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00:00I'm on the rugged edge of Europe, visiting five Nordic countries.
00:10Incredible, it's incredible.
00:12Travelling through glorious forests and spectacular fjords.
00:16I think Norway has a solid claim to be the most beautiful country in the world.
00:21I mean, look at it.
00:24Wow, a dog's pulling a car.
00:27It's more than half a million square miles of extremes.
00:30This is low, man, this is low.
00:33This is my life.
00:35Somebody's holding on to it, yeah?
00:39Breathe, breathe.
00:41Off we go.
00:43I'm hoping to understand how they've built some of the happiest societies on the planet.
00:47Hey, guys.
00:48Good morning.
00:49Good morning.
00:50And who have we got here?
00:52Morning.
00:53Hello.
00:54Welcome, welcome.
00:56This is the most traditional Danish lunch I have seen.
01:00Yes.
01:01And why they now feel they're in the firing line.
01:04Santa Park is also a nuclear bunker.
01:07Yes, very much so.
01:09They are preparing to defend Finland.
01:15Bloody hell.
01:17You're wearing these in urban Sweden?
01:21Yes.
01:22There's another side to Scandinavia.
01:25Ready to fire?
01:39On this final leg of my Scandinavian journey,
01:42I'm travelling from southern Sweden into Denmark.
01:48Two thirds of Sweden is covered in trees.
01:51Nearly 90 billion of them.
01:53And a population of just over 10 million people.
01:58Swedes love a cabin in the woods.
02:00Not bad, eh?
02:07I think more than anywhere, Sweden really defines Scandinavia.
02:13Tradition, modern design, gender equality, ABBA and flat-pack furniture.
02:22Half of Swedes have access to a holiday home
02:25like a simple cabin by a lake or deep in the forest.
02:28Nothing fancy, just somewhere wholesome to get away.
02:32Where they can eat their meatballs, light some candles
02:35and get nude in a sauna.
02:37So Swedish.
02:38What do you mean I'm going for clichés?
02:41MUSIC
02:47For a generation, Swedes have done incredibly well.
02:55They've excelled in rankings of the healthiest, wealthiest, happiest people on earth.
03:00In many ways, since the 1960s, Sweden has been the poster child for Scandi success
03:06and those famous Scandinavian liberal values.
03:11But, of course, that's not the whole story.
03:13All right, here we are.
03:18Ready to fire!
03:22Reload!
03:23Those lovely liberal Swedes are also one of the world's leading arms exporters.
03:28Let's fire!
03:295-plus-0-1-clear!
03:33Reload!
03:35Load, load, load.
03:37Bloody hell.
03:40There are car alarms going off down there.
03:42That is much more than a shock.
03:45It's through your whole body and in the entire area.
03:49It's slightly seismic.
03:53Swedish arms company Bofors has a 40-square-mile weapons testing facility,
03:58one of the largest in Europe.
04:00Let's go, let's go!
04:01Let's go, let's go!
04:04The neutral Swedes avoided, some would say dodged, fighting in both world wars,
04:09but now they make and export more weapons per head of population
04:13than any country other than Russia and Israel.
04:15Five, four, three, two, one, fire!
04:23They're conducting hundreds and hundreds of tests here every year now
04:27as the Swedish military and Scandinavia enters a new era.
04:32Many Scandinavians used to think they live in a safe neighbourhood,
04:36but after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, everything changed.
04:41Many now think it poses a direct threat to Scandinavia as well.
04:46Sweden abandoned neutrality, joined the NATO military alliance
04:49and ramped up weapons production even more.
04:53For Colonel Stefan Kroll, business at the Bofors test centre is booming.
04:58The defence industry all over Europe goes full speed ahead now.
05:02They're building new factories, building new production lines, going 24-7,
05:08and it's all due to the war in Europe ongoing.
05:12There's almost been a handbrake turn and funding has increased dramatically.
05:18Yes, in a way it's dramatic and it's a change of mindset.
05:25The threat levels have rised and it's a huge demand of ammunition right now
05:31that hasn't been there since the Second World War.
05:34Wartime production mode, is that what we're seeing?
05:37In some way, yes.
05:41The Swedes were neutral for decades and decades
05:45and as a result they didn't feel they could rely on anyone for their defence.
05:49They built up their own defence industry.
05:52There is really no other country of comparable size,
05:56of comparable population that can produce its own fighter jets and submarines.
06:02They can do that in Sweden.
06:10The Swedes make some of the most advanced weapon systems in the world.
06:14In one naval exercise, a stealthy Swedish submarine even sank a US aircraft carrier.
06:20This is gorgeous.
06:24There's much about this region we don't always recognise.
06:27As I saw in Finland, there's a steeliness.
06:30They're also practical, competent and innovative.
06:35I headed to Stockholm, the capital, to find out more about what makes them tick.
06:41So, I'm travelling into the centre of Stockholm
06:46and I'm getting a lift.
06:48Hello, Maria. Welcome.
06:50Is it OK to come on? Yes. Thank you.
06:52That's not just a handshake, but...
06:54Yeah. Oh, that's it.
07:00This isn't just a fast boat.
07:03It's a boat that flies.
07:06This beauty, the Candela Electric Hydroforum.
07:09I'm sure you'll see it in a Bond film at some point.
