No government? Who’d give a Pis?

Published on February 28, 2011 by The Editor · No Comments

Lynn Tulloch on how one country is surviving quite nicely without politicians. Possibly better than ours under the British coalition government?

When you think of Belgium, what do you think of?

Is it Tin Tin, chocolates, The Smurfs, the saxophone, headquarters of the EU, Poirot, Marc Dutroux the serial killer and sex offender? Or the famous Mannekin Pis statue (pictured)? It might even be such strange facts as there is a barman in Ostend who once served beer in his café for 102 hours straight, or again in Ostend 2875 people broke the record for hula-hooping.

I bet it isn’t that Belgium has been without a government since June 13, 2010 (wouldn’t you prefer that to the UK coalition government?)

Previously Iraq has held the 249 day record, with it taking another 40 days for the politicians to take office.

It seems that many people in the know think that this will be easily overtaken by Belgium.

Why though? Does no one there really care who is in charge?

Seemingly the country of Belgium isn’t quite so together and unified as people think. Most of Belgium is made up of Dutch speakers to the North and French speakers in the South. This has caused a bit of hassle coalition government-wise as ‘New Flemish Alliance’ who are looking for independence for the Dutch speaking Flanders came out on top.

Though, when all is said and done, Belgium appears to be handling everything remarkably well. Economic growth is higher than the EU average, unemployment is less. Makes you wonder if maybe this is the way forward?

When revolution is around us daily, Belgium seems to be having its own smaller, quieter one, and on the surface anyway handling it well. Maybe Britain should have gone down that route rather than opting for a UK coalition that doesn’t work very well. Lucky for us then that there is so much conflict in the world just now as it makes us forget exactly how crap our country is doing.

As for the answer to the second question about who cares, everything is ticking along nicely every day. People still get paid and regional government handles many functions so the answer is probably not, no.

If Belgium is lacking a government, can we send them our UK coalition? Or would they only send it straight back? Discuss

Lynn Tulloch is a regular wowdewow blogger