To the barricades, Swedes! Day care is threatened!

Sweden is about to have an election, and it comes at a time of the state's greatest crisis since Queen Christina decided she preferred the theological and meteorological climate of Rome and went to live there after converting to Catholicism. The Australian's stringer in Stockholm writes, "Many conservatives have begun to wonder whether the Swedish welfare model isn't due for a makeover."

"There aren't enough daycare spots," complains Per-Ola Pettersson, a 35-year-old Stockholmer who says he expects more for his high taxes. "They're constantly making cuts in the healthcare system, and there are long queues at the hospitals. And the welfare state is expensive."

Sweden, which itself resembles a nationwide day care center, is clearly in pre-revolutionary mode when its welfare state is expensive. Benefits are supposed to be free! Every child, even at the age of 35, knows that.

The country also has a few problems with its immigrants, but you can safely assume they have not loomed large in the election rhetoric. For one thing, you can get into serious bother with the law in Sweden if you publicly question official dhimmitude. For another, Swedes' cultural self-defense muscles have atrophied under the welfare paradise to mere reminders of an earlier stage of evolution, like the appendix.

But a leak in day care — now, there's an issue to set blonde on blonde.