Today, 19th September in this year of our Lord 2008, be talk like a pirate day. So avast ye shipmates of the good ship New English Review as we sail the ocean in search of treasure and some interesting new stories.
There be some dastardly coves out there callin’ themselves pirates, and givin’ us decent buccaneers a bad name. Even in the days of old Uncle Henry Teach better known to ye landlubbers as Blackbeard there were some scurvy knaves by the name of the Sallee Rovers, sometimes called the Barbary Corsairs who roamed the coasts snatchin’ our best west Country wenches and barmaids for their harems, and our fishermen brothers for slaves.
Today this bunch of lily livered dogs in Somalia be needin’ a touch o’ the cold steel, Old Admiral Lord Nelson would ne'er a stood fer this!
From The BBC
Whenever word comes out that pirates have taken yet another ship in the Somali region of Puntland, extraordinary things start to happen.
There is a great rush to the port of Eyl, where most of the hijacked vessels are kept by the well-armed pirate gangs.
People put on ties and smart clothes. They arrive in land cruisers with their laptops, one saying he is the pirates' accountant, another that he is their chief negotiator.
With yet more foreign vessels seized off the coast of Somalia this week, it could be said that hijackings in the region have become epidemic.
Insurance premiums for ships sailing through the busy Gulf of Aden have increased tenfold over the past year because of the pirates, most of whom come from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland.
In Eyl, there is a lot of money to be made, and everybody is anxious for a cut.
The going rate for ransom payments is between $300,000 and $1.5m (£168,000-£838,000).
A recent visitor to the town explained how, even though the number of pirates who actually take part in a hijacking is relatively small.
Given all the other people involved in the piracy industry, including those who feed the hostages, it has become a mainstay of the Puntland economy.
Eyl has become a town tailor-made for pirates - and their hostages.
Special restaurants have even been set up to prepare food for the crews of the hijacked ships.
As the pirates want ransom payments, they try to look after their hostages.
When commandos from France freed two French sailors seized by pirates off the Somali coast this week, President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had given the go-ahead for the operation when it was clear the pirates were headed for Eyl - it would have been too dangerous to try to free them from there.
The town is a safe-haven where very little is done to stop the pirates - leading to the suggestion that some, at least, in the Puntland administration and beyond have links with them.
Observers say pirates made about $30m from ransom payments last year - far more than the annual budget of Puntland, which is about $20m. Now that they are making so much money, these 21st Century pirates can afford increasingly sophisticated weapons and speedboats.
This means that unless more is done to stop them, they will continue to plunder the busy shipping lanes through the Gulf of Aden.
They even target ships carrying aid to feed their compatriots - up to a third of the population.
Warships from France, Canada and Malaysia, among others, now patrol the Somali coast to try and fend off pirate attacks.
More than 30% of the world's oil is transported through the Gulf of Aden, and even though the pirates lack the means to hijack huge tankers, there are reports that they have fired at them.
"It is only a matter of time before something horrible happens," said the official. "If the pirates strike a hole in the tanker, and there's an oil spill, there could be a huge environmental disaster".
This may all sound very jolly but there ain’t much yo ho ho in this bottle o' rum. Word on the high seas be that all this gold and treasure be goin' to fund jihad and terrorism and that’s no joke, me hearties.

That were a bad business in India last week an’ no mistake. This be from down under near Botany Bay, ABC Online Australia.
Police in the Indian capital New Delhi have shot dead two Muslim militants in a gun battle in the city's south.
Police were looking for suspects connected to last weekend's deadly bombings.
Acting on a tip-off, New Delhi police say they approached a house in the city's south and found a small group of Muslim militants in hiding.
A fierce gun battle began and the police commissioner, Karnail Singh, says two militants are dead, one has been arrested and two others fled the scene.
Two police officers were wounded in the attack.
Commissioner Singh says one of the dead was wanted in connection with a series of bomb blasts in the city of Ahmedabad in July.

