Lysistrata in Brussels

Belgium, on the verge of falling apart into separate ethnic enclaves, has been 241 days without a government. Now the BBC reports that Belgian senator Marleen Temmerman has a solution:

"I call on the spouses of all negotiators to withold sex until a deal is reached," said Ms Temmerman in an article for a Belgian newspaper. "Have no more sex until the new administration is posing on the steps of the Palace." . . . She said if politicians' partners followed her suggestion, the "palaver" of coalition-forming would be resolved quite quickly.

It would probably work better than another suggestion, the "grow a beard" campaign, which suggested that all Belgian men go without shaving until a government is formed.