Just when you thought Rita Verdonk had vanished off the face of the earth she turns up on the front page of the Telegraaf, criticising her party leader and the VVD’s invisibility in the immigration debate.

Iron Rita has made a calculated ploy to get herself thrown out of the party, otherwise why say what she said? The timing is impeccable – now she can steal the headlines just in time for the VVD’s annual meeting on Saturday.
As an MP, the former integration minister is only allowed to talk about things in her portfolio – and integration is not one of her subjects. But now she can set up as a one-woman operation in parliament, shout about Islam and burkas and foreigners as much as she likes. There are no flies on Rita.
She’s tried several times to take over the VVD but has been kept at bay by those who feel her particular brand of populism will eventually do more harm than good.
And there is no way she is going to link up with Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam gang. Wilders is very much the hands-on boss of the PVV and Rita wouldn’t get a look in.
This way she gets to be her own boss, keep public sympathy – thrown out on her ear, simply for speaking her mind – and she gets to stay in parliament so she can say what she likes.
Everyone’s getting bored with Wilders’ predictability, so she could not have picked a better moment to make a comeback.