Today’s Dutch papers tell of the minister and his wheelbarrow, contemplate a nation of contented complainers and pay their respects to a jazz diva. There are tips on beating the autumnal blues and the cautionary tale of a municipal inspector who refused to hit the heights…

Road pricing: the minister and the wheelbarrow
Today’s nrc-next describes how the Netherlands’ Transport Minister Camiel Eurlings brought “a wheelbarrow full of road pricing reports” into yesterday’s transport debate with him in order to prove that his proposed pay-per-kilometre scheme is not the result of “hasty decision-making”. The paper notes that “it was a light-hearted start to a debate that soon turned nasty”. The opposition VVD, self-styled champions of the Dutch driver, hammered the minister’s plan and even accused him of lying about how much it was going to cost the motorist. Mr Eurlings hit back by challenging the VVD spokesman to “act like a real man” and enter a vote of no confidence if he didn’t believe him.

NRC-next sees the tough-talking tone of the debate as “a sign of increasing political and social concern” about the pay-per-kilometre road-pricing scheme recently presented by the minister. It points out that De Telegraaf has launched a front-page campaign against the scheme and that the Dutch automobile association ANWB is “playing its cards close to its chest” on the issue and has yet to give its backing. Meanwhile, fervent opponents are stoking the fires of dissent with online petitions and high-profile campaign slogans such as “Kilometre charge – No way!” and “Stop Big Brother!”.

Yesterday the minister was not to be moved “I have strong arguments,” he insists in de Volkskrant. “If this system wasn’t fair, I wouldn’t be standing here!” But he was also forced to concede that “If public support ebbs away, the system won’t go ahead.” With nrc-next describing that support base as “fragile” and “showing more and more cracks”, the minister may need more than a humble wheelbarrow when the plan is debated in greater depth after the Christmas recess.

The state of the Netherlands: happy but complaining anyway

The Netherlands Institute for Social Research, the SCP, has just produced its annual report on the state of the Netherlands and, de Volkskrant reports, the news is surprisingly good. “For those of us too busy moaning about the weather and worrying about the crisis: life in the Netherlands is not so bad after all”. In fact “84 percent of the Dutch claim to be happy or very happy”. That said, the economic crisis has left its mark, sending the figures for confidence in the future plummeting from 68 percent to 29 percent.

The SCP reveals that “crisis or no crisis, the basic attitude of the Dutch remains fairly consistent: happy on a personal level, but concerned about society and dissatisfied with politics”. Yet there’s even good news for the politicians these days. Rob Bijl of the SCP points out “on trust in politics and government, the Netherlands scores high compared to other countries: we are a high trust society”.

Many Dutch politicians feel put upon these days but Mr Bijl argues they should lighten up: “People in this country feel there’s a gulf between them and the politicians in The Hague but is that really such a bad thing? It’s a citizen’s job to complain about politics … politicians shouldn’t get all worked up about it.”

Tips to get you singing in the rain
It’s been another wet and windy start to the day in the Netherlands and with a weekend of rain forecast, the irrepressible AD presents a whole page of tips to “beat the autumn blues”. No less than 1.2 million Dutch folk claim to suffer from what the paper calls “an autumn dip” and it calls on the services of eight “experts” to let in a little ray of sunshine.

Unfortunately most of these specialists seem to be more interested in their own bank balance than the well-being of the nation. There’s the sauna owner who suggests you go for a sauna, the travel agent who recommends an exotic autumn break and the clean-up stylist – whatever that might be – who declares that domestic chores are the ideal way to generate “physical and mental energy”. Refreshingly there’s also a fashion guru who warns us all not to go shopping because “it just gets you down … everything you like is either too expensive or doesn’t fit … and you end up with sore feet, feeling fat”. Tell it like it is, sister!

While we’re on the subject of retail therapy, AD’s front page features the story that Interior Minister Guusje ter Horst is allowing shops to impose a ban on customers wearing hoods as a measure to prevent hold-ups. The paper’s cartoonist hits back with a picture of a hooded shopper in the pouring rain saying “That’s all well and good … but could you ask the man upstairs for better weather first?”
 

Farewell to Pia Beck: virtuoso jazz entertainer
Almost all of today's papers pay glowing tribute to jazz pianist Pia Beck who died yesterday at her home in the Spanish resort Torremolinos at the age of 84. AD describes her as “a great pianist and a well-loved jazz entertainer”. Trouw notes that “the Netherlands was too small for Pia Beck and her showbiz flair” while De Telegraaf quotes jazz legend Oscar Peterson who once dubbed her “the best jazz pianist in the world”.

De Volkskrant points out that “The Flying Dutchess” - as she came to be known - was “one of the few Dutch jazz musicians to play the greatest American jazz clubs of the 1950s” with her characteristic brand of “light-hearted boogie-woogie”. De Telegraaf confirms her A-list status, recounting that none other than Billie Holiday once chucked a bottle of whisky at her during a performance. True to her sunny disposition, the Dutch diva took it as a compliment.

Trouw notes that Pia Beck gave the gay rights movement in the Netherlands an early boost in the late 1950s by announcing openly that she was lesbian and de Volkskrant recalls that she was proud to be “the first woman to take to the stage in a trouser suit”. Paying tribute to her lust for life, De Telegraaf quotes an interview in which the pianist was asked if she’d be making another comeback after her retirement at the age of 77. “You mean when I’m 100 for example?” she laughed. “As a kind of bionic woman with robot arms…?” The paper concludes dolefully “Alas, it was not to be…”

A costly phobia
De Volkskrant reports that a local official's fear of heights may have cost the municipality of Nederweert in the southern province of Limburg hundreds of thousands of euros. A civil servant responsible for the renovation of the spire atop the Lambertus church tower was so afraid of heights he avoided going up to inspect how the work was progressing. Or not progressing as the case may be. By the time the authorities twigged what was going on, the renovation work had spiralled a whopping 650,000 euros over budget.

In order to keep an eye on things to some extent, the official got the contractor to take photographs of the work at the top of the tower. "Imagine," snorts a disgruntled executive councillor, forced to resign last year when the budget problems first came to light, "he made all his decisions on the basis of snapshots taken by the contractor. They could have been photos of any old church spire!"