07:12It is so smooth as to be quite unnerving.
07:17You don't really realise the speed that you're doing until you look around.
07:23This battery-powered boat leaves virtually no weight
07:26and uses a fraction of the energy of other speedboats.
07:30They're also hoping to use the energy of other speedboats
07:33They're also hoping to use the technology for local ferries.
07:37A speedboat like this can be yours for just a few hundred thousand.
07:44Splashdown.
07:46We've just landed right in the middle of Stockholm.
07:50This is the way to arrive.
07:53I might insist on this in the future.
07:55All right. Thank you so much, Maria.
07:57Thank you. Thank you very much indeed.
07:59What an amazing way to arrive.
08:02Ah!
08:06Central Stockholm. Thank you, Maria.
08:10Stockholm's often described as the most beautiful city in Scandinavia,
08:14admittedly mainly by Swedes.
08:16Like much of Scandinavia, it's well-kept, charming,
08:19with functioning public transport.
08:21A bit boring.
08:23Locals certainly seem very content.
08:25Sweden and its neighbours always top the international league tables
08:28for happiness.
08:30So how on earth do they do it?
08:32I wanted someone to explain,
08:34so I headed to meet a man described as looking like a hipster Jesus.
08:37Hey, Simon, right?
08:39Michael Dahlian is a professor
08:41at the renowned Stockholm School of Economics.
08:44So, big question, what is...
08:46It's been called the Nordic model.
08:48Yeah.
08:50The Scandinavian model.
08:52The Nordic model. Yeah.
08:54The Scandinavian way of running an economy.
08:57How would you explain that?
08:59Well, I think I'd use two words.
09:02Welfare economy.
09:04We want everybody to have equal opportunity.
09:08We have free health care, free education,
09:11free virtually everything.
09:14But we also want everybody to contribute.
09:18We're all in it together.
09:20This is key.
09:22You get a lot as a Swede, and welfare benefits are generous,
09:25but people are also expected to play their part.
09:28Please mind the brakes. Please mind the brakes. OK.
09:31The public are expected to work and pay their taxes,
09:34to be productive members of society, not stay on benefits.
09:38Off we go.
09:40Mike was a professor of economics and wellbeing, welfare and happiness.
09:44He's ranked number two in the world in his field.
09:47And he wanted to show me how Swedes are all in it together.
09:50Tell me about your tattoos, by the way.
09:53You've got some pretty distinctive markings.
09:56Yeah, these are all notes to sell.
09:59If I give 70%, it's not perfect.
10:02It's never the best, but it's good enough.
10:05Do something for 70%.
10:08Yeah, so never give 100%, because then you will burn out,
10:11you'll have performance anxiety that everything needs to be perfect.
10:15What does the 8 signify?
10:17So the 8 is the number of seconds I need to give myself
10:21before I react to something.
10:23I did the math, and 8 is enough.
10:25You did the math?
10:27I always do the math. I can't help myself.
10:29You're an economics professor. Exactly.
10:31Of course you did the math.
10:33Well, the traffic lights have changed. Oh, wonderful.
10:36There you go. Michael says give it 70%.
10:39Economics is a hot topic here in Scandinavia,
10:42partly because tax rates are among the highest in the world.
10:45You're doing beautifully.
10:47Yeah, I've got to put down a lot.
10:49But their disposable income after they've paid taxes
10:52is actually really high, because so much here is free.
10:55Universities, health care, some elderly care,
10:58and especially child care.
11:00By all accounts, this is a pretty good place to raise a child.
11:04What's going on here?
11:07I'd say this is a dad's group, enjoying their coffee.
11:11Latte pappor. Latte pappors.
11:14Hey, guys. Good morning.
11:16Morning. It's a toddler's group.
11:18And you all look very calm.
11:21How much paternity leave do you get in Sweden?
11:24480 days.
11:26480 days? Yeah.
11:28And is that total parental leave,
11:31or that's paternity leave for dads?
11:35Total for both.
11:37And who pays the paternity leave?
11:40Well, the government.
11:42Or taxes. Yeah, or taxes.
11:44Yeah, we all do.
11:46I'm coming in, if that's OK.
11:48I'll move slowly.
11:51I mean, I feel this is not just accepted,
11:55it's enjoyed, it's part of life.
11:57Would you agree? Do you know this?
12:00I've been home for six months,
12:02but I can't see it affecting me negatively in any way.
12:06It's natural.
12:08But it's also tactical by society, isn't it?
12:12Because it's ensuring that women
12:15not just continue to provide economically for the family,
12:19but also for the state as well.
12:21It would be super wasteful
12:24to take all the moms that are super smart.
12:27We don't want to put them off the market.
12:29They contribute so much to our economy and welfare.
12:33And of course, this being Sweden,
12:36I think women take up a greater percentage of degrees than men as well.
12:40So they're the better educated section of the workforce.
12:43If you do the math, and I love doing the math,
12:46for every month that the dad takes paternal leave,
12:50the average increase in salary for the mother increases.
12:56So it's pure mathematics and economics.
12:59It's good for everyone.
13:05Almost as one, the dads have said,
13:09it's nap time, we've got to go.
13:12They've got a schedule and they know what it is.
13:15It's easy to start thinking everything's perfect here.
13:19Of course it isn't.
