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gerbieGerard van Westerloo - Niet spreken met de bestuurder (03-057)
Having read recently a book by a mayor who tried to explain everything that had happened in his decade in power through his own coloured glasses, this book was a relief. It is not so much a book, more a series of articles, written over the years, by a journalist who sees politics as an interesting part of real life. But also that reality and politics in this country seem to be further apart than ever.
Van Westerloo is a master of investigative journalism. He takes his time to talk to people; he does an effort to get to the bottom. It is scary to see that he finds out how little the difference is, between parties that are supposed to be completely opposite. The fact that a lot of politicians use their political careers to land a managerial job somewhere else seems fairly obvious, yet shouldn't be. The supposed landslide change from last year gets lost in nitpicking candidates who don't know what to do with their new found power. In the meantime, the senate, supposingly a place where they control the representatives, a place where they should be looking at laws in a more long distance perspective, turns out to be a useless place where party politics still thrive and older politicians only come to do some networking.
This book is very interesting to read. It gives a brilliant, yet disappointing insight, in Dutch politics. With my political ambitions somewhere in the future in mind, I'm not sure if I'm happy with having read it.
Having read recently a book by a mayor who tried to explain everything that had happened in his decade in power through his own coloured glasses, this book was a relief. It is not so much a book, more a series of articles, written over the years, by a journalist who sees politics as an interesting part of real life. But also that reality and politics in this country seem to be further apart than ever.
Van Westerloo is a master of investigative journalism. He takes his time to talk to people; he does an effort to get to the bottom. It is scary to see that he finds out how little the difference is, between parties that are supposed to be completely opposite. The fact that a lot of politicians use their political careers to land a managerial job somewhere else seems fairly obvious, yet shouldn't be. The supposed landslide change from last year gets lost in nitpicking candidates who don't know what to do with their new found power. In the meantime, the senate, supposingly a place where they control the representatives, a place where they should be looking at laws in a more long distance perspective, turns out to be a useless place where party politics still thrive and older politicians only come to do some networking.
This book is very interesting to read. It gives a brilliant, yet disappointing insight, in Dutch politics. With my political ambitions somewhere in the future in mind, I'm not sure if I'm happy with having read it.
