’s Day at 6pm. It’s the turn of the Danish Prime Minister to give the government’s national message. It all starts so well with ‘Danes standing in unity in an uncertain world’. And state pensions will be increased. Then came the words: “Moskva, Pyongyang, Tehran”. According to the PM, three capital cities most people haven’t visited are all working together against us. She continued, eulogising brave Ukrainians, fighting against Russia, North Korean soldiers and Iranian drones – on European soil. It was the type of speech to make you check the calendar just to make sure we hadn’t slipped through a cosmic wormhole into the 1950s. 

If Carlsberg did paranoia. 

But PM Frederiksen wasn’t done. China was next for condemnation. At this point you didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The final hysterical crescendo was reached with, ‘Putin, Putin, Putin’ – not the Russian President – just ‘Putin’. 

Claims to want peace ‘more than anything else in the world’, while self-congratulating about being a steadfast ally of democracy in Ukraine, didn’t quite add up. She and her government have pumped weapons into that tragic nation, instead of seeking avenues to peace. Do politicians know the difference between altruism and self-interest? Between helping others and enhancing their careers? 

The land she supports so emphatically is one of the most corrupt in Europe. It’s ruled by a priest-murdering junta that has targeted Russian-speaking civilians since the US-backed regime change coup in 2014. It holds torchlight rallies to lionise Stephan Bandera – a Nazi collaborator.

Frederiksen is either monumentally misinformed or still fishing for an unelected role among the Ursula-von-der-Leyen elites in Brussels, or in the corridors of uniformed neo-McCarthyist NATO. The only phrase the PM didn’t use was the Bushism, ‘Axis of Evil’. 

The militaristic clichés continued. NATO and the EU. USA and Denmark together, protecting the world order. The idea of any Western world order is a sick joke after Gaza and now Syria. Nevertheless, on and on she went. 

Danes were informed, not consulted, about a huge increase in military spending and to be prepared for attacks on vital infrastructure. There was no mention of Nordstream, of course.

This part of the speech could have been written by Anthony Blinken or Victoria Nuland. But perhaps the PM just believes everything she hears on CNN. After all, many Danes still think CNN reports actual news. I fear their otherwise excellent command of English cannot read between the lines. 

Having scare-mongered throughout, the PM insisted she wasn’t scaremongering. Even the studio pundits on the state broadcaster picked up on this. By this point Ms Frederiksen was close to becoming a satirical version of herself. 

And yet, for all the self-righteous bluster, guess what did not receive a mention? Not a word. Not a single syllable. Yes, the genocide in Palestine. The Western world order cannot come to terms with its own hypocrisy. The PM ended with an emphasis on good old Danish values, before a final oxymoron – ‘militarising for peace’. 

There are many positives we Scots can learn from our North Sea neighbour. Not least the huge investment in nation-wide transport infrastructure. We noticed the latest project on our stints between hospitals north and south of Copenhagen. This new 28-kilometre tram route, is due for completion this year.

Not content with new Metro lines, this light rail tram route (the third in Denmark) boasts 29 stations and a frequency of a tram every five minutes, in daytime hours. 

However, in Denmark there are red flags, too. The nation’s loss of sovereignty to the EU and its sister organisation NATO is happening at a rate of knots. This is something we Scots should avoid at all costs. Something in the region of nine US bases are lined up as well. Why is this even necessary when Denmark’s southern neighbour has about 40 US bases and installations? Forty! The Second World War ended in 1945.

For we Scots, liberation is perhaps closer than we realise. And since our goal is to escape from our status as England’s vassal state, we should ensure that our sovereignty is never betrayed again. With independence, our revenues and resources can be channelled into the restoration of our ancient nation. Like neutral Ireland, we too can be a true beacon of light in the world. A force for peace and reconciliation. 

No Union. Prosperity to Scotland.