ANYONE CAN quit a government, but it is a neat trick to quit one that has already quit. On August 22nd Caspar Veldkamp, the Dutch foreign minister, resigned after other cabinet members frustrated his modest efforts to toughen Dutch policy towards Israel. The four other ministers from his party, New Social Contract (NSC), left too. Yet technically they had already stepped down: the coalition fell on June 3rd, and elections are scheduled for October 29th. NSC was leaving the caretaker government meant to run the country until a new one is formed.