Everywhere you look, you see how the coalition system of government is failing. Look to the left and you see the wreckage of a plan to make it easier to sack people.

Look to the right and you see the mess that is the education system which has lost track of which method it is supposed to be following.
Look straight up the middle and you see a broken down car that was supposed to speed the country towards road pricing and put an end to traffic jams.
Instead of bold steps, the Dutch political system, which has to cater for multi-party interests, produces indecisiveness, compromise and endless delays. The deadline for road pricing, for example, has been pushed back to 2016.
You really wonder how anything gets done. How can Holland have such a thriving economy when its government seems to spend most of its time running on the spot?
Probably because most of the country’s success has nothing to do with the government. And maybe the situation on the roads, in schools and in the labour market is not so bad after all.
Although school pupils in the north rioted this week over the number of lessons they have to follow, the masses have not yet stormed parliament. One thing is for sure, Holland is unlikely to have a single-party government in the near future.