Why I won't be escaping to Switzerland

I was intrigued to read in The Times property section on Friday that a lady featured there was thinking of going to live in Switzerland to escape the clutches of a right-wing government.  Actually Reform's poll ratings seem to have fallen a bit after the revelations of Russian bribes and allegations about the banter that Nigel Farage used at Dulwich College.

I am actually one of the few people who has studied Swiss politics as part of their degree, although we mainly looked at the constitutional structure and decision-making processes rather than the underlying politics.   I did subsequently work with a Swiss political scientist who assured me that it was an essentially elitist country with the conscript army giving it a democratic facade.   The army is now much reduced in size.

Somehow I was not surprised to learn that a delegation of top Swiss companies such as Rolex had gone to see President Trump about the high tariffs he had imposed on their country.   They presented him with a gold bar engraved with his name and a Rolex clock.   This seems to have been helpful.

I am rather old fashioned and back in the day we called this bribery.   However, although there has been some critical comment in Switzerland, the consensus appears to be that it represents 'realistic economic diplomacy'.

It's all a bit remiscent of the Nixon 'Meltgate' scandal which became subsumed in Watergate.   AI tells me that the Nixon administration was accused of raising federal milk price supports in exchange for substantial campaign contributions from the dairy industry to Nixon's re-election campaign, The dairy industry reportedly contributed more than $200,000 in secret to the campaign.

My recollection is that the dairy lobbyists actually turned up in the Oval Office with a case full of used notes and Nixon said something on the lines of 'many come into this office and ask for things but not many show their appreciation.'   Nixon aides were then dispatched to collect the money from around the country at small airports.

To return to Switzerland, it looks like a company state to me where big international companies call the shots rather than the divided federal government.

It turns out that the attraction of Switzerland to the lady in The Times was that her father was Swiss and she holds a Swiss passport.   Meanwhile it is not on my bolt hole list.

The 1970s show: ungovernability is back

I am no fan of Rod Liddle, a right-wing head banger and Millwall supporter.   But he make a good point in his latest Spectator article.   Keir Starmer has the worst ratings of any prime minister in modern history, but Liddle points out that each successive prime minister in recent times has had worse ratings than his or her predecessor.

This leads Liddle to the question, is Britain ungovernable?   Of course, there is a risk of reinventing he wheel: there was such a debate on ungovernability in the 1970s featuring the late Tony King and Sam Brittan.   The general conclusion was one of government overload: government tried to do too much and ended up doing little of it well.

However, government today probably faces an electorate than has more expectations and sense of entitlement than in the 1970s.   One can see why many voters are disillusioned: taxes are up, but public services are seen as deteriorating.   Young people cannot get on the housing ladder in a way that was still possible in the 1970s (inflation paradoxically helped by reducing the real value of loans).

An analysis carried out for Hope not Hate shows that Reform voters are a rather variegated and in some ways contradictory group.   What I suspect does unite them is a 'none of the above' feeling: all other parties have failed, so Reform couldn't be worse.

This week Reform has to appear at the CBI conference to explain and justify its economic policies.   There has been some rowing back from the rasher promises, but will the attempt to appear responsible undermine their raw populist appeal?

Given that they are billed as the government as waiting, it is surprising that they are not winning more local government by-elections.   It is the Lib Dems and Greens who seem to be doing well with even the Conservatives winning the odd seat.  In line with the polls the Labour vote has tanked.