He is doing what Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former Director of Communications, used to call the "masochism strategy".

BBC: Nick Clegg's radio phone-in and the masochism strategy

Unsurprisingly, once we phrase tax policy as a collective exercise in fiscal masochism, our threshold for tax pain turns out to be very low.

CNN: 3 ways to relieve our tax hangovers

According to Isleifur Fridriksson, who oversees the facility, which is free and open to the public two nights a week, this peculiarly Nordic brand of masochism has never been more popular.

BBC: Credit collapse numbs Icelanders