If it can happen in Holland, after all, it can happen anywhere. The Netherlands enjoys a triple-A credit rating. Its Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition had been seen, until yesterday, as a model of sobriety and prudence. Think of the stern, black-suited burghers in a portrait by Rembrandt or Frans Hals and you’ll have the general idea. That such a country should be drawn into the maelstrom is proof that we are dealing with a crisis of monetary union and not, as euro-apologists like to claim, with a general debt crisis. The Dutch deficit is 4.7 per cent, compared with 8.3 per cent in the United Kingdom and 9.1 per cent in Greece. Its total debt is 66 per cent of GDP – compared with, respectively, 82 per cent and 161 per cent.