Progressive Policies For The 21st Century.

 

Roberto Matta.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Matta 

There was an election on 12 September to elect a new government, so far there is no news who will be forming the new coalition government.

At the moment there are negotiations between the VVD which is the right wing Dutch Liberal party and the PVDA which is the Dutch Labour party.

I was hopeful that the elections and a new government would mean that they are not going to pursue the plan to restrict the use of coffee shops.

By making it law that everyone who wants to use a cannabis coffee shop has to register in order to get a pass to permit the use of one coffee shop only.

I can imagine the uproar if a law was passed that makes people register and get a permit to use one bar/cafe only or being allowed to go to only one supermarket.

Apparently this ridiculous proposal has not fallen along with the last failed coalition government, which was made up of ragtag parties.

One of these was the SGP, which is the Strict Protestant Reformed party, who do not allow women to be full members. T

They wanted to restrict the use of cannabis coffee shops, in fact they wanted them banned.

As neither the VVD, the right wing liberals and the CDA, the Christian Democrats had enough votes.

They had to accept parties like the SGP and their ridiculous policies so that they could form a government, they didn't care as long as they were in government.

They also needed parties such as the PVV, the party of freedom, the leader is Geert Wilders who once was a member of the VVD.

Until he decided to leave and form his own party, he is an opportunist who will play any card as long as it gets him power.

He likes to play the anti-Muslim card, and is also anti-Eastern Europeans especially Polish people as well as anti Turkish people and Moroccans.

Geert Wilders is a liability for any government, as he was for the last government which fell because he was alienating many of the Netherlands trading partners.

One of his policies was for the Netherlands to leave the European Union, this was in order to pursue his discriminatory policies.

Against immigrants, and anyone Wilders perceived as vulnerable these discriminatory policies are not tolerated in the European Union.

Which is why the PVV did not do well in the elections, as nobody agreed with anti-European Union ideas, not even members of their own party.

the SPG did very badly in the elections because of their policies concerning cannabis coffee shops as well as them being anti-Sunday trading.

The CDA did badly, because of the ill-fated coalition government, now we will all have to wait and see who is going to be the new government.

Hopefully the new government will have the moral courage to get rid of the proposal to bring in the restrictions on the use of cannabis coffee shops.

In the current climate it would seem to be an economic disaster to restrict the use of cannabis coffee shop is to either tourists or residents of the Netherlands.

In the meantime I and everybody else will just have to wait and see what happens, hopefully progressive policies will win again backward policies.

Crystal Ball.

Australian Art.

Still no sign of the good weather that was promised at the end of the week, instead it has been cool, grey and overcast with continual steady rain all day.

The seating was brought back all smartly covered; we were given an extra cover which is very handy as it would be good to be able to wash it from time to time.

It gave us both such a boost when Ruud from Summit turned up this morning, right on time at 10 am and brought the seating back nicely covered.

It was noticeable right away that it was easier for Richie to get the straps on me prior to being hoisted out of the wheelchair.

The seat cover will make a big difference indeed, it also looks good and it feels better sitting in it so it is a win, win situation all round.

Shame about all the rain again today and it is also windy and cool enough to have the heating on briefly this morning.

Well I did not win big in the lottery here last night, shame had such good plans, think I won 4,50 instead of a couple of million.

Sadder than the lottery is the results of the General Election here, the voters were obviously extremely unhappy with the CDA(Conservative)/PVDA (Labour Party)/ Coalition.

The voters were very dissatisfied with the CDA taking them into what they saw as George Bush Junior and Tony Blair’s illegal war in Iraq.

The CDA paid for this heavily, they lost 20 seats, the Labour Party lost one seat but worse of all the Geert Wilders Party, called the PVV, the Party for Freedom won 15 seats from the CDA.

Geert Wilders is a right wing populist xenophobe, who cashes in wherever he can, all that concerns him is promoting himself and his career.

The VVD, the Liberal Democrats have got 3 seats more than the PVDA and will form the government; the prospect is that they will do this with the PVV.

Could be unpleasant times ahead as they will make cuts to the budget, Welfare Benefits and Health Care are bound to suffer plus they will no doubt try to close the coffee shops.

And they will most likely start harassing people deemed to be foreigners by their skin colour; Geert Wilders would like to stop the Immigration of all people of colour.

He has no compunction in stirring up anti Moroccan sentiments conveniently forgetting that the Moroccan community have lived here for many years, they came here on invitation and work hard and pay their taxes.

This General Election has taken away the last remnants of tolerance and liberalism The Netherlands has been famous for.

Oh well we shall see, I have no crystal ball and it is not possible to see into the future so I will not try to do so, living here and now is enough for me