13:21Sweden has problems familiar in other Western countries,
13:24an ageing population, faltering economic growth,
13:28and beneath the surface,
13:30this country has some more dramatic, troubling fault lines.
13:39I travelled south to the city of Malmö.
13:45Can you just check, is this it?
13:48John, I suppose there's the BBC team.
13:52I'm Simon.
13:54Welcome, Simon. Nice to see you.
13:56John Wallender runs an elite police unit.
14:06Bloody hell, John.
14:08This is our armed vehicle.
14:10Basically, we use it in high-risk tasks.
14:16This is the first police edition of this vehicle in the world.
14:22Some military units use it as well.
14:25That is quite the beast.
14:27Absolutely.
14:29The Swedish police are arming up
14:31to confront an extraordinary crime wave.
14:36What's been happening here is completely staggering.
14:39There have been hundreds of shootings.
14:43Hand grenades have been thrown into buildings.
14:46It's been described as low-intensity conflict.
14:51The Prime Minister here has said
14:53Sweden has never known anything like this.
14:56Roughly ten years ago,
14:58violent crime began to rise, dramatically.
15:01Deadly shootings among drug gangs,
15:04largely run by people from immigrant backgrounds,
15:07have since more than tripled.
15:09The gun murder rate in Stockholm
15:11is now roughly 30 times that of London.
15:14Sweden has the highest gun crime death rate in Europe,
15:17after Montenegro and Albania.
15:19And it's not just guns.
15:21Here's a bit of a clue to what this squad does.
15:25John is the head of one of Sweden's three bomb squads.
15:29Welcome.
15:30Oh, my God.
15:32We have gathered a whole lot of things during our missions.
15:37This is what we're dealing with.
15:39Got grenades here.
15:40The hand grenades are being used in the criminal conflicts.
15:46It's absolutely lethal.
15:48It's an astonishing situation.
15:50Most of the hand grenades being thrown
15:53are being thrown by very young boys and girls.
15:57What sort of age is very young?
15:59We're talking high school age, 14, 15 years old.
16:03Serious? Yeah.
16:05Being used by the older criminals,
16:08giving them assignments to, OK, throw this grenade on this site.
16:13That is quite staggering.
16:15Yeah, it's totally non-acceptable.
16:17Kids throwing hand grenades? Yeah.
16:20Somewhere around 2018,
16:23we experienced rapidly increasing numbers
16:27of homemade bombs, hand grenades and so on.
16:30Mostly homemade bombs, IDs.
16:34IEDs, improvised explosive devices.
16:37This is a phrase we only normally hear about war zones.
16:43Yeah, I know.
16:44But this is what you're encountering?
16:46Yeah, absolutely.
16:47This is one of the typical thermos bombs.
16:52It's a thermos flask?
16:53Yeah, just a common thermos flask.
16:55And the criminals have stuffed them with dynamite
16:59and then you have a very potent ID.
17:02Gangs are using this in Sweden?
17:05Yeah, around 100 a year in criminal context.
17:10A year? Yeah, a year.
17:12Being used in urban areas where people are living.
17:16To a week? Yeah.
17:18That's astonishing.
17:20Gang warfare has exploded here,
17:22fuelled by the rising cocaine use in Sweden and across Europe.
17:26Gangs have taken advantage of liberal policies
17:29that children shouldn't be arrested
17:31and actively recruited them.
17:33Police say there's now around 1,200 child foot soldiers,
17:36bombers and even contract killers in their early teens
17:40working for the gangs.
17:42So they're giving me a little bit of a sense
17:44of what it is to be in the squad.
17:50The situation is out of control.
17:52Bomb units can get four call-outs a day.
17:55Now let's go for the jacket.
18:02Oh, my God.
18:04There's more. There's the front panel as well.
18:07OK.
18:13A fan has just started up? Yes.
18:16It has built-in fans? Built-in fans and cooling system.
18:24So the hands are clear?
18:26The hands are the most unprotected.
18:29If anything explodes, you'll live, but you might lose your hands.
18:33But you need the feeling in your hands.
18:35That's why we don't use gloves.
18:37Your guys are wearing these into situations in urban Sweden?
18:43Yes.
18:45So we walk out.
18:47Overall, many crime rates here are around the European average.
18:55How on earth do you guys do this?
18:58The exploitation of children in crime and gangland bombings
19:02are among the worst in the developed world.
19:05Not long after I visited, Sweden recorded 30 bombings in one month.
19:10I mean, it feels like a situation Sweden has still not got full control of.
19:17No, I think ten years ago, no-one of us could foresee that coming.
19:22But today, it's our reality.
19:25How on earth has Sweden got to this?
19:30The land of Abba is now top of all Western countries for IED bombings.
19:39The rise in violence follows an increase in immigration.
19:43Most of the perpetrators, as well as the victims,
19:46come from immigrant communities.
19:48It's caused many Swedes to question long-cherished liberal ideals.
19:55Back in Stockholm, I arrange to meet someone
19:57who's witnessed the violence first-hand.
20:00There she is.
20:02Hi, Faisa! Do you want to come round?
20:0626-year-old Faisa Idl is a poet who's written about her life
20:10growing up in Sweden in a tricky neighbourhood.
20:13Nice to meet you too, Simon Reeve. Hello.
