Great news! I've just heard that the PvdA Amsterdam will be attending the monumental 'I Am Not A Tourist' expat event in the Beurs van Berlage this Sunday!

Apparently Carolien Gehrels of the City Council will be attending, along with a large group of campaigners and volunteers. They will be explaining how you as an expat can vote during the municipal elections of March 3, 2010.

I think it is about time that a political party starts taking the expat community in Amsterdam seriously. There are many of you and so your worries, questions and desires should be heard.

I think I'll drop by myself this Sunday, so see you there!

So the lovely Agnes Kant won't be there ?

Nope, she's with the Socialist Party in the national parliament, this is the PvdA, the Social Democrats, in Amsterdam.

I was joking.
I'm afraid I'm much further left than the PvdA.
Did you know that a lot of working people are very disappointed and disillusioned with the PvdA?
I also think the rise in popularity of people like Geert Wilders is a sign of this.
In the UK,people are taking more notice of idiots such as the British National Party because they are very frustrated with the main parties.

I think you guys would gain a lot of support if you made a stand against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The PvdA in Parliament has. It has forced the government to pull out all Dutch forces by 2010. As for Iraq, there is currently an inquiry taking place into the origins of the Dutch political support for the American/British invasion in 2003.

Working people disappointed - yes, and that's logical. It is indeed hard to get the message across that, where now there are 4 people working to support one pensioner's income, this ratio will be barely 3:1 in about 10 years. That is because of the large number of babyboomers retiring. Some changes have to be made in order to keep the social care system afloat at all.

It is either small changes now and in small, incremental steps thereby preserving the system itself, or do nothing and wait for a right-wing government to destroy it completely because of a financial emergency.

But that's all national politics; the PvdA Amsterdam would like to talk to you, Amsterdam expats, about Amsterdam issues

I might come chat to you but you'll have to be a good sales person to take my vote from the SP.