Bike shed-gate

Want to have a laugh at the hets?

Well, we have a little sex scandal that makes Bill Clinton look classy. At least the oval office is an exclusive place to have oral sex.

None of the people involved are particularly highly placed, but the whole affair sheds some light onto the political culture in this country. It is, well, let's say incestuous. A friend in The Hague tells me "This kind of behaviour is normal. By the way, do you want to know about that Liberal MP that gets a BJ every week in the House's parking garage?"

I sure do, and am once again glad I quit the Liberal Party. Even though the others are apparently just as bad, we don't get to hear about it.

Well, Nijmegen, a mid-size college town also known as Havana on the River Waal due to its left-wing politics, has this week discovered it's deputy mayor (Labour) was caught on security cameras being blown in the council's bike shed. It's a wonderful story, the rancid little details are stunning, but the identity of the sucker makes it even juicier.

A Liberal member of the town council. Nijmegen is not a liberal stronghold, so they only have a small caucus, and consequently only one woman on the council. So we quickly discovered the sucker's identity. And the Libs are, as usual, in opposition in Nijmegen. So a member of the opposition is blowing a coalition leader.

This was too much even for the Liberal Party, so they quickly threw her out. This makes her the first person in about 30 years to lose her position due to a sex scandal in Dutch politics.

Now, on to the suckee. Paul Depla may only be a deputy mayor in a mid-size town, but Nijmegen is important to the left and he is a close confidant of embattled national Labour leader Wouter Bos. For years, he has been named as a likely minister in a Labour government, and when the present (awful) cabinet was named people were surprised to find he was not a member of it.

It has now been revealed the secret service had advised the prime minister against his appointment. His personal life made him too susceptible to blackmail, according to the secret service. For probably the same reason, he also lost a mayorship in another mid-sized town. A former aide sued him, for apparently being fired after she turned down a proposal to have sex. It is now rumoured she was paid off with public cash. And yes, the deputy mayor is married and has three young children.

Nijmegen has a culture of lawlessness and corruption: its former mayor, currently interior minister, was caught on a DUI, but the council didn't care. This is a woman who is currently in charge of national security. What is most revealing, is the fact that the sex in the bike shed took place in June. The whole council was aware of the affairs, but decided to keep quiet. This is disturbing; politicians of all parties are most interested in covering each other's asses and the opposition is not doing much opposing.

The tabloids are having a field day, and so they should. The details are just too cool (come on, a grown man with a good income being blown in a bike shed? By a member of the opposition?), and it has now finally been decided the whole sordid affair justifies a debate in council. This will now take place next week, even though the coalition tried to block it.

I wonder if he will resign.