20:16So we're in the centre of Stockholm.
20:19Does this feel like your Stockholm, your city?
20:23No, it doesn't. It doesn't feel like home.
20:26So how do you feel when you come here?
20:29As a tourist. Really?
20:32An outsider? Yes.
20:34That's not good. No, it's not.
20:37That's why I write about it in, like, it's two different countries in one country.
20:41Like, this Sweden and our Sweden.
20:45Faisa was born and raised here.
20:48Her family were refugees from Somalia 31 years ago.
20:52In recent decades, Swedes welcomed refugees from world conflicts,
20:56more than 100,000 from the wars in the Balkans
20:59and hundreds of thousands from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan.
21:03Many young men.
21:06Asylum immigration into Sweden has been roughly four times the rate
21:10in other Western European countries.
21:12Housing's been provided, but often far from city centres,
21:16in estates where up to 90% of residents
21:19are now from immigrant backgrounds.
21:22So this is Rinkeby? Yes.
21:24And Tensta? Yes.
21:26Two areas of suburban Stockholm.
21:30Locals long complain these estates are cut off,
21:34hemmed in by motorways.
21:36They have high unemployment and they've been engulfed in gang warfare.
21:40Let's go, Simon.
21:42I grew up in this area. I used to go to a school.
21:45Right. That's over there.
21:47And especially this place, we always come here to smoke cigarettes.
21:53What would you say are the main problems
21:56that your generation faced growing up here?
22:01Poverty.
22:03And our way to becoming a rich person is through crimes.
22:09For us, that way was the only way.
22:12So I think most of us don't want to do these crimes,
22:16but we want to have the money.
22:18Most of them, if you ask them, why are you killing?
22:21They will tell you it's for the money,
22:23because it's only for the money.
22:25And when you say killing, you really mean that?
22:28Yeah, I really mean it.
22:30It's a part of life. It's actually a daily routine.
22:36I know murderers and I know the victims.
22:42This is the important place.
22:46Yes.
22:50She's been waiting for you.
22:52Hey!
22:53Faiza took me to meet her friend, Lotta.
23:01I come here and I have a lot of stress.
23:04And Lotta here, she's like a therapist, you know?
23:07So I speak to her about things.
23:09So it's not just a saloon, you know?
23:11You come here and you can release your feelings as well.
23:14You're part of the community. Yes.
23:16It's quite difficult to comprehend
23:19what's been happening here in Stockholm,
23:23but in Sweden, over the last ten,
23:26just under ten years, really, isn't it?
23:29There's been a huge increase in the number of children
23:33who have been joining gangs, who have been sucked into gang life.
23:38Can you give us a sense of what has happened?
23:43I lost my best friend at this gang war
23:46that has been happening for ten years, for decades.
23:49And when Sweden didn't see it as a problem,
23:53I see it as a crisis, you know?
23:55I see it as a very big crisis.
23:57Like, they were so young, two people died.
23:59That's absolutely a crisis.
24:01That's a terrible situation.
24:03But these two people that died, young people that died,
24:05was two black people from the suburbs.
24:07So Sweden as a country didn't recognise there was a crisis?
24:11Maybe it was...
24:13Yeah, but this is not really a Swedish issue.
24:17Right.
24:18So it will not come to our places.
24:20To our home. We're safe.
24:22So that's why we can wait on it.
24:24And that has been like...
24:26It feels like a betrayal for us.
24:28Of course.
24:29We've been living like this for years.
24:31Because you're Sweden.
24:32Yeah, you're born in Sweden, right?
24:34Yes. I'm born in Sweden.
24:35I lost all my friends.
24:37I lost all my neighbours, you know?
24:39Just the statics of numbers.
24:41It has affected everybody.
24:43Everybody's affected, you know why?
24:45Because it's not a racial thing.
24:47It's a human problem.
24:49Yeah, but the first thing is they need to see us as humans.
24:52Yeah.
24:54Start with that.
24:55Start with that.
24:56Give me a hug.
25:02Yeah, thank you too.
25:04Not everyone who feels excluded or ignored joins a gang.
25:07Most migrants here live blameless lives,
25:09contributing to the country that took them in.
25:12There's debate here about why crime has exploded.
25:15But there's no disputing huge numbers of migrant children
25:18have been caught up in the drug wars.
25:20Faisal's lost friends and close family.
25:23Is this an area you would come to when you were younger?
25:26Yes.
25:29But I haven't been here since 2018.
25:34Because my brother was found dead here.
25:39Do you feel able to tell us what happened?
25:43When I saw him that day laying in some white...
25:48What is it called when you bury a...
25:52In a body bag?
25:53Yes, in a body bag.
25:55In a body bag.
25:57So I haven't been here since this.
26:05You haven't been back?
26:06No, I haven't.
26:08We were so many of us.
26:10Like, I don't understand why he was the one, you know.
26:13He has four kids asking where his dad is
26:16and they cannot understand how their father,
26:19that is a taxi driver, studying to become a doctor, you know.
26:24Like, I have done some things in my life.
26:27Like, I wish they could take me.
26:29Like, they didn't need to take him.
26:32I'm so sorry, Faisal.
26:37Faisal's brother was one of many victims of drug violence.
26:41Another of her brothers, a gang leader, is in prison.
