Thanks for the comments Garreth!

I'm certainly not keen to see Belgium split, and I always find myself questioning my opinions when ever the over-lap with extreme views, but, the realist in me is finding it hard to see a future for Belgium at the moment. To run a country together, the two communities need to share at least some core values, and if a respect for the constitution and the courts isn't even shared, what hope is there?

I've been thinking about what binds Belgium, the most obvious thing is the King, then you have the shared aspects of culture like beer and comic strips, and then you have the NMBS, though both sides can't even agree on it's name! The other large national transportation companies have all been split, we have TEC and we have De Lijn, but there is still just one national rail network, and one national rail company, so, as strange as it sounds, the biggest practical hurdle to a split is actually the NMBS!

Bart.