Members of Parliament Stealing Our Money
Annette Nijs
That’s it, I’ve had it. RTL Nieuws did some interesting research: it seems that our members of Parliament miss, on average, 20% of all ‘meetings’ in 2003. 20%. The only days that they have these ‘meetings’ or ‘assemblies’ are on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. All the other days, they can do other things. Besides that, they have 16 weeks off from Parliament as well per year. Only in 2070 of 9281 instances members gave a reason for the fact that they did not attend a meeting.
21 of the 150 members of parliament even missed 30% of all meetings in 2003. The worst ones? The LPF, the Socialist Party and D66.
The worst ones?
1. Ali Lazrak (Lazrak)
2. Janmarc Lenards (VVD)
3. Jan Marijnissen (SP)
4. Hilbrand Nawijn (LPF/Groep Nawijn)
5. Jelleke Veenendaal (VVD) (missed 40,6% of all meetings, mostly without giving a reason for it)
6. Femke Halsema (GroenLinks)
7. Luuk Blom (PvdA)
8. Joao Varela (LPF)
9. Lousewies van der Laan (D66)
10. Annette Nijs (VVD)
Numbers six and nine have valid reasons: they were pregnant and as such were given time off.
The other ones? Please don’t come back. If you’re taking our money you should be present.
Anette Nijs missed 55 of 96 meetings (there seems to be some error in the calculation machine at RTL Nieuws: 55/96*100=57%. That would be more than the number four on this list) .
Funny enough, she has 10 other ‘jobs’ next to her normal, political one.
She does seem to have time for that.
Strange huh.
11 Responses to “Members of Parliament Stealing Our Money”
The problem is that these guys have strangely spelled names. Luuk with two ‘u’s? How do you even pronounce Nijs? And I could swear we’ve got somebody running for office in West Michigan named Halsema.
Yeah that’s like the Dutch version of Luke.
Nijs… like ‘nice’.
Michael you’re hardly alone in this issue. Certainly in Spain members of parliment (called diputados) spend a good part of their time absent, I’m guessing making deals with contructors to make 10.000 home apartment buildings in villages of 200 people (Spain has some of the worst construction corruption in the world). As I understand it, the US is no different. Think of all the time senators and reps spend campaigning and fundraising. That, all by itself must take up a good chunk of time. Add in getting your picture taken with schoolkids or nurses, Meet The Press and vacations, and I’d be surprised if they wen’t to even 45% of sessions.
Wait, weren’t the LPF allegedly reformers? It’s somewhat shocking that the *reformers* would have the highest absenteeism.
Haaaack….sorry that was me clearing my throat, not a Dutch name LOL.
Well, I’m not going to make fun of Dutch names. I haven’t got the inclination, but, even if I did, I haven’t got a leg to stand on. Danish names may not look as strange (ok, sometimes they do) but I know the sound of the Danish language when spoken, and that lends itself to all sorts of jokes.
elrod, with a name (or handle, I know it’s not you’re real name) like elrod, you’re living in a glass house here
BTW, Michael, I’ve seen a number of double vowels in Dutch: aa, uu, ee, and possibly several others. How are those pronounced?
*rolls eyes* It’s just a lame harmless joke, so spare the lecture yeesh.
Oops. Until you pointed it out, I didn’t realize that I sounded like I was lecturing. I was playing, in both comments. Unfortunately, I fogot to include the smiley face in the first comment that would have shown what the intended tone of voice was.
I just need to remember to shut upfrom now on. I keep telling myself that.
Good question. Heh. It’s much easier to teach you how to do it, you know, when I can make the sound for you. Anyway I will try
ee = ea as in dear.
uu = hmm… you don’t have that sound…
aa = just an ‘a’ sound (the way the English pronounce the ‘a’ not the way Americans do it) but longer. aaaaa
Try to give the Dutch version of an onion and an egg, Michael.