International

In the Netherlands and many other European countries the assumption has been too easily made that the United States would become in every way better under John Kerry than it is under George W. Bush. Some go so far as to express the opinion that Kerry would be as markedly to the left as Bush is to the right. Yet by any European or Dutch standards both of then are well to the right, while it has to be said that the Kerry’s USA would follow much the same foreign policy as has Bush’s. The American two-party system offers only a narrow choice. This should make us think very hard about the currently mooted reform of our own electoral system.

At least 300.000 people demonstrated in Amsterdam last Saturday, 2nd October, against cuts in social spending planned by the right-wing government of Jan Peter Balkenende. Museumplein, one of Amsterdam’s biggest squares, was packed with demonstrators, as were all of the streets leading into it from the city’s railway stations. The huge turnout might have been even larger, as many people were unable to reach the capital because the railways, despite employing every last bit of available rolling stock and personnel, simply could not cope with the numbers wanting to travel.