26:45Swedish police say there are more than 60,000 active or connected gang members.
26:51Many argue poverty is the main driver of crime in violence hotspots.
26:55And the unemployment rate here for people born abroad is certainly shocking.
26:59Four times higher than for people born in Sweden.
27:02The worst gap in the developed world.
27:05But politicians from the right and even many liberal Swedes
27:09now place blame for the crime wave squarely on mass immigration
27:13from what they've called culturally distant countries.
27:19Faisal wanted me to meet her mother, Nasteho,
27:22who was given asylum in Sweden more than 30 years ago.
27:26Oh, thank you so much, Mum.
27:29Can you remember a point, Mum, a time
27:33when you realised things were starting to go sour?
27:45So, do you remember going to the authorities in some way?
27:50It's so hard being a mum in this environment
27:53because you feel so much and it's so draining.
28:20Nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay.
28:25I'm born in Sweden. I've never been to Somalia in my life.
28:44I cannot. No, Mum, I hear nothing.
28:50She's putting the blame on us.
28:52Like, you guys should know better, like,
28:54that you're not in your own country.
29:02Hundreds of thousands of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees
29:07have come to Sweden and to Scotland to seek asylum.
29:11They've come to Sweden to seek asylum.
29:14Hundreds of thousands of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees
29:18have come to Sweden and to Scandinavia,
29:21and I think there's been something of a sense here and across the region
29:25that almost just by being here, people would become Scandinavian
29:31and would enjoy the benefits of life as a Scandinavian.
29:37But that is clearly not the case.
29:39Now, we can debate whether there's been a failure to integrate,
29:43whether there's been a failure of integration,
29:47and the consequences are now being felt.
29:59I left Sweden and headed south, across the Baltic Sea.
30:06I'm just coming up to the bridge now,
30:08which takes me from Sweden into Denmark,
30:10which is the country on my journey around Scandinavia.
30:13For full transparency, I should tell you my wife is half Danish
30:18and I've been to Denmark many times to see the family there.
30:23It's a country that I feel I know pretty well
30:27and one that I really love.
30:35The Ursun Road and Rail Crossing is something of an engineering marvel.
30:39It's still the longest cable-stayed combined road and rail bridge in the world,
30:44for any bridge spotters watching.
30:46Built on time and to budget.
30:51And it's crucial because it helps link Sweden
30:54and the Scandinavian peninsula to Denmark and the rest of Western Europe.
31:02Denmark's the smallest country in Scandinavia, but punches above its weight.
31:07Danish companies control 15% of the world's shipping containers.
31:11They're huge exporters of industrially farmed bacon.
31:14And the Danish firm that makes the weight-loss drug Azempic
31:18is now one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies on Earth.
31:21The Danes are a straightforward bunch. Practical, unshockable.
31:25Oh, my goodness, look at that. Pretty raunchy.
31:29That's the thing about the Scandis.
31:32They can have this super neat, perfectly formed little community
31:37and a couple copulating in the main square.
31:41They'd be like, stop making a fuss, Simon.
31:45It's just a lovely statue showing the beautiful act of love.
31:53So I've reached the west coast of Denmark, next to the sea,
31:58and the wind blows strong here.
32:01A lot of wind turbines.
32:04Denmark is a global leader in wind energy.
32:07It generates around 60% of their electricity
32:10and they export the technology around the world.
32:13Many of Britain's offshore wind farms are built and operated by Danish companies.
32:17Let's go and take a closer look.
32:20The company that built this huge wind turbine
32:23allowed me to go up it while it was stopped for maintenance.
32:26Which at the moment holds the title
32:29for being the most powerful wind turbine in the world.
32:35And that means it's also one of the biggest and tallest.
32:38From the ground to the top tip of a blade,
32:41this wind turbine is almost as tall as the Eiffel Tower.
32:45Oh, my good Lord.
32:47Not ideal for those with vertigo.
32:53Oh, my.
32:56Oh, my goodness. I really can't.
32:59Oh, I must... Oh, my.
33:04This is utterly epic.
33:16To give you a sense of how big this turbine is,
33:19look at these ones over here, these turbines.
33:21They're not baby turbines, those are normal wind turbines
33:24and we're looking down on them.
33:27This single wind turbine powers around 20,000 homes.
33:3520,000.
33:38There was, apparently, not a single planning objection
33:41from locals to this massive turbine.
33:44Yes, of course I'm pleased to be on the ground.
33:48Contrast that with the UK,
33:50where we can't erect a shed without complaints escalating to the Supreme Court
33:54because here locals were involved.
33:56Danes pioneered community groups that own many turbines and wind farms.
34:01Danish universities, governments and firms have worked together to develop wind tech.
34:06People trust scientists and politicians,
34:09so there's fewer objections and delays.
34:12All right, we're here.
34:14And right now, the Danes are at the cutting edge,
34:17taking wind power up a notch more.
34:19Knock, knock.
34:20I went to see a Danish inventor, one of the original wind turbine designers.
34:25His name's Henrik Stiesdal.
34:27Henrik?
34:28Yes?
34:29We're meeting you in your secret lab.
34:32Yes.
34:33Secret?
34:34Actually, you need to close your eyes when we speak here.
34:36Oh, do we?
