some eurosceptic or conservative commentators, including philosopher Roger Scruton, Lord Rees-Mogg, economist Lord Ralph Harris, historian Hugo Vickers, and British Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan. A review in Economic Affairs said the book "includes some interesting ideas on the similarities between Belgium and the EU, but its arguments appear to contain many simplifications and controversial assertions." 1990 Baudouin abortion question Beliën was editor at the foreign desk of the Gazet van Antwerpen, until he was fired in April 1990. Beliën had received information in October 1989, that the Belgian King, Baudouin, would not sign the new abortion law. Although the editor in chief of the Gazet van Antwerpen, Lou de Clerck, found this information to be too sensitive to be published, Beliën published it anyway in the Wall Street Journal on 1 November 1989 and also later in NRC Handelsblad. In reaction to this, De Clerck refused to let Beliën write in foreign newspapers, mentioning his relationship to the Gazet van Antwerpen. An op-ed of Beliën for the NRC Handelsblad (published 6 April 1990) mentioned that Beliën was working "for a newspaper in Antwerp, whose name he could not mention". A couple of days later Beliën was fired. Jos Huypens, deputy editor of the Gazet, said that the cause of Beliën's firing was a "conflict that was dragging on for years". Shortly later, the Wall Street Journal published another Beliën piece, detailing the connections between political parties and the media in Belgium. Leo de Haes, a former journalist at Humo, alleged that Beliën was fired in order to rid the Gazet of "Vlaams Blok elements". Opinions Guy Verhofstadt and Flemish liberalism In an article (23 June 2004) for the business newspaper De Tijd Beliën reflected on the policies of Guy Verhofstadt who was then serving as prime-minister of Belgium. According to Beliën, Verhofstadt brought Flemish Liberalism to the brink of the abyss. Beliën stated that he saw in Verhofstadt a transformation from adoring the economic liberalism of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and the laureling of Ludwig Erhard of Verhofstadt in Beliën's magazine Nucleus in 1990, to a Third Way position taken by Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, with Verhofstadt ultimately taking an Old Europe stance with Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder in 2003. According to Beliën, this last 'change of winds' by Verhofstadt prevented him to become the next President of the EU Commission. Furthermore, Beliën thinks that the vacuum