This is a bunch o’ snivellin’ jackasses who should ne’er see land again. In my Uncle Henry’s day they would have been strung up on the yardarm long afore sundown. Arrrrr. From The Evening Standard o’ Ye Port of Olde London Towne.
A militant Islamic sect banned by the Government as a threat to national security has launched a campaign to radicalise teenagers in east London, the Evening Standard can reveal.
Al-Muhajiroun, headed by exiled cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, tonight begins a recruitment drive targeting young Muslims - despite being outlawed under terror laws introduced in the wake of the 7/7 suicide bomb attacks on London.
Several members of the sect have been jailed in recent years for terror-related offences but there are fears the group is thriving again under a new name.
The group has launched a website, Islam4uk.com.
It is advertising its first youth conference, entitled Muslim Youth: The Spark of the Fire, at a community centre in Walthamstow - close to the homes of six men who face a retrial over a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. Islam4uk.com is a reincarnation of al-Muhajiroun in all but name. It is headed by Bakri Mohammed, now living in Lebanon, and his deputy Anjem Choudary, its official spokesman.
The two have kept a relatively low profile since the 7 July attacks on London in 2005 but have become emboldened in recent weeks. A purse o’ pieces of eight to the first salty seadog who can suggest the reason why?
The youth conference tonight is being addressed by two notorious extremists, Abu Uzair and Abu Waleed.
At a meeting last Thursday - as first reported by the Standard - almost 100 Muslims attended to hear a live video link-up with Bakri.
Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP for Hendon, who first called for al-Muhajiroun to be banned 10 years ago, said today: "This new group needs to be banned. Islam4uk is clearly just another side of the same coin. This shows the real difficulty with these splinter groups. The fact they are now getting 100 people to their meetings is very alarming."
We need to prepare to repel boarders.

I've never been to Puntland, but I hear they have they have some stunning punts.

I did a little reccie into ye webshite Wheyfacedratsaginyequeen after my last post and found an article about how the scurvy knave Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad's threats agin the minstrel Paul McCartney were misreported. Apparently
Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad in no way or form threatened the life or wealth of Sir Paul McCartney, but rather demonstrated the discontent felt by millions of Muslims from around the world over his decision to participate in the anniversary of the brutal Israeli occupation. . . The anniversary of 60 years of the occupation of Palestine is at an opposition to all Muslims worldwide and hence this should be taken into consideration by all individuals wishing to collaborate or establish relations with this tyrannical regime.
If Sir Paul McCartney truly cared for his own well-being he should understand the impact of associating himself with the pirate State of Israel and not put himself amidst unnecessary danger.
If Israel is a pirate state then it’s a Pirate’s life fer me. Splice the mainbrace and pour me a tot o’ rum.

It's official - vegetarians are two ham sandwiches short of a picnic. From The Times of India (h/t David Thompson):

MELBOURNE: Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.

Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin.

The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87.

When the volunteers were retested five years later the medics found those with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 were also the most likely to have brain shrinkage. It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12

Or is it that rather that you have to be a bit dozy in the first place to be a vegetablist. Dozy yet tyrannical. The self-deniers have something to be cheerful about though:

Brain scans of more than 1,800 people found that people who downed 14 drinks or more a week had 1.6% more brain shrinkage than teetotallers. Women in their seventies were the most at risk.

So, if you like a drink, soak it up with sausages and balance it all out. The Spaniards Inn is a good place to feel your brain expand and contract until it's just the right size. Eat, drink and be clever, but not too clever by half:

WND: WASHINGTON –A new Spanish-language John McCain television commercial airing in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico attacks Barack Obama for not doing enough to support the so-called "comprehensive immigration reform" legislation backed by President Bush and Sen. Ted Kennedy that was defeated in 2007 after a national uprising in which it was characterized as a massive amnesty scheme.

The ad claims Obama deliberately backed "poison pill" amendments meant to undermine the compromise hammered out by McCain, Kennedy and others.

The English-language translation of the 30-second commercial, "Which Side Are They On?" is here:

Announcer: Obama and his congressional allies say they are on the side of immigrants. But are they?

The press reports that their efforts were "poison pills" that made immigration reform fail.

The result:

No guest worker program.

No path to citizenship.

No secure borders.

No reform.

Is that being on our side?

Obama and his congressional allies ready to block immigration reform, but not ready to lead.

McCain: I'm John McCain and I approve this message.

Announcer: Paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee. Approved by McCain-Palin 2008.

Mickey Kaus is right.

New Duranty:

DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia—Once a month, Nayla says, she writes a letter to Oprah Winfrey.