34:37You've got the glasses on.
34:39You had your team here.
34:40You need the glasses.
34:41I need glasses as well.
34:42Yes.
34:43OK, I'll get them on.
34:44Is that because things go boom here?
34:47That's the price of having fun in the lab.
34:50Yes, yes, yes, yes.
34:54And do we need to...?
34:55Oh, there's somebody really special here.
34:58Just recently, he jointly won an award that is often described
35:03as being the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for engineering.
35:07Henrik is obsessed with clean energy.
35:10In his lab, he's searching for one of the holy grails.
35:14How to use electricity from wind to make hydrogen,
35:17a clean fuel with enough oomph to power planes, ships and lorries.
35:23But he's also still inventing wind turbines, new and bigger.
35:29So this is just one section for a mast?
35:33For a small wind turbine.
35:35A small one?
35:36A small one.
35:37Henrik jokes his only real qualification is as a ski instructor.
35:41He didn't finish university.
35:43But in the 1970s, Henrik designed one of the first modern wind turbines.
35:48His inventions have since led to about 1,000 patents.
35:52He was in charge of setting up the world's very first offshore wind farm.
35:56These are for offshore turbines, and they are much bigger than onshore turbines.
36:03These are some of the largest sections that are built here.
36:06Out at sea, the wind blows stronger and more consistently.
36:10With current technology, offshore wind farms need to be in shallow water.
36:14That limits where we can put them and how much power we can generate.
36:18It's a problem Henrik's trying to solve.
36:23In very large parts of the world, you can't do offshore wind
36:26because the water gets to be too deep.
36:28Too deep means more than 60 metres.
36:31We want to become really global.
36:33We need to have structures that can float
36:36so that you can go to much deeper waters.
36:39And that's what we are working on here in this company.
36:42Floating wind turbines.
36:44Yes. We can produce ten times the power needs of the world with floating offshore wind.
36:49Even if we had no solar, no land-based wind, no nuclear, no nothing,
36:54the resource is just huge.
36:56Henrik, ten times.
36:58Ten times.
37:00Yes.
37:01So these are parts that make up a floating offshore wind tower foundation.
37:07What we have here is a centre column.
37:10This is the floating structure on which a wind turbine would sit.
37:15Yes.
37:16I don't think we'll put them all on, but here goes one for instance that will fit there.
37:21So this you've just swiftly created using your Lego, as it were, appropriately.
37:29So what of that is this?
37:32So the upper part here, from that little line there, the Lego brick is this one here.
37:42But look at the size of this.
37:45This piece here in this structure is just this.
37:50Yes.
37:51Henrik, you think big.
37:53But our problem is big.
37:55It needs scale.
37:57How confident are you this will work?
38:01We are very confident.
38:02It would be the biggest factory-made pieces of equipment in the world, I think.
38:06There must be lots of competition to create this.
38:09Yes, but in actual fact, the goal of our company is not money-making.
38:16The goal of our company is impact on the fight against climate change.
38:20We hope that can be an inspiration for the world, so to speak.
38:24Wing power has limitations and critics,
38:27but around the world it's already revolutionised the way we generate electricity.
38:32The Danes have profited by innovating and working together.
38:36They're leading the way.
38:41I need to get a ferry.
38:43I'm heading towards the end of my journey through Scandinavia.
38:49And I'm struck by the feeling more than ever
38:53how much of our news, our media and our culture
38:59focuses in the UK on what's going on in the United States.
39:03We have much more in common in so many ways with this part of the world
39:09than the USA.
39:11I don't think we know enough about
39:16the Scandis and Scandinavia.
39:19But things are going on here that really matter.
39:34My last stop was the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
39:38Even by the standards of Scandinavia, Denmark stands out.
39:42Danes top global surveys of happiness and life satisfaction.
39:47They pay high taxes but get generous welfare, free healthcare,
39:51subsidised childcare, free education, including free university.
39:55They're wealthy, one of the most equal societies on earth.
39:59What's the secret?
40:01As I walked the pleasant streets of Copenhagen, I came across a clue.
40:05Come on, tell me what that is.
40:08A little toddler having a sleep outside in a pram
40:12in an area, a public area, with lots of flats around.
40:17Hiya. Have you just left your child out to have a little nap?
40:21It's a bit unusual what you've just done from our perspective.
40:26Well, I live right in there, so I leave her there to sleep
40:29and then I can hear her and we have a little monitor,
40:31so when she wakes up, I just go out.
40:33I think a Danish mother in New York was leaving her child out.
40:38She was arrested, wasn't she?
40:40That suggests only do that in Denmark.
40:42Probably a good idea, yeah.
40:44You're a more trusting people, aren't you?
40:46I think if you give people trust,
40:48they will also show you that they're worthy of trust, right, in a way?
40:52Have a good day. All right, thank you.
40:54Public trust is still so high here,
40:57a toddler can be left napping in fresh air.
41:00Nearly 90% of Danes have a high level of trust in others.
41:05Trust isn't just nice, it's critical.
41:08Trust equals less corruption and crime,
41:11more investment, collaboration, productivity.
41:14Academics have put a value on trust.
41:17Some think trust accounts for 25% of Danish wealth.
41:22I do think trust is the secret sauce,
41:27the glue that helps to hold Scandinavia and Scandinavians together
41:31and makes this one of the most successful parts of the planet ever.
