Toeteren Tegen Hoge Dieselprijs
…is my pick from the NRC Handelsblad website for today (see article). Recently I feel like doing it too.
“Toeteren” in this context means honking the car horn. Honking in protest against a proposed raise in fuel tax in the context of rapidly rising diesel prices which will swell the government coffers anyway.
As part of this protest all protesters honked their horn three times today at 11:45. Part of the reason I mention this on Dutch Class is because of the cutesy Dutch colloquialism in the slogan the organisers of this protest came up with.
De maat is vol, de tank is leeg! Toeter voor lagere dieselaccijns!
Literally this translates to: “The measure is full, the tank is empty! Honk for lower fuel tax!”. Now though the meaning is clear enough this isn’t really very natural English and the pun also doesn’t quite work.
Can anyone come up with a better translation?