A young Saudi homemaker who covers her face in public might not seem to have much in common with an American talk show host whose image is known to millions. Like many women in this conservative desert kingdom, Nayla does not usually socialize with people outside her extended family, and she never leaves her house unless chaperoned by her husband.

Ms. Winfrey has not answered the letters. But Nayla says she is still hoping.

“I feel that Oprah truly understands me,” said Nayla, who, like many of the women interviewed, would not let her full name be used. “She gives me energy and hope for my life. Sometimes I think that she is the only person in the world who knows how I feel.” ...

Stay tuned for Oprah & The Kingdom part II when an esteemed Saudi cleric decides Oprah is a bad influence on the morals of Saudi women and that she, like Mickey Mouse, must die.

James Zogby the President of the Arab-American Institute hired his brother, John Zogby the pollster, to poll Arab Americans on their voting preferences and the result is unsurprising.

Arab-American voters also appear consistent with the rest of the population in that Arab Catholics -- including Chaldeans, Malachites and Maronites -- favor McCain, 53-31. Muslim Arab-Americans favor Obama 84-4.

"There is a need, if Obama is going to win, to win that crowd over," Zogby said of the nominally Catholic Arab-Americans. "With them, it may be the fact that they have been in the country longer and an unfamiliarity with Obama. And race may be playing an issue."

It may be the standard liberal line that anyone who isn't for Obama is a racist, but James Zogby also went to bat for Mazen Asbahi, the Muslim Brotherhood linked adviser to the Obama campaign and it seems pretty clear he uses the Arab-American Institute to advance Muslim causes. John J. Miller says he keeps a signed picture of Yasser Arafat in his office.

I'm also not sure why the Detroit News used the work "nominal" to characterize Arab Catholics.

I was tipped the wink by Alan the Bosun of the Revenge about this crew of rozzers puttin’ the cart afore the horse. From The BBC
Muslim police leaders are demanding to know why no action has been taken over a leaflet which blames Muslims for the heroin trade.
The leaflet, distributed to hundreds of households in parts of Lancashire, Cumbria and Yorkshire, says people should "heap condemnation" on Muslims.
The Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough proof it was meant to stir up racial or religious hatred.
The National Association of Muslim Police said the CPS advice was flawed.
The leaflet says Muslims are "almost exclusively responsible" for the manufacture, transport and sale of heroin, 95% of which it says comes from the Afghanistan and Pakistan region. (When we all know that this be a damn lie and that the figure be nearer 94%)
It says the process of "naming and shaming" Muslims will have a "positive effect" on bringing about the abolition of the heroin trade.
The Crown Prosecution Service said the contents of the leaflet were "racist" (so what race is Islam then shipmates?) but has advised police that no criminal act had been committed.
The National Association of Muslim Police said the CPS advice gave a green light to those behind the leaflet to continue distributing them.
Tis a shame an’ a scandal that these peelers didn’t show such concern when their brothers were threatenin’ good Englishmen and women with beheadin’ and cursing Her Majesty, (Gawd bless her) last year.  The BBC don’t say who is publishin’ the leaflet either. It smells a bit fishy ter me.
Update, me spies tell me that accordin' ter Asian Image the leaflets have been circulatin' since March, and were first seen in Burnley. They are believed to be the work of an individual an' not any party.

Arr, I’m sailing off into the sunset now lads and lasses, ready for my accordion lesson and to brush up me reppertwa of sea shanties and suchlike.
So I want to leave you with a couple o’ tunes to hum during the rest of the
 

evenin’.

And from this years Eurovision Song Contest the Pirates of

the Sea with Wolves of the Sea. Or are they the Wolves of the Sea with Pirates of the Sea. Who cares? Raise the Jolly Roger and weigh anchor on the evenin’ tide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7N0KzjeUFc&feature=related

We'll be watching carefully, and our hopes and prayers are with them...

Roger the cabin boy - truth or dare? Actually, myth.

She was only the admiral's daughter, but ....

There's more in the offing. To revisit an earlier post of mine on bacronyms and folk etymology:

Many of our phrases are of nautical origin, however. For examples, see this site: 

Many phrases that have been adopted into everyday use originate from seafaring - in particular from the days of sail. The nautical origin of many of these is now forgotten. Conversely, some people do like to attribute the origin of phrases to seafaring with no justification other than the romantic image of horny-handed sailors singing shanties and living a hearty and rough life at sea. After all, it sounds plausible that 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey' comes from brass ship's fittings and that POSH means 'Port out, starboard home'. Neither of these is correct though.

