THE FLEMISH GOVERNMENT is making a move towards unilateral online independence by demanding its own top level web domain extension.

Kris Peeters, the Prime Minister of Flanders, is apparently miffed at his Vlaanderen having to share the .be domain extension with a bunch of French-speaking Krummen honds.

Contrary to what most people think, .be is not short for beer. Peeters wants to take advantage of a recent ICANN decree allowing a whole host of riff raff to take out top level domains like .london, .frites, and .vandamme.

The whole van de Sarma (lousy) business of getting the Flemish their own separate domain names could cost in the region of €100,000, and could be ready as early as next year. A double-letter extension wouldn't be possible, as Flanders, despite what it may believe, is not an independent state recognised by the United Nations.

With tensions between the rich Flems and the poorer Francophone Belges at an all-time high, Flemish politicians are suggesting domain possibilities like .vla, .vln, .vlaanderen or .fla. Members of the Flemish nationalist N-VA party welcomed the move reckoning it would "make Flanders more visible on the worldwide web". Guys, seriously, no one even notices Belgium, why would they notice Flanders? Komm On!

Still, the move is likely to go ahead, the only real problems being what to do about bilingual French/Flemish Brussels, and the fact that ".fla" is well known file extension for flash.

But we’re sure the Afgelekte vleerenbols will sort something out, godverdomme!