NEW PROGRAMME FOR THE CITY

A small update of my political activities, which were also progressing in the last couple of weeks. In a small working group we managed to get the necessary input for the democracy and administration section of the programme of "my" political party for the local elections in March 2010. Still far away but in fact it is only 9 months in which we have to harvest the electional gains of the European elections of June 4th.

I wrote down my main points in a small document and forwarded it to my fellow working group members and I can say that the core of this document was finally sent to the committee which is drafting the text of the programme. On Saturday we have to defend it before this committee; first signs were that they are pleased with the input in such a short time.

Some of our main suggestions:

- every citizen of The Hague must be treated as equal individuals and not as member of a group (family, religion, ethnic or sexual minority); respect for the individual character of the other is a leading principle;

- there is the possibility to introduce an advising referendum on city level and a citizen poll in a specific part of the city, in which has to take into consideration the balance between the costs and the effects of a referendum;

- religion is a private matter; the city should not finance religious organisations in their religious activities;

- less regulation and bureaucracy on local level, but promotion of social awareness;

- the city should actively work on the international profile of the city of The Hague;

These are specific also my points because I think they are essential to make The Hague a dynamic city with diversity. Let's see what the others think.