Rob

You rang?

Thank you for proving my point 😌

Maybe you’ve been there for six weeks, but there’s definitely nothing straight about it

Are you allergic to Belgium? Is that why you don’t stay there for longer than 5 days in one sitting?

Wait, they voted to end the shutdown because of the *promise* of a *vote*? How fucking stupid do you have to be?!

An autumnal picture of the local park with my dog, George (a black cocker spaniel), walking in the foreground

A little timeline cleanse

A photo of the treats I made for our celebration on the coffee table: cinnamon buns with cream cheese frosting, Yorkshire parkin, and caramel apples

A photo of the fire pit with the Guys burning while holding the closest I could make of a smore

A selfie of me smiling while holding my caramel apple; I’m illuminated by the bonfire

A photo of a sparkler and some fireworks in the back garden

Celebrated it with some friends yesterday in the most traditional manner possible: classic Guy Fawkes Day treats, a bonfire while burning our Guys, and some fireworks and sparklers. A lovely way of marking the day!

It was really nice to be able to do so - looking forward to belatedly celebrating even more loudly and proudly on Saturday, too 🥳

A view of the city from across a canal, with autumnal trees to the right and a windmill on the other side of the water

Ravenstein’s Catholic church from the outside

A cannon pointing towards the fields outside the city

A picturesque street in the centre of the city with the windmill in the background and autumnal trees along the sides of the street

One of the best parts of my job is that I often get to travel to obscure places in the country I wouldn’t normally see. Today took me to Ravenstein, a bustling “city” of just over 3,000 people.

“Live, Laugh, Oval Office”

A photo of the dinner table with the Yorkshire puddings, cottage pie, gravy and ales

Enjoyed a few home comforts for dinner this evening: homemade cottage pie and Yorkshire puddings served with gravy and English ale. Celebrating a national holiday when living abroad can sometimes be a bit melancholic (or have a bit of FOMO), but this always helps to soften the blow 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🔥🎆

A photo of the English flag hanging outside my house from a flag pole

The 5th of November poem: Remember, remember, the 5th of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see of no reason Why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot. Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent To blow up the King and the Parliament. Three score barrels of powder below Poor old England to overthrow. By God's providence he was catch'd With a dark lantern and burning match. Holler boys, holler boys, let the bells ring, Holler boys, holler boys, God save the King!

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

May we continue to celebrate and honour the justice, law and order upheld by our strong democracy and protected by our constitutional monarchy.

God save The King!

It’s also worth nothing that though D66 did indeed get the largest number of votes, they have the same number of seats as the PVV. So though this is a victory of sorts, it’s not a landslide (26/150 seats… 76 for a majority) and it’s not a guarantee that the Far Right will stay out of power.

It’s so important not to fall into a false sense of security as we’ve seen in so many places in the West (think the US when Biden won). The seats that the PVV lost have just shifted to other Far Right parties (namely JA21 and FvD): they remain a real threat to justice, freedom and democracy.

I’ve not even had dinner yet, and it’s been pitch black for well over an hour. Petition to bring Summer Time back for good?

Thank you very much 😊

Thank you so much! It took a lot of time and effort, and I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out (and it tastes great too!) 🥹🎃👻

Me wearing a witch’s hat sat with a skull cake I made for Hallowe’en. It is a pumpkin spice cake with vanilla buttercream and red-coloured caramel for “blood”. The brain emerging from the skull is cheesecake while the eyes in front are cake pops.

Perspective of the skull cake with the right side highlighted.

Perspective of the skull cake with the left side highlighted.

The skull cake cut, revealing the three layers of cake, cheesecake “brain”, and the white chocolate dome used to give it form.

Happy Hallowe’en, everyone!

And you’re right about that being unexpected! The VVD, like a lot of centre-right parties in the West has been moving more and more right over the past 5/10 years. The liberalism is still there, but the conservatism is much stronger.

Oh absolutely, but there’s only so much space without writing an essay haha. The CDA do still care about business - their approach is more that the market should support business owners/society and people should be able to trust in that “support” rather than what the market wants, the market gets.

The VVD is a lot more focussed on businesses and harder immigration/defence policies. It’s quite similar to the modern Tory party. The CDA is more centre-right (think Cameron’s Tories) with a focus on the middle class in the provinces and ensuring policy respects the rule of law.

“But what about the PVV? Why won’t anyone work with them especially if they end up the largest?”

Because they’ve proved unreliable in government, because they’re fascists and because that’s how democracy works - if a majority can be formed without them, it’s still a majority.

Either way, a long-lasting, stable and productive coalition will be difficult to form - and it’ll require leaders putting national rather than party interests first. A centrist coalition of D66, VVD, GL-PvdA and CDA (Christian Democrats) seems the best, most productive & most realistic option.

It’ll be tough with the VVD (conservatives) not wanting to work with GL-PvdA (centre-left greens), but they’re not in as strong a position as D66 who seem very hesitant about a coalition with JA21 (populist right), which would still fall a seat short, and especially the BBB (agrarian right).

It’s worth remembering that even if the PVV (extreme right) are the largest party, they won’t necessarily be a part of the coalition. They’ll have the right to try first, but no majority is really possible with these numbers. So it’ll likely fall to D66 (social liberals) to form a coalition.

An overview of the number of seats likely to be won per party in the national elections. Notably, D66 and PVV are neck and neck at 26 seats.

Not all the votes are in yet (one municipality’s town hall caught on fire, & we’re still waiting for overseas votes), but at 99.7% of votes being counted, this seems to be the make up of the new Dutch parliament. With only 1984 votes currently in, it’s a fight between D66 and the PVV as the largest.

Het politieke midden (GLPvdA, D66, CDA, VVD) moet nu samenwerken en verregaande maatregelen nemen tegen de online verspreiding van fascisme en de invloed van algoritmes. Het is de laatste kans de hondsdolheid te beteugelen.

Hoping and praying we can close this chapter of hate, division and racism that has infected this country 🙏🏻

Some of this I’m not particularly happy about - the PVV and its ilk are still too high for my liking - but if it ends up being roughly like this, I’ll be pretty pleased

Just for fun, I’ve come up with a little prediction as to what I think the results will be tonight (considering polls, turnout and strategic voting):

PVV 26
GL-PvdA 24
D66 23
CDA 19
VVD 17
JA21 10
FvD 6
BBB 4
SP 4
DENK 3
PvdD 3
SGP 3
CU 3
Volt 3
50PLUS 2
NSC 0