The Kok and Bol Story Edition - Week 7 - 2026

·33 min·2 clips

Opposition parties with 84 seats voted down even a study into raising the electoral threshold.

Friday’s Dutch News Podcast lands in an odd shape after the full Wednesday recording vanished. Gordon opens by explaining the mishap and says the usual setup should be back next week. Paul still has room for the OPF of the week. This time the joke comes from Jutta Leerdam, Jake Paul, and the reaction to her very public lifestyle. After that, Gordon takes over and handles the rest of the episode alone. One of the main topics is the debate over a possible higher electoral threshold in Dutch politics. The question is whether that would actually improve things or just change the problem by moving it around. Opposition parties are not impressed, and Gordon spells out why the idea runs into trouble in a system built around representative democracy. He also looks back at the Remkes commission and its earlier conclusions on parliamentary reform, which still matter here. The Netherlands uses one national list rather than regional constituencies, so the numbers are only part of the story. Smaller groups still get representation through parties like the SGP and Denk, which is one reason the threshold debate keeps getting stuck on the same basic question: would the system still reflect the country as it is? The episode then shifts to working from home. CBS figures show that around three in five Dutch workers can work remotely at least part of the time. Gordon puts that in context with the broader rise in remote-work options over the last decade, and with the changes the pandemic sped up. Even without the full regular version, the episode keeps its usual explanatory pace and closes by saying normal service will return next week.

As heard by us

A stripped-down Dutch news update that still covers the week’s main political and practical points.

Dutch News Podcast keeps things lean this week, with Gordon Darroch carrying a solo weekly roundup after a broken regular recording, while Paul still turns up for the OPF of the week.

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Why you'd press play

You get a solo Dutch politics roundup after the full show is lost to gremlins.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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