Frits Bolkestein is an author and former Dutch politician. He served as Minister for Foreign Trade (1982-86), Minister of Defence (1986-88) and Chairman of the VVD Parliamentary Group. He also served as the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Taxation and the Customs Union (1999-2004).
Not all the ideas that public intellectuals have are valuable. Far from it. For ideas to have value they must be based upon and capable of being tested by experience. Too often, they are not.
