But in a nationwide survey by the NRC Handelsblad newspaper, only two of the 345 voters who had previously said they would not vote for Mr Fortuyn's party had changed their minds since the killing. Of those who had previously said they would vote for him, 23 per cent said that with their hero dead, they would return to parties they had previously supported. Another 22 per cent were undecided.All the Dutch political parties agreed to continue the suspension of their campaigns and all debates on election issues as a mark of respect to the leader of the LPF. The sober mood, following days of national mourning for Mr Fortuyn, extends to a decision to dispense with music and celebrations at party gatherings after Wednesday's vote.In the wake of Mr Fortuyn's killing, the rise of the National Front in France and racial unrest in Britain, ministers in London are spearheading a Europe-wide fight against far-right extremism. The Home Office Minister, John Denham, wants fellow Europeans to work together to find common solutions to shared problems on race. With the backing of the Prime Minister, Mr Denham has secured support from ministers across Europe for his social cohesion project.An inaugural meeting is to be held in Britain shortly and the group, expected to comprise ministers, officials, community organisations and young people, will then move to other European locations..

America once more is agog at the Kennedys. Two members of that blessed and benighted clan found themselves plunged into campaign mode last week, but their battles were starkly different. One is fighting for high political office; the other is fighting to escape jail America once more is agog at the Kennedys. Scandal and disgrace stands alongside lofty ambition to serve. The only question is which script the country finds more fascinating – the Kennedys as heroes or as tragic embarrassments?The embarrassment today is the trial in Norwalk, Connecticut, of Michael Skakel. The nephew of Robert F Kennedy's widow, Ethel Kennedy, Mr Skakel, 41, is charged with bludgeoning to death a childhood friend, Martha Moxley, when they were both 15 years old.So far, Ethel has not appeared at the courthouse, although some still expect her to do so.

Maybe, however, she prefers to concentrate on the other Kennedy in the news – her daughter. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, 50, surprised no one last Sunday when she came before the cameras to announce her campaign to become Governor of Maryland after serving two four-year terms as Lieutenant Governor. Ethel was among the many Kennedys standing at her side.It thus falls on a female Kennedy to repolish the somewhat tarnished legacy of the boys, going back to the watery car accident suffered by Senator Edward Kennedy at Chappaquiddick in 1968, in which his female companion drowned, and the notorious trial of his nephew, William Kennedy Smith, on rape charges in Florida in 1991. Mr Kennedy Smith was acquitted.Ms Kennedy Townsend seems suited to the role. Among the nicknames attached to her by other family members, there is "Clean Kathleen", "the Nun" and – perhaps most tellingly – "the un-Kennedy".