AMSTERDAM, 17/12/05 - The Netherlands will never be what is was once. And that must be accepted, according to Labour (PvdA) leader Wouter Bos. "Islam is here to stay," he declares in his book 'Dit land kan zoveel beter' (This country can do so much better).

People who deny that Islam forms part of Dutch society propagate "a politics of nostalgic illusions". Bos presses for "binding leadership" and a combination of solidarity, sympathy and fellowship among all residents of the Netherlands. His fear is that a middle class develops that feels no solidarity at all with a permanent 'underclass' that may eventually consist of two million people without prospects, Bos stated.

Bos presented the first copy of his book to former Prime Minister Wim Kok on Friday. The first 62 pages are about his youth, his time as a student, his ambitions and his career with oil company Shell in Romania, Hong Kong and London. The other 97 pages contain an analysis of the present state of the Netherlands and a vision of the future.

Bos says he comes from a socialist family, although his father was director of the Christian development organisation ICCO. He describes how he was inspired as an adolescent by then Prime Minister Joop den Uyl. The real PvdA feeling seized Bos however when as a student he helped a Turkish baker to fill in his tax return.

As Bos presents it, it seems as if his life would inevitably lead to his present leadership of the PvdA. The same spiritual message was previously propagated by Pim Fortuyn.

In 1998, Bos exchanged his promising career with Shell for an uncertain future in politics. This was to "finally prove to myself that all that flirting with politics over the years was not the superficial gimmick of a leftwing bloke in a rightwing world, but that I meant it seriously."

Bos does not present any concrete policy plans, and claims that for this reason, "it goes without saying" that his book is not an election manifesto or a trial coalition agreement. He intends to work out his plans in more detail in 2006 and test them against reality.