Vlaams Blog

It's 30 degrees today and that means it's Damn Hot. It's the heat, you know.

I don't profess to know a lot about Belgian politics, apart from the fact that the Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt rides a bike, which clearly means that the country is in good hands. But in recent weeks it has come to my attention that there is to be an election held shortly for the whole of Flanders. This Sunday, in fact. I will be happy when it's over, because the thrill of opening my overflowing mailbox in the morning is quickly negated by the fact that it's all pre-election crap. Although today I did receive an invitation for Reinhard Vanspeybroeck's Aussie pie shop opening next Monday. Woo hoo!

Now, if I was really keen I could probably vote, seeing as I've now got my little ol' Belgian ID card, which took quite a while to get and I still haven't got my final two numbers. To quote one of the kiddies from The Matrix, "There is no Bureaucracy" (that's a hard word to spell).

Back to the election, today I received in the letterbox a beautiful piece of campaign literature from the Vlaams Blok party. For those of you unfamiliar with this lot, just think Right Wing Loonies and you will get the idea. Vlaams Blok is even narrower than One Nation, in that they don't like Wallonia (the other half of Belgium) either. Cool, huh?

"Finally a publication that says what you think!" is the succinct description of De Strop (the noose), which has a yellow and black noose threaded through the letters. Then "Vote foreigners' voting rights away! Vlaams Blok, the only opposition."

So why did I get one?