The budget has once again been leaked – it’s a tradition as old as the swallows returning to the mission of San Juan Capistrano.

Every year, the government makes journalists sign an oath at the crossroads at midnight, drink blood and swear on their great-grandmother’s grave that they will not break the embargo. And every year the budget is leaked several days before hand.
Of course, no one actually cares about the details of the budget, which are predictable. But the reaction of the politicians is often quite amusing. Especially that of prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende who in 2005 swore it would never happen again.
Everybody but the cabinet and party leaders have been cut out of the loop in terms of getting the budget in advance which leaves a very short list of suspects.
And the budget can’t be an easy document to leak – it is after all something like 50,000 pages. Of course, for anybody sane, a short summary would do, and here it is: a budget surplus of 0.5% this year, fractionally higher taxes for the rich and fractionally more money for welfare (reflecting a shift from the political right to the political centre in the new ruling coalition) and some extra tax on some pension income of some old rich people.
Sex, drugs and rock and roll, it ain’t. Thanks, RTL Nieuws.