Back from my Swiss sojourn

I always find something different to admire in Switzerland each time I go there. This time it was their daily rubbish collections! How can they do it in very difficult terrain and ice and snow covered roads and we did not have our rubbish collected for three weeks. The answer seems to be they have a lot of guys and gals out there doing the job rather than legions of politically correct commissars pushing paper.

It was the same on their railways that I used extensively. Lots of front line staff, tickets were checked properly, trains ran to the minute and most noticeably all the staff were Swiss nationals who could speak French, German and English. Compare that to UK railways and London underground.

The end result is Switzerland provides permanent jobs for her nationals not Johnny Foreigner. Why? Well as one UK  guest at our hotel remarked there is no ruling permanent political class in Switzerland only lots of Swiss working hard at real jobs. If the small central government tries anything the people don't want then it is easy to call a binding national referendum in which the people can vote down any government proposal. The government cannot resist or enforce its demands as every male Swiss over 22 has their own personal automatic rifle and ammunition in their bedroom. There is little gun crime or mass shootings in Switzeralnd. Any who try end up dead very quickly.

So back to the UK where from the Faragistas I read of Comrade Nuttall's great result for UKIP in Oldham. Saving your deposit in a fptp election is a decent achievement but not a great one for a party like UKIP. The missing information is how much did UKIP spend to achieve the extra 500 votes and where did this money come from?

Lunch calls but more tomorrow.