At the time of writing, it remains unclear whether Hakan Juholt’s enduring contribution to contemporary Swedish history will extend beyond the launch of the term ‘kulbo’ (‘fun co-habitee’). In any case, one can nevertheless say that a lot of what Juholt did with his kulbo seems to have paid for by us taxpayers (albeit that we seem to be content to get back the money that Juholt, without intent, ‘borrowed’ from us). A trip to Belarus, hire cars and free rent for his kulbo hardly makes life less fun.

In his speech at the Social Democrats' extraordinary congress in April 2011, Hakan Juholt spoke, however, not so much about having fun. Instead, he talked about one of the seven deadly sins, namely greed. He complained that it is easier to replace a heart in the human body than to "prevent the heartlessness and greed that is spreading". Even at that stage, this original comparison should perhaps have given a...