It is terribly kind of the Dutch taxpayer to keep paying towards the cost of the queen Beatrix’ private yacht, De Groene Draeck (green dragon). Defence minister Eimert van Middelkoop told MPs yesterday that his ministry would continue footing the bill for the boat – put at around €112,000 a year. More >
The Netherlands is using competition and a small dose of regulation to pursue what many in the U.S. hunger to achieve: health insurance for everyone, coupled with a tighter lid on costs. More >
You have to ask just how self important the people responsible for running Dutch primary schools’ after-school clubs think they are. More >
Karima Tieleman’s first ‘conversion’ was from male to female; six years later she converted to Islam. More >
There is no shortage of wind in the densely-populated Netherlands but there is a shortage of space and in a nation which likes its houses small and its gardens cosy, opposition to wind farms is immense More >
Will the Wajong become the new WAO? That is the question – baffling for outsiders – being asked in the Dutch media today. The Wajong is the name for the welfare benefit system for young handicapped people who are partially or wholly unable to hold down a job. The WAO is the general work disability benefit system. More >
A 1953 storm that killed 1,835 people forced the Netherlands to change the way disaster protection is done. The same can’t be said of the U.S., where innovation has been stymied by pork-barrel politics. More >
The Dutch cabinet has earmarked 28 million euros to combat the increasing radicalisation of Muslims and right-wing extremists. Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst launched the initiative at a press conference in the Amsterdam district of Slotervaart on Monday. More >
I really couldn’t care less about Youth Crime. I do care a great deal about Crime. When walking the cobbled streets, I suspect that no-one is particularly fearful of being youth mugged or youth knifed. They are concerned about being mugged or knifed. More >