With two months to go to an election two Dutch ministers have resigned over a fire at Schiphol airport that killed 11 illegal aliens last year. An inquiry found that both the Justice and the Housing, Planning & Environment ministries failed in their responsibilities. Michael van der Galien at TMV has the details.

Say what you want, if something goes seriously wrong government ministers in Europe in general tend to take responsibility and hand in their portfolios. In the US and Canada in recent years we have witnessed too many scandals and disasters where elected officials managed to get away with a few obligatory excuses and carried on as if nothing had happened. Not good. Ministerial responsibility is a cornerstone of parliamentary democracies.