41:37So how do you build trust?
41:39Well, in Denmark, one way is through joining a club.
41:42For football, volunteering, activism are anything.
41:45Many are helped and subsidised by the government.
41:4890% of Danes are members of clubs.
41:51On average, they join nearly three each.
41:58Choirs are hugely popular. Fiambo helped found this one.
42:02So you're not a church choir?
42:04We're not at all a church choir.
42:06We are actually a choir that works against the fossil fuel industry.
42:11Through song? Through song.
42:13Through your voices? Yeah, through our voices.
42:15And through gathering together? Yeah, yeah.
42:17Danes are brilliant at joining and starting clubs and associations.
42:23That's why it's so important to gather and make communities that can work together.
42:32This is key.
42:34Danes belong to more groups, clubs and unions than any other nationality.
42:38That helps build trust, happiness and social cohesion.
42:53Dødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødød
43:23Dødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødødød
43:53where it can feel uncomfortable.
44:03Just like in Sweden, here in Denmark there have been issues,
44:07I think it's fair to say,
44:09and controversy surrounding migration and immigration.
44:12But the government here has been tackling it very differently.
44:15I met up with Mohamed Aslan, cab driver and campaigner.
44:20Mohamed, hello. I'm Simon.
44:22Hello, Simon. Very nice to see you.
44:25Mohamed speaks English but prefers Danish.
44:50He must be a very proud father.
45:02I am. I am.
45:12Partly in response to the crime wave in Sweden and terrorism here,
45:16Denmark's taken a really tough line on integration,
45:19not just encouraging it but pushing it.
45:22Islamic full-face coverings are banned.
45:25The government even introduced what was called a ghetto law,
45:28aimed at preventing neighbourhoods being dominated
45:31by so-called non-Western immigrants,
45:33along with high crime and unemployment.
45:35Let's get out. Yes. Let's have a look.
45:38One designated ghetto was the multicultural neighbourhood Mjolnirparken,
45:43where Mohamed raised his family.
45:46The extraordinary, unusual, extreme, perhaps, about this law
45:51is the identification of non-Western.
45:55It's basically saying that if you're not from Western Europe
45:59or some of the English-speaking countries,
46:01Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc,
46:03then you can be classed as non-Western
46:06and the state, as a result, treats you differently.
46:11This was classed as a ghetto
46:13because 50% of people came from non-Western backgrounds.
46:17To reduce that number, some families were actually forced to relocate.
46:21Mohamed was one of them.
46:23HE SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY
46:40Are you OK? Mm. I'm OK.
46:44You'd rather not look at it?
46:54HE CONTINUES
47:17What reasons did they give you for the evictions?
47:24HE CONTINUES
47:36And in many ways, non-Western means brown or black.
47:41Brown, black or Muslim. Mm.
47:44That's my reading and interpretation of the law.
47:48Is that yours? Exactly the same.
47:53HE CONTINUES
48:01The people were forced out of their homes.
48:04The apartments, houses, homes they lived in were sold off.
48:09Many were refurbished.
48:11New families have moved in.
48:14It's been described as the social experiment of the century.
48:18It's also been described as social policy with a bulldozer.
48:24No-one's ended up homeless, but Mohamed's family
48:27and thousands more from other ghetto areas
48:29have been or will be rehoused in predominantly white areas.
48:33With the stated aim, they'll become more integrated into Danish society,
48:37with access to better jobs and education.
48:40And people, including those from very different cultures,
48:43will absorb Danish liberal values.
48:47Reports identified early language skills as key to integration,
48:51so non-Western parents in ghetto areas
48:54are now required to send their one-year-olds to preschools
48:58to ensure they learn Danish and traditions and values,
49:02or they lose government welfare benefits.
49:05Ghettos have since been renamed parallel societies.
49:10Did your children play here? Yeah.
49:13Yeah, we have played together with kids here.
49:18The Danish government, of course, will say that they were worried,
49:24they are worried about integration.
49:27They now talk about parallel societies, don't they?
49:30Do you see that concern, that issue?
49:48Some say these policies are racist.
49:51Mohamed is part of a group mounting a legal challenge.
49:55Others say that they're an attempt to eradicate pockets of deprivation,
49:59integrate newcomers into super-successful Denmark
50:02and prevent the kind of violence happening in Sweden.
50:05The laws have support across much of the political spectrum here.
50:11I really want to understand what's happening here.
50:14I'm being allowed into the Danish parliament.
50:18MP and housing spokesman Thomas Monberg
50:21is part of the governing coalition led by his Social Democratic Party,
50:25and including parties called the Liberals and the Moderates.
50:28We've got football tops here. Yeah, there's football over there.
50:32Is this your... This is your party? Yes, it is.
50:35Look at this, this is very nuclear family,
50:38very traditional old poster here. Yes, it is.
50:41Family values. Family values, but the children have to be safe
50:45and nicely home from school.
50:48It's interesting you have this in your office
50:50because your party is unusual from our perspective.
50:53You're quite left-wing economically on many issues,
50:58workers' rights, etc. Yes.
51:00But traditional cultural values, family values as well. Yeah.
51:06So, Thomas, can you explain this ghetto law to me?
