The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Bosse Ringholm. Mr. Ringholm had the poor taste to call some of Sweden's police lazy and one policeman an idiot. This was all overheard by a journalist and now people in Sweden are calling for the Deputy PM's resignation.

Granted there are lazy and dumb police, and there are dumb politicians too and Mr. Ringholm is just one example. Few people office know how hard and stressful the work of our police and emergency services is. Instead they either make life more difficult for these people or make dumb comments like here.

For not appreciating the hard work police do, Bosse Ringholm is today's Knucklehead of the Day. Monday Special/Open Post/Supper- Cafe Oregano, Mudville Gazette and Basil's blog

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden's deputy prime minister faced calls to step down on Tuesday for calling the police "bloody lazy" in a conversation with an aide that was overheard by a journalist who had just interviewed him.

Bosse Ringholm complained police were poor at catching shopkeepers running illegal slot machines.

"It is not so difficult for the local police to go in and check it, but they don't. They are so bloody lazy!" Ringholm said to the aide after failing to hang up his telephone properly following an interview with TV4.

He was recorded calling one unnamed Stockholm policeman an "idiot" and, when the aide commented that police do not take burglaries seriously, said: "They prefer doing nothing because then they don't risk making a mistake."

Ringholm apologised to the police but rejected calls for his resignation. Prime Minister Goran Persson, sinking in opinion polls before elections next year, said he was "surprised".