David, As a follow up to my message of yesterday I think that the current situation in Belgium is a very good illustration of the point that I want to make. Last year a new government was formed from which the Socialists were excluded. The two more conservative parties are pushing for more free market and labour market reforms. The Christian-Democrat Flemish party, which is a combination of employed and self-employed voters is much more reticent about reforming existing social legislation.

David Fuller's view

Good, and thanks for the update.  I hope these are near permanent changes and that more of Europe is making similar choices.  Given the EU’s lengthy period of underperformance, persisting with Socialist economic policies sounds like a definition of insanity, to me.