So the rats that announced they were leaving the sinking ship way before the general election are starting to line themselves up a few nice little earners – sorry, new jobs. Christian Democrat (CDA) transport minister Karla Peijs is one of the first to find a new employer.

She is off to be the Queen’s Commissioner in Zeeland. Peijs is one of at least 11 of the 23 ministers who announced they were quitting politics when the cabinet fell apart in the summer.
On the Liberal (VVD) front, housing minister Sybilla Dekker, health minister Hans Hoogervoorst, finance minister Gerrit Zalm, junior social affairs minister Henk van Hoof and junior transport minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen are all off.
And on the CDA side, agriculture minister Cees Veerman is off to his farm in France and sports minister Clémence Ross feels she’s done her bit as well. And then there is social affairs minister Aart Jan de Geus, who made it quite clear he was not interested in being an MP but would be quite happy to be a minister again. Talk about opportunism!
And for those that don’t have a job yet, there’s solace in the fact that the ministerial unemployment package is most generous. Not that these ministers, so keen to slash redundancy payouts while they were in power, will accept them, of course.