Fortunately, activities at sea have been scrupulously recorded over the centuries, in insurance records, newspaper accounts and, not least, in ships' log books. The term log-book has an interesting derivation in itself. An early form of measuring a ship's progress was by casting overboard a wooden board (the log) with a string attached. The rate at which the string was payed out as the ship moved away from the stationary log was measured by counting how long it took between knots in the string. These measurements were later transcribed into a book. Hence we get the term 'log-book' and also the name 'knot' as the unit of speed at sea.

The list below are phrases that have documentary evidence to support the claim of a nautical origin:

All at sea
Batten down the hatches
Between the Devil and the deep blue sea
Broad in the beam
Chock-a-block
Close quarters
Copper-bottomed
Cut and run
Give a wide berth
Go by the board
Hand over fist
Hard and fast
High and dry
In the offing
Know the ropes
On your beam ends
Plain sailing
Shipshape and Bristol fashion
Shake a leg
Shiver my timbers
Taken aback
Tell it to the marines
The bitter end
The cut of your jib
Three sheets to the wind

Shipshape and Bristol fashion? Must have something to do with Able Seamen.

Halfway through the speech, Dutch television pulled the plug on the broadcast. Here is the full text (translated by VH):

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Madam President, today we discuss the budget, the budget for 2009, a humbug budget from the worst government ever. But today we also discuss the current state of our country. And whoever takes a close look at that has no reason to be cheerful. What I blame this government the most of is the damage it causes to our society. The Netherlands is no longer the Netherlands we have grown up in. There is also no longer one Netherlands. There are two Netherlands. The Empire of Balkenende [Prime Minister] is a Kingdom of Two Netherlands.

On the one hand our elite, with its so-called ideals. Those from the multicultural society, the mega high taxes, of the frenzied climate hysteria, of the unstoppable Islamization of Brussels’ superstate and the senseless development aid, the piles of money into the bottomless pit called The Antilles [Dutch islands in the Caribbean].

This elite finds everything very well — as long as the subsidy flow continues towards the VPRO [leftist TV broadcaster], Milieudefensie [Environmentalists] and the arts chiefs. They are the followers of Geert Mak [the Dutch Michael Moore], Doekle the dhimmi [Doekle Terpstra, former Christian Democrat, now Unilever officer and a fanatic anti-Wilders opponent], Eveline Herfkens [Socialist employed by the World Bank and the UN, involved in a major fraud] and Al Gore. It is the leftist canal-zone [the expensive property at the Canals in Amsterdam where most leftist celebrities live] and their sticky friends.

But all these so-called ideals of the political elite are minority projects. There is almost no one who still believes in it, except for an ever-smaller gang of leftists hanging on the taxpayers-drip and with permanent jobs for themselves at a subsidy nipple, the government, or a lobby club. Professional Muslims, professional climate fundamentalists, professional chairmen, professional lobbyists.

One of those is Bert Bakker. We still remember him — until recent a parliamentarian for D66 [set up in 1966 to achieve more democracy, but now a leftist appeasers party]. And what tough politically-correct talk he uttered. The PVV party, he said, are all racists, all thugs. He had this written up in the newspaper. But alas — thanks to the action of the Turkish Ministry of Religious Affairs, ms. Koser Kaya took Bert Bakkers’ seat here [after the last elections].

And now Bert tries to scrape some money together as a lobbyist for an aircraft manufacturer. And thus he also visited the PVV. A little bit of licking, a little driveling. Well, we have told Bert Bakker that he can take a hike. Lobbying is ok, but not with us. And then suddenly Bert turned like a leaf on a tree and look what I now found in the post: a real apology. Geert, sorry, you are suddenly not racists anymore.

Look, that is the way of our elite. In public they express politically-correct tough talk. And as soon as they have a little job they send little apology letters. Some people have ideals and are steadfast. Others have a spine full of whipped cream. Bert Bakker is a symbol for the elite. Rather a fat bank account than principles.

But alas, Madam President, there is also another Netherlands. My Netherlands.

