Employment , forced termination of employment, legal issues surrounding employment and the current cabinet Balkenende IV don’t go together very well.
After the near crash of the current cabinet last year, minister Donner has said today he thinks the regulations regarding the termination of employment should be re-evaluated and perhaps even adapted to respect employers more.

Today, regulations around employment are strongly in favor of the employee, and make for a very sturdy labourmarket. It is hard to let an employee off for an employer, making the employer more picky to choose a potential employee. Besides this, and luckily for our economy, there is a shortage in people. This leads to a better market for newcomers.
Besides this: the current regulations are too strong for a flexible labourmarket such as in the United States, although it is highly unlikely that system would fit our culture in Holland.

I am in favour of creating the regulations less strict and in favour of the employee, to give employers the power to terminate employment based on the well-faring of the organization. This increased mobility makes for a better position of the organization in the international competition.
The views of Donner are controversial, and the position of the CDA-minister is being questioned by the PvdA as we speak. Also, Groenlinks has requested a ‘spoeddebat’ regarding this issue as they feel the minister is actively undermining the current political vision that is being put out there by our government nowadays. Will our cabinet topple over due to this (ongoing) debate about employment regulations?
I personally doubt it as it’ll be ignored once minister Donner is forced to take back what he said…

Disclaimer: I know this post is not as well structured as usual, I’m working on it though.
I published it as it now contains my view, be it not as well formulated as you might be familiar with.

In the USA, the race is on. All candidates for the democratic and the republican parties did it, previous to and even during their campaign. Fund raising through dinners, shows and private parties.
Anyone with money and a little affiliation is welcome. Luckily, the fund raising is not anonymously, all gifts have to be registered and published.

Back to our country, and the reality of our politicians. In The Netherlands, political parties are state-funded based on their number of votes in the last election. More voters means a bigger cheque from the state. Simple and clear. No party is being maltreated or neglected, every party is being treated the same. Just the way we like it.

Not too long ago, mrs. Verdonk has left her party (VVD) to go about on her own. With more than half a million personla votes during the last elections, she felt it was her right to keep the spot in our Tweede Kamer. Undeniably right. But, she did not want to found a party. Like Geert Wilders (PvV), she’s aiming for a ‘beweging’ (movement) which has no members, and unlike Wilders, her movement is not even registered with the Kiesraad (the authority registering parties for elections in our country)

Because of not being a true party, Verdonk’s movement ‘Trots op Nederland’ (TON) is not eligible for funding by the state, and as she cannot afford to finance the movement on personla basis, private funding is needed.
Only recently, a dinner party was organized in the Passenger Terminal next to the IJ in Amsterdam. For only €500 per person, you could enjoy dinner with Verdonk, and for those not being this wealthy the afterparty only was €75. Dinner fund raising has been a subject in the Tweede Kamer for years, as it is not regulated. At all.
For instance: all gifts over €4538 have to be registered and communicated, but failing to do so does not incur a penalty. Go figure.

The new law which has been planned for years, private gifts above €20.000 cannot be made, and all gifts over €2.000 have to be registered and communicated. More importantly, not complying to these regulations involve penalizations to encourage parties a little more.
What do you think?
Fund rasing good or bad?