Yesterday, the third Tuesday in September, Queen Beatrix read the "Troonrede", the Dutch "state of the nation" speech for the combined First and Second Chamber in Parliament. Lots of good news, of course, with elections coming up in The Netherlands in two months. This year, Politix is offering new ways to help you determine what party matches your position on various issues.

Politix has started a tracker for all votes that took place in Dutch Parliament since January 2006, where you can see how each party voted, and even vote yourself - and add arguments pro or contra. (On the way towards more Habermassian discourses in societal debates? It is taking a step in the direction of the more visionary GRASS system that my friend Aldo de Moor envisioned as a "group authoring process" to collect adversary points of view).

Politix also received funding from Digital Pioneers to complete on a new type of "voting guide" that will help you determine which party is closest to your preferences: give your opinion on a couple of proposals, and the site will match it against actual voting behaviour in Parliament, not against promises in election campaigns. (We already had an online voting guide based on the campaign programs of the parties.)