51:10We started to see some areas
51:13where there were a lot of foreign people living
51:17and the state of education was lower
51:20and more and more children didn't go to school
51:23and that was something we had to do something about.
51:26But why focus on this phrase, non-Western?
51:32Why that? Because it sounds like it's targeted at...
51:36It sounds like it's targeted mainly at Muslims, in truth.
51:40Yes, but it's not.
51:42That's because of the culture we have in Denmark
51:45and that's about equality of gender,
51:48that's equality of education, welfare and all that.
51:53Are you saying that non-Western people,
51:56people outside that definition,
52:00have less awareness or understanding of those core values?
52:05We can't accept that a girl growing up in a society in Denmark
52:10doesn't have the same rights as every other girl.
52:13So you're saying this is an attempt to enforce
52:18and impose fundamental Danish values?
52:22Yes, because we want everybody that lives here to have a good life.
52:26But what you're talking about is painful for some people.
52:31You are literally requiring people to move out of their homes.
52:36You are creating a lot of trauma for some people.
52:40I don't think you always can say trauma
52:43because not many are getting evicted.
52:47I've met somebody who's crying because of what's happened.
52:51Yes, I know, I know.
52:53If you have to have a society as ours,
52:58you have to be aware of what keeps us together
53:04than what's taking us apart.
53:07And the thing that could take us apart is
53:10if people were living parallel to each other
53:14in restricted areas where there only were people of non-Western.
53:20You couldn't get any integration
53:23because who should integrate those people in the Danish society?
53:26You have to have Danes to integrate these people into our society
53:31to give them our values and the feelings of our values
53:35because they're universal for us, these values.
53:42This is the most traditional Danish lunch I have seen.
53:46Yes, it is.
53:47My wife is half Danish.
53:49So the open sandwich is number one.
53:55I know from personal experience Danes can be brutally honest.
53:59They don't shy from tough conversations or facts.
54:02Oh, my goodness. Yes?
54:04Unlike other European states,
54:06the government here publishes controversial and worrying crime statistics.
54:10They revealed men from some non-Western backgrounds
54:13are as much as six times more likely to commit violent crime than white Danes.
54:18The facts horrified voters.
54:20You release crime statistics showing the nation of origin
54:26of people convicted of violent offences.
54:30Why have you been doing that?
54:32That's because a lot of people were feeling this.
54:37And if we want to solve ordinary people's problems,
54:43then we have to know which problems there are in society.
54:47There were a problem in society,
54:50and these high amounts of crime rates reduces the trust
54:56or breaks the trust between people living in our country,
55:00and that's very, very important for us.
55:02The coalition here says by listening to the concerns
55:05of all voters on immigration, they maintain trust.
55:08Immigration's been reduced.
55:10Integration is required.
55:12Asylum's now seen as temporary
55:14rather than a route to permanent settlement.
55:16I think sometimes in the UK there's been this feeling
55:19that people want something difficult.
55:23They want less immigration into the country, for example.
55:28And a lot of our politicians haven't really liked that view,
55:32and often they've kind of ignored what people want.
55:37We've tended to believe as a country more in multiculturalism.
55:42I sense in Denmark you don't really follow that path.
55:45You believe more in a Danish way, in Danish values,
55:49in monoculturalism almost.
55:51It depends on how you look at it,
55:53because if you look on it in a culture
55:58where you can practise your own beliefs,
56:02that's allowed in Denmark.
56:04But you have to agree it's in here that the laws in Denmark are made,
56:11and it's the democracy that stands over everything else.
56:16In Denmark and Sweden,
56:18attitudes to immigration have shifted fundamentally.
56:22Leaders here now talk about the financial and social costs.
56:26Sweden's reduced overall net immigration to zero.
56:29Denmark has the same target.
56:31Fewer people are being granted asylum.
56:34In fact, they'll offer up to £26,000 for immigrants to return home.
56:40For liberal Scandis, it's a paradigm shift.
56:48I'd reached the end of my journey.
56:51Clear that for most people,
56:53the Scandi countries provide a magnificent standard of living.
56:57To be born Norwegian, that's winning a lottery, really, isn't it?
57:02It feels like it.
57:04But remember, in Norway,
57:06it's largely built on the fossil fuels
57:08that threaten to permanently damage our climate.
57:11And even in liberal Sweden,
57:13I met indigenous people who feel forgotten and excluded.
57:16It's like a lifestyle that's slowly fading away.
57:20Scandinavia has enjoyed decades of peace.
57:23But across the region, there's a genuine fear war may be around the corner.
57:29But despite threats and problems,
57:31Scandinavian society still seemed to work better than anywhere else I've been.
57:35You love it, don't you? I can tell.
57:39At the root of it all, people kept talking to me about trust.
57:43People trust their neighbours, the state, teachers.
57:47They even seem to trust politicians to take sensible decisions.
57:50Look at this.
57:52I saw shops left open,
57:54where people are trusted to pay for what they take away.
57:58This, for me, I think is something that is central
58:01to the success of modern Scandinavia, and that is trust.
58:07This journey has opened my eyes to a part of the world we often overlook,
58:11perhaps the most successful human societies that have ever existed.
58:17Definitely worth knowing a bit more about.
58:19I've loved every second.
58:28A film by
58:32A film by
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58:56A film by