This story is in the context of recent developments in Sweden.

Two boys grew up together at school and were good friends. But they were very different. The one was absolutely brilliant at everything he did, and whilst still at high school worked out a way to use nuclear fusion to generate usable energy. For this discovery he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, the first time it had ever been awarded to someone so young.

The other boy was very good at sports and physical things but although he was rather lacking in intellectual achievement he had great albeit unfounded and frustrated ambition. He left high school with no qualifications whatsoever.

The two boys drifted apart as their lives took them in completely different directions. But many years later they met up again. The brilliant boy had gone on to direct one of the nation's top scientific research establishments. His erstwhile friend was now the government minister telling him what to do.