The papers all agree what the big news even here in the Netherlands is this morning. However, they disagree on what conclusions US President Obama should draw from his party's mid-term defeat. "Lesson in humility" says de Volkskrant, whereas Trouw plumps for "Obama doesn't see it as failure".

On the home front there's less agreement on what we should be thinking and talking about. Nrc.next looks gloomily to the future, reminding us of Tuesday's news that 5,000 workers are to lose their jobs at the tax office. It says, if the new government gets its way, a further 95,000 civil servants and government workers will also be destined for the dole queue.

We are treated to some colourful diagrams showing that the number of government employees has risen from just under 400,000 in 2006 to getting on for 404,000 in 2009. Over half of these are apparently employed by local government.

The paper warns that things have changed and that you'll soon no longer be safe even with a government job. Legislation to do away with government workers' special protection with regards to dismissal looks like going through parliament. By 2015, they will have no more employment rights than the average Dutch worker.

However, axing civil servants, nrc points out, is not as easy as it may seem in political manifestos. The last government said it was going to get rid of 12,000, but only 2,000 jobs went, and some additional ones were actually created. A union man sounds sanguine and argues the proposed job cuts are based on too simple a calculation. The amount of money the government says it wants to save has simply been converted into numbers of jobs to be cut. But it isn't that easy:

"First, you've got to decide the things that the government shouldn't do anymore. Only then, can you see how many jobs can go."

The paper reveals another fly in the new government's ointment. Within a few years, it says, so many people will be retiring from government service that it's more likely there's going to be a shortfall in civil servants that a glut. No doubt this story will run and run.

Controversial Freedom Party MP
MP Hero Brinkman from the anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV) rivals President Obama for space on the front page of AD this morning. He has given an interview to Vrij Nederland [Free Netherlands] magazine, criticising PVV leader Geert Wilders.

He complains that Mr Wilders tried to torpedo the new government coalition at the last minute. He also accuses his boss of going into the coalition talks with no intention of joining the government, but with the aim of offering a minority administration support from parliament. And - surprise, surprise - this was the eventual outcome of the coalition talks.

Mr Brinkman has for some time been pushing for more democracy in the PVV, which remains for the most part a one-man-band conducted by Mr Wilders. "That man could be hit by a car tomorrow and kick the bucket. I don't want the PVV to be buried with him," AD quotes Mr Brinkman as saying.
 
Interestingly, centre-left daily de Volkskrant reports that all nominations for parliamentary committees have been suspended because of the commotion caused by the candidature of two PVV members. Mr Brinkman is one, and has been put forward to chair the immigration and asylum committee. He is said by the paper, in what could be Dutch understatement, to be "controversial" with other PVV members.

Minister get tough on top salaries
On an inside page, de Volkskrant reports that Deputy Education Minister Halbe Zijlstra is getting tough on top salaries in the teaching sector. He has ordered Delft University of Technology to pay 19,000 euros back to the government. The money represents the amount the institute paid its board chairman in excess of the magic 226,000 a year allowed by the  government.

The new minister won the approbation of many MPs yesterday with his strict adherence to the rules designed to curb top salaries in the public sector. Research has shown that 60 senior executives in education earn far more than the average minister. Mr Zijlstra pleased MPs when he announced that he was investigating many more breaches, and was intent on recovering public money.

Jasper van Dijk from the Socialist Party joined the applause. However, he pointed out that the money would be coming from the university and not out of the executive's pocket. The minister was unable to guarantee that education, teachers and students would not suffer because of the loss of money.

Is it teasing or discrimination?
As if to make a point, Protestant daily Trouw runs a piece on discrimination in primary schools below its front-page photo of the first black US president. A report commissioned by Amsterdam City Council indicates the difficulty of researching discrimination which occurs for the most part between children in the playground.

"Is it discrimination or nasty teasing?" asks the headline; and which is worse, the paper goes on to ponder. There are enough unpleasant examples. Take the little girl who receives death threats because of her Muslim headscarf, or the teacher whose students enjoy being taught by him but feel they have to shout "homo" at him outside the classroom.
 
Those behind the report want schools to do more to combat discrimination. Teachers appear to feel it's impossible to differentiate between teasing and discrimination and feel they already have enough agreed methods to deal with the wider problem.

Toilets and expensive condoms
Today's De Telegraaf finds space on its front page to inform its mass readership that Transavia air stewardesses are up in arms about being told that they have to clean plane toilets after longer journeys. They apparently are disgusted by the tampons, sanitary towels and other things they find after flights including those to Turkey, Tunisia and Morocco. Why the paper chooses to mention those countries is not explained. The airline plays down the rumpus, denying that cutbacks mean staff are being asked to do any extra dirty jobs.

Another small front-page article alerts De Telegraaf readers to the fact that condoms are set to rocket in price. This is down to an increase of 65 percent in the cost of rubber caused by floods in Southeast Asia. It looks as if condoms will become about 20 percent dearer. The paper does not point out that this may lead to there being fewer of them to block (plane) toilets.