The other Netherlands consists of people who have to pay the bills. Literally and metaphorically. They are robbed and threatened. Who sigh under the load of the street terrorists, under high taxes and the desire for a socialist Netherlands. They are the people who do not get anything for nothing. They are the people who have built up our country. They are the people who have never believed in the leftist project of the multi-nonsense or climate rubbish or our donations to the cocktail-mafia on the Antilles.

They are the people who are rarely heard here in the Lower House in The Hague. They are dismissed as trailer park trash and xenophobes, as little provincials.

This government puts down this double Netherlands. This government chooses consistently for the Netherlands of the elite and not for the Netherlands of the ordinary people who have to pay the bill.

Who is wondering why it is that Dutch people are increasingly cynical about politics should look at these two Netherlands. They must wonder how we can achieve ONE Netherlands.

Nowhere the differences between what the Dutch find and what the elites find is sharper than in the case of mass immigration. Nearly sixty percent of the Dutch people see Islam as the biggest threat to our identity and also nearly sixty percent finds mass immigration to be the biggest mistake since the war. But here in the parliament hardly six percent believe the same thing.

This multicultural society is an expensive business. Thanks to a study by the CPB [Government research bureau] from a few years ago, we know that an average non-western immigrant family will cost Dutch taxpayers 230,000 euros. That is more than one hundred billion euros in total. President, one hundred billion! That’s how much we lost to their multicultural project. One hundred billion euros.
- - - - - - - - -
Just think of what we could have done with that money. We would have been able to arrange a private room for all the elderly in nursing homes many years ago, each with a private nurse. We would have, so to speak, been able to stop working from our fiftieth birthday. Or give everybody a sailboat for a present. We would have been able to buy another country, just for fun. We could have been swimming in money. Instead, we follow the leftist dream to bring half the Islamic world into the Netherlands. The larger the voting flock for the Leftists Church, the better. I sometimes think that on the plane coming here they are already taught: “you vote for Wouter Bos [Socialist Minister of Finance], he will give you benefits.”

But who pays the bill? Who pays that one hundred billion? Those are the people who have built up Netherlands, the people who work hard, the people who are duly saving and pay taxes. The ordinary Dutchman who gets nothing for nothing. Henk and Ingrid pay for Mohammed and Fatima.

Those one hundred billion euros do not even include the exorbitant Vogelaar neighborhoods [immigrant neighborhoods that will be renovated, an idea of ex-Communist, ex-Unilever official, and now Socialist Minister of Housing], plus the exorbitant cost of additional crime. Nearly one third of all crime is committed by non-Western immigrants. When it comes to robbery with violence our non-western immigrants are scoring even more than sixty percent. Why do I never hear the Prime Minister mention this?

What The Netherlands needs is stricter penalties: minimum sentences. If you give judges their way, they will follow the D66-election program and give them lines for rape and an alternative sanction for a double murder. The Cabinet refuses to do something, therefore, the PVV will propose a bill for minimum sentences. Crime must be addressed and sanctioned much harder. No more “All You Need is Love,” but much more “Jailhouse Rock.”

Madam President, we are losing our country. We are losing our Netherlands. We are losing it to mass immigration. We are losing it to the inflow which is no longer in control. We are losing it to a culture of backwardness and violence. We are losing it to the Moroccan thugs who go though live scoffing and spitting and beating up innocent people. They make the schoolyards and streets unsafe. They stick up their middle finger to funeral processions, threaten and abuse ambulance staff and beat up gay people and hiss ‘whore’ to women. They happily accept our benefits, our homes, our doctors. But not our standards and values.

Madam President, the elite calls these Moroccans, who botch up everything, in a very romantic way “New Netherlanders”. I prefer to call them “colonists”. Muslim colonists. Because they have not come here to integrate, but to take over the lot, to make us submit.

While Germany expels honor-killers, while France refuses the French nationality for those who wear a burqa, this Cabinet only cheers the colonization and Islamization of the Netherlands.

Balkenende IV is not willing to face the problems; he looks the other way and signs the cultural capitulation. On the border of two worlds this government chooses backwardness, this government chooses for the colonists and not for our beloved Netherlands.

You would think that Christians would be an ally in the fight for the preservation of our culture. That they would fight against Islam because they know what the fate of a dhimmi is. Secretary of State Huizinga [Christian Union] can imagine that the Suikerfeest [end of Ramadan, Eid al Fitr] will become a national holiday. Just think of this: a Christian State Secretary of the Christian Union party [ChristenUnie].

