Van Breukelen had heard something at work and tried to profit from it in a private investment, according to the Telegraaf. That is not allowed. Jurgen resigned magnanimously, after all KPMG would not benefit from an attempt to save him.
The revealing interview in the FD (13 May) answers the first question about how he views this investment in Blaricum: “With the knowledge we have now, you can say that we shouldn’t have done it at the time”. And, a little further on: “Not so long ago, it was perfectly normal for pregnant women to smoke and drink. It was within the rules.”
'it fit within the rules'. With Jurgen algeria mobile phone number list types, the flame of moral awareness was extinguished with a porcelain candle snuffer shortly after birth and after that they only looked at the rules. Your pregnant wife drunk with a cigar in her snout, in the sixties? Nothing wrong with that, nowhere did it say that it was not allowed. It just doesn't seem very sensible. Not with the knowledge of then. And not of now. And not of tomorrow either.
The ruling of the EU Court of Justice puts a damper on 'the knowledge of today'. In ten years' time – Jurgen has asked Google to stop showing the Telegraaf article – he can happily say that there was nothing wrong with the knowledge of today either. He will then be a civil servant, a state enumerator; the control of books has now been taken over by the government.
This column was also published in Het Financieele Dagblad. Photo intro courtesy of Fotolia.