A conversation about blogs with a business friend over lunch today prompted some thinking about Dutch politicians who blog. My lunch companion told me that the Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Gerrit Zalm, has a blog.
Sure enough, he does. What’s more, it looks like it’s regularly updated, the most recent post being today.
This is good – the second most senior politican in the Dutch government has a blog. Well, it’s called a blog. You can’t leave comments so it’s a one-way channel. Nevertheless, each post is bylined by Mr Zalm so I’m going to assume that he actually does write what he posts (or is that a rather naive view?). His blog’s in Dutch, naturally.
Mr Zalm is a good example of a trend that no doubt will be commonplace in Europe within a few years – as with business leaders who blog and want to engage with their audiences, so will it be with politicians.
That’s got my vote.
Bio (in English) of Gerrit Zalm: Government.nl | Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance Gerrit Zalm
Did you notice that there is no RSS feed from his blog? I tried to Blogline this! and couldn’t.
Maybe this is a little zalmsnipje for him – get syndicated!
I’ll send him a note.
Colby, yes, I did notice that, couldn’t find an RSS feed. I’m more inclined to think Mr Zalm’s site isn’t really a blog. Nevertheless, I think it’s great to have a senior Dutch politican regularly writing comment and opinion.
If you can persuade him to offer an RSS feed, great. And get him to enable comments!
The most outspoken opposition member of parliament, the leader of the rather-far-but-not-completely-loony-left Socialist Party Jan Marijnissen also has a blog. And he’s got an RSS feed, so I read his thoughts more often than mr. Zalm’s 🙂
http://www.janmarijnissen.nl/weblog/
Rijk, thanks for that info and link. It’s certainly an attractive-looking blog from the presentation point of view. Has the elements you’d expect to see in a blog: commenting, trackback and RSS. Unlike Mr Zalm!
I see he uses WordPress to author the blog, indicating some seriousness and commitment to blogging.