The Price Is Not Set Here

It is a wet, damp Friday night, with fog so thick you could cut it with a knife. The evening news on NRK, Norway’s public broadcaster, is rolling, and two politicians are arguing over whether to cut the duties on fuel, diesel among them, to make life easier for people with less. That is a category I relate to, quite a lot.

MDG, the Green Party, argues that cutting would let the rich overconsume. Rødt (Red) says cheap fuel, food and other essentials must be provided for, just as the universal child benefit helps every family in Norway, rich or poor. Both have reasonable arguments. One leans towards the centre; the other leans, without shame, into the old tradition of socialism and communism.

But really. Filling up with diesel these days makes me think of neither. My thoughts go back to the time when everyone said “he can’t possibly win”, and then he did. It caught most of us off guard. It seemed like a bad joke: the locker-room talk, the constant lying, a reality rendered as needed and as he goes.

Why 2016, you ask?

Because the problem is not the taxes, and it is not the duties. Most of the problem is not in our court at all. No Norwegian politician can be blamed for the price at the diesel pump right now. The problem, dare I say, is the mightiest superpower on earth eating itself alive. The price is not set in Norway, and neither is the price of most of what we depend on.

The real problem is a Don who has gone too far. He started something he cannot easily end, and it seems the U S of A is about to learn some lessons in the Middle East.

We can argue about duties and tax as much as we like. Brent crude is already above 100 dollars a barrel (Fortune, 2026). If it hits 150, the duties will make little difference. Even if we subsidise fuel, the price will still hit the transport, farming and manufacturing we rely on every day, in Europe and beyond.

We need to lift our heads and look beyond the horizon. Of course we should tax fuel and food and everything else; that has been a backbone of Norwegian success. How much is open for debate, but now is not the time. Now is the time to see the whole picture. Something is poisoning the well, and the source is a good deal further away than our parliament, the Storting.

As I write this, the White House says there will be no ground troops in Iran, while reports describe troops and warships moving into the region and a build-up for more war (Euronews, 2026).

Norway has been a voice of reason before. In 1993 a handful of Norwegians, a research institute and our foreign ministry ran a secret back channel between Israel and the PLO, and the result carried the name of our capital: the Oslo Accords (PRIO, n.d.; Institute for Palestine Studies, n.d.). In 2012 the talks between Colombia’s government and the FARC guerrilla were launched in Oslo, with Norway and Cuba as guarantors. Four years later the FARC laid down its arms as a fighting force, and Colombia’s president gave his Nobel lecture in Oslo City Hall (Regjeringen, n.d.; NobelPrize.org, 2016). Not every effort held. Oslo did not bring lasting peace, and some processes failed outright. But a small country with no empire to defend, patient money and a habit of keeping its mouth shut has earned a seat at tables the great powers cannot sit at.

Now it is time to speak reason again, instead of debating a percentage point of tax or the redistribution of wealth. Norway and the rest of Europe need a real conversation about the bigger problem: a superpower gone off the rails.

Just my thoughts, at this hour.

References

Institute for Palestine Studies (n.d.) Postscript to Oslo: The Mystery of Norway’s Missing Files. Available at: https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/42078 (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

NobelPrize.org (2016) Juan Manuel Santos, Nobel Lecture, 10 December. Available at: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2016/santos/lecture/ (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

PRIO (n.d.) Behind the Oslo Back Channel: Norway’s Political Past in the Middle East. Peace Research Institute Oslo. Available at: https://www.prio.org/projects/1180 (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

Regjeringen (n.d.) Fredsprosessene i Colombia. Utenriksdepartementet. Available at: https://www.regjeringen.no/no/tema/utenrikssaker/fred-og-konfliktlosning/land_for_land2/engasjement_colombia/id2522231/ (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

Euronews (2026) Military signals building: Is the US-Iran war about to escalate?, 16 October. Available at: https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/16/military-signals-building-is-the-us-iran-war-about-to-escalate (Accessed: 16 October 2026).

Fortune (2026) Current price of oil as of October 16, 2026, 16 October. Available at: https://fortune.com/article/price-of-oil-10-16-2026/ (Accessed: 16 October 2026).