That State Secretary is not heard when believers in Gouda at the end of the church service are spit on and besieged by Moroccans. Gouda is Islamizing rapidly.

Crime is exploding, the atmosphere is getting more grim. Moroccans appear five times as often in police statistics as native Dutch do. A Moroccan told a journalist, I quote: “Within ten years we are the boss here. And then we immediately throw that **** Queen of yours out.” End quote. This kind of appalling talk we must never accept.

As always, the Dutch government beats a retreat. Since last Saturday there no more buses driving through parts of the district Oosterwei [Gouda], better known as Little Morocco. Bus drivers are spit on, threatened and robbed.

A bus driver from Gouda wrote me last week: “Mr. Wilders, Moroccans terrorize us. Yesterday, in his first run, a colleague was robbed by a Moroccan with a knife put on his throat while this Moroccan’s friends were sitting outside in a car waiting. They left as cheerfully as if they had been to the cash dispenser of a bank.”

Why is no action taken against this? Where are the police? Where is the PvdA [Socialist party] Mayor of Gouda? Why could he only reply with an additional grant for a Moroccan community center? Where is the Minister of the Internal Affairs, where is the Minister of Justice, where is the Minister of Integration? Why all these cowardly administrators looking the other way? Why do they let the Dutch down? Because it’s not only in Gouda and Amsterdam; in the entire Netherlands street terrorism in increasing. It has been a long time since there were no incidents. It is an Islamic intifada.

Madam President, I have two concrete proposals. Because it can not go on like this any longer.

My first proposal is about policing. The police of Gouda are no longer able to deal with the street terrorists. The colonizers just torch the police cars. Police Officers are told: “we know where your children’s school is”. Madam President, it is now no longer possible that we enable the deployment more than a thousand soldiers to Afghanistan to make it a safer place while the Netherlands itself becomes increasingly insecure. Therefore, bring the soldiers back to the Netherlands and let our boys sweep the area clean here. The safety of the Dutch citizen is priority number one. Oosterwei, Gouda, our cities and our villages are more important than Uruzgan.

My second proposal is to finally get tough on those Moroccan thugs. Enough is enough. Enough terror, enough contempt, enough violence. Out with all those street terrorists… Out with all those molesters guilty of honor killings. Out with all those torturers who circumcise little girls. Out with all those foreigners who misbehave.

I hope the government responds positively to both proposals.

The damage of the multicultural society amounts, as I said earlier, at least one hundred billion euros. Could it be worse? Yes, it may be worse. The Netherlands has since 1960 also thrown more than one hundred billion euros into the bottomless pit called development aid. President, what all that we could have done with all that money the past forty years? Well, I would say: investing in the Netherlands! To begin with health care.

There are far too few people with health care. Secretary of State Bussemaker [Socialist party] knows that. But meanwhile she is waving away all wrongdoing in our nursing homes and homes for the elderly. The 88-year old Mrs. Willemse has been sitting in a dilapidated wheelchair, the wheels tilted, a ramshackle wooden frame and a plate as backrest. She got bedsores sitting in it. And the very elderly gentleman Steller has been waiting more than two years for the care he needs. Mrs. Emons died not in her bed but in the in the cold storage of the morgue due to haste.

Incidents? Unfortunately they are not incidents. Already for a very long time they aren’t. In many of our nursing homes, poverty rules.

This Cabinet leaves our elderly, our disabled and seriously ill as hard as a stone in the lurch. Elderly people just have to wait and see whether they will be reanimated.

[There follows a chapter on care for the elderly, budget change and lower taxes]

President, the PVV stands for a better Netherlands. A Netherlands that is defending our hard-won freedoms. That resists to the ideologies that are not ours and never should become ours.

President, there is some hope in the distance. Not in The Hague. Not in this building. But in the streets, neighborhoods, villages and cities of the Netherlands. There grows the cry for change.

That is what the Party for Freedom stands up for. Denounced in this building, scoffed at by the state broadcasters, spit on by the leftist subsidy slurpers, discredited by the fat and crammed-full left-liberal canal-zone [Amsterdam] elite. But supported by the other Netherlands, that of the ordinary people. The people who do not get everything for nothing. People who desire nothing more than the preservation of their free Netherlands, security, a reasonable salary and a better future for their children. People who have no voice other than the Party for Freedom.