Voted

Mark Rutte is the longest setting prime minister in Dutch history. I never voted for him! I never expect to vote for his party in my life. If I ever do, I hope someone drags me to hospital for a brain scan. But there are elections coming up, and he is not leading his party through them. This automatically means he will not be our next prime minister. And I sincerely hope whoever will be, will be from a different party. Preferably a lot further to the left!

There was something unusual about this election; the leftist greens and labour had joined forces. You don't get several parties under one list very often! I hope their strategy works out. We really need a strong left-wing party as a counterweight to all the right-wing malarkey going on.

There also was a whole slew of parties that didn't exist yet when I still lived in the country. I had to do a bit of homework before I could send off my vote. That tends to be the case! In the Netherlands, there is a lot more choice than there is in Britain.

As part of the diaspora I get to vote before most. I have sent my ballot paper off. I really hope we end up with a government that aligns a bit more with my values than the previous one. But I have done what I can; from now on I will just have to wait and see!

The ballot paper