Who is the beneficiary of Holland's famous tolerance?

The beneficiaries of that tolerance (that which the PC class everywhere holds up as it very model) are the drug dealers, adolescent thugs, the gangsters, crooks, dishonest manipulative media figures, abortion clinics - well, just about anyone who wants to (and does) rip off and oppress the rest of the Dutch population. I mean the rest of the population that wants to obey the rule of law, is fair-minded, and adheres to a traditional sense of right and wrong. A traditional sense of right and wrong recognises, for example, that it is wrong to steal from your local supermarket once, let alone make a habit of it.

Thirty-five years ago I spent two and half years living and working in Holland. Since then I have visited regularly, keeping close contact with things Dutch. I have recently returned from a six week stay in the south-west of Holland, one of the most picturesque parts of the country. Among other things, a major object was to do further research for my novel. One of the two climaxes of the story (a combination of romance and ideological thriller) occurs in that part of Holland. My six week stay confirmed themes that appear in the story. It has also prompted me to write this short comment.

Thirty-five years ago I was, like a lot of young men in their early twenties, green and stupid. But I was not so stupid I could not recognise the moral and political insanity that passed for Dutch liberalism. I was not that stupid that I could not see that ideological winds wafted over Holland with the smell of decay.

Twenty-five years ago I learnt on a visit that most elderly people in the provincial town I stayed in were fearful of walking the streets in the day time, let alone at night. They were fearful of being robbed or bashed. And they knew that if they were robbed or bashed the culprits, if they happened to be caught, would be thrashed with a feather, and treated to the sympathy of all sorts of social workers, sociologists, psychologists, and sundry half-baked academics.

Two years ago I was in Holland to witness two incidents, one of which shocked the population, the other seeming to pass unremarked by. The first incident was in a provincial town outside a supermarket. A young man told two teenage thugs on a motorbike to ride more carefully in the supermarket car park. That was reason enough for one of the teenage thugs, at the encouragement of his mate, to get off his bike and bash the young man to death. Part of the uproar was due the weariness of the ordinary Dutch citizen in the face of such regular gratuitous violence.

The second incident was in a court of law, where television cameras were recording. A man, who had a judgment spoken against him immediately set about pounding the prosecutor with his fists. One of the most shocking aspects of this total disregard for the courts and system of justice was that those present stood by and watched.

This year a student at a high school pulled out a handgun in the school cafeteria and shot dead a teacher who was attempting to discipline him.

I could go on multiplying the examples. It was just this sort of constant scenario that prompted Pim Fortuyn to stand against the social decay in his country. He was rewarded by being given the central role in the first political assassination in The Netherlands since the 17th century. His assassin was an environmental zealot.

Today I saw on the main Dutch news bulletin (I receive Dutch television via satellite) the report of a shopkeeper who was being prosecuted because he put a photo of a shoplifter in his front window with the caption: 'this person is a thief'. He did this out of complete frustration that he could do nothing about the constant theft in his shop. He was losing a crippling percentage of his profit in theft. In a similar incident, staff from a supermarket, robbed blind by often the same thugs, were taken to court and convicted of assault because they tried to stop one of the regular thieves. The case went to court on appeal. But the judge gave the verdict in favour of the criminal and upheld the conviction of the victim.

One of the sorriest aspects of this situation is that many people in Holland do not have the will or the courage stand up to the oppressors. In fact, Dutch tolerance is a phrase to cover the weakness and lack of resolve in Dutch society.