For two-and-a-half days last week, I was part of a small group of council leaders and chief executives who visited the Netherlands to look at community cohesion issues. 
It was timely to contrast the Dutch experience with our own, particularly in light of the current political fashion for defining Britishness. 
Virtually everyone we met spoke of the trauma the country experienced in the aftermath of the assassinations of political leader Pim Forteyn and the journalist Theo van Gogh. The impact on the national political psyche cannot be underestimated and seemed more significant than, say, the impact of the 7/7 atrocities in London on politicians here. 
This can partly be explained by the shattering of what was a universally held belief in multiculturalism, a philosophy that has never inspired the same unquestioning faith in the UK.
It is also perhaps because, with a much smaller population than the UK, fears about mass immigration and loss of Dutchness are felt more keenly. 
The Dutch policy response has been a sharp U-turn from multiculturalism to one of assertive integration. Dutch citizenship now requires a mandatory 200 hours of Dutch language classes, with penalties for migrants who fail to turn up or pass exams.
Like us, the Dutch worry about tackling extremist groups, and there is a big emphasis on joining in with civic life and preventing people from dropping out of social contact altogether under the banner of campaigns such as ‘We are Rotterdammers'. 
Significant funding streams have been made available to support social enterprises to run schemes that bring people from different backgrounds together. In fact, the level of funding surprised many of us from the UK who are used to tougher value-for-money scrutiny.
Does it work? Well, it's too early to say. But there are certainly lessons for us. n