'We are Europe's 3rd biggest louts'

Amsterdam: The Dutch have voted themselves Europe's third most loutish, bad-mannered nation behind Russia and France, according to a survey in Dutch daily De Telegraaf on Saturday.

"As we are too many people living in just a little country our tolerance of one another is continuously declining," wrote one of the survey respondents.

But another citizen protested: "The Dutch are very direct in the way they communicate. Sometimes that's considered the same as being bad mannered."

The Dutch voted the Swiss, Scandinavians and the Belgians as the most polite people in Europe.