There is a psychological answer to this. I am personally fascinated by flemish people their language and most of all their exquisite flemish art, not forgetting that our beautiful tapestries by Judecos de Vos were woven in this beautiful flemish region. We must not forget that great masters like PeterPaul Rubens came from this magical area. I understand their language because it is very close to German and I love the way they live and their lavish portions of Moulles Marnier. Brugge as they pronounce it Bruhhe , has beautiful churches, most prominent is one Church of St Saviour. There is the beautiful Marble Sculpture of the Madonna and Child by Michelangelo in Our Lady Church known as
Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk, Bruges.
Oh pardon me I forget that the people are so tranquil with common interest at heart that politics are rarely an issue.
This very catholic region s main worry is that they are proud of their flemish language ” Flaams” and wish to have nothing to do with the walonians who speak french in the south.

Suicide is not a sign of strong character. I completely disagree with your statement.

Acerbic wit loses its bite when you have to spell it out.

That film was a pleasant surprise. I was expecting some piece of sentimental fluff but I was proved wrong.

Makes sense. Never thought of it that way.

One more thing: De Telegraaf and The Mail on Sunday target exactly the same kind of readers (I would say lower-middle class). Yet the circulation of The Mail on Sunday is 2.2 million.

I always thought that the Dutch were very good at putting their lives into boxes – on weekdays we wear the newspaper-reader’s hat and on weekends we take it off to go and eat friet in cafes. Edward De Bono’s dream society – now it seems even more so.

Dutch people (and that includes the Flemish) do like newspapers – just not on the weekend. The largest Dutch-language newspaper, De Telegraaf, has a circulation of 800,000, which is quite high considering that the combined population of the Netherlands and Flanders is about 23 million. They had tried launching a Sunday edition a couple of years ago, but it was a flop.

So true.

By the way, I’m not suggesting anything should be done illegally either!

Assuming that all of Belgium is like the small city of Bruges is unwise, I think.

It’s true that you do not see newspapers anywhere in Bruges (or anyone reading them) but the impression I got when there is that this is because it is basically a tourist city. Think of Mdina: are there any newsagents in the city? Do you see headlines anywhere?

I must confess that I have not been to the outskirts of the city. I would expect life to return to normal in places which are not touristy … much like comparing Rabat and Mdina, I suppose.

Having said all that, the majority of newspapers you see in Brussels are the free, but reasonable quality, editions distributed in train and metro stations. I wonder if they are read by the locals more or less than the immigrant population though.

[Daphne – Bruges cannot be compared to Mdina, though it is full of tourists. Many thousands of people live there: it is a functioning city with all the shops, businesses and so on that you would expect. But newsagents and newspapers are conspicuous by their absence.]

Anyway, according to Belgian law the statute of limitations expired in this case, so there is nothing that can be done legally.