Eurovisionless
So the Netherlands has once again failed to qualify for the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. This is fantastic news! We should all be cheering that Holland did not make the grade. More >
Wednesday 05 October 2022
So the Netherlands has once again failed to qualify for the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest. This is fantastic news! We should all be cheering that Holland did not make the grade. More >
So, congratulations are in order. The Netherlands has gone up from 15th to 8th place in the grandly-named International Institute for Management Development Index – a fact much heralded on the front page of today’s Financieele Dagblad. More >
Home affairs minister Guusje ter Horst needs a lesson in law making and stronger nerves. Not yet 100 days in office she has begun to panic, proposing a ban on alcohol sales for those under 18. A ban that critics say will be impossible to enforce and which has no support in parliament. More >
Football hooligans, don’t you just love them? Their team scrapes to victory in the Dutch cup and what do they do? Go on the rampage in the city centre, throw rocks at the police and smash shop windows. What a novel way to celebrate. Even the rain could not dampen their enthusiasm. More >
The biggest takeover in the history of the financial services industry – that’s banking to ordinary folk – is currently under way, with Holland’s own ABN Amro at the centre. It’s a complicated and confusing story but the bottom line seems to be: how much money will the lawyers and the consultants make out of it all? More >
Maarten Baas found fame by torching some of the 20th century’s most important design works. Now celebrities and collectors are scrambling to snap up his artfully scorched creations. More >
The black Dutch cap that is faded to a deep purple and coated with a flour patina hides Alisa Crawford’s long, blonde hair. She has lost her fear of heights as she regularly climbs 40-foot windmill blades to set the sails of Holland’s windmill. More >
There used to be two schools of thought when it came to Queen’s Day. The first was to embrace the whole crazy thing with gusto – whatever your age. The second was to go into hiding, preferably leaving the country a few days before the supermarkets started selling bright orange cakes and not coming back until everyone’s had recovered from their hangovers. More >
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz faces an “ad hoc committee” investigating his alleged ethics violations today, but it seems the committee has reached its conclusions even before he has a chance to defend himself. This fits the pattern of what is ever more clearly a Euro-railroad job. More >
A half-sized replica of the biblical Noah’s Ark has been built by a Dutch man, complete with model animals. Dutch creationist Johan Huibers built the ark as testament to his literal belief in the Bible. More >
It was a rare setback for Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin when ABN Amro snubbed his consortium’s bid for the bank. But the straight talker from Paisley will not stand by and watch Barclays take the prize. More >
The threat of terror attacks is receding in the Netherlands thanks to tough new laws and the prosecution of key Islamic extremists, the head of the country’s national intelligence service said on Friday. More >
Health minister Ab Klink has barely been in the job for a couple of months, and he is already coming up with schemes which must have the health insurance companies saying ‘oh no, not again’. More >
For three years Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali galvanised the Dutch society with a frank account of her traumatic past and her conviction that Islam is a violent, misogynous religion. More >
