Scotland and Switzerland - the difference is Direct Democracy

Published as the lead letter in The National, February 28, 2024.

I was recently in Switzerland. Like Scotland, Switzerland is a small west European nation with stunning natural beauty. But there the similarities end.

Not only are the trains and roads superior to Scotland’s, but the Swiss towns I visited were clean, prosperous and bustling. I saw no homeless people on the streets, no shuttered shops, no litter, and detected no sense of hopelessness or despair.

Switzerland doesn’t have the natural resources of Scotland but they have something we don’t – a system of decentralised direct democracy, where the People are firmly in control at all three levels of government – the municipal, the regional (cantonal) and the federal. Direct political rights are the beating heart of Swiss direct democracy - the People’s right to Initiatives (to launch proposed constitutional changes) and to Referendums (to accept or reject proposed legislation). These powers give the People the final say in how their nation is governed.

If the sovereign Scottish People had similar rights, they would be wealthier and happier. They wouldn’t have had their energy resources stolen and squandered by another nation, leaving them with nothing. Their industrial base wouldn’t have been destroyed along with whole communities. Their children wouldn’t have to leave because there are no opportunities.

They would insist on well-funded public services to which all people have a basic right.

They would be part of the world’s largest free trading bloc. They wouldn’t tolerate another nation’s nuclear weapons nor go along with that nation’s continual warmongering.

And they wouldn’t send their politicians to another nation’s parliament where they are ignored and ridiculed.

Direct Democracy is the only governance system that allows the Scottish People to realise their sovereign power. But to have it, we must leave this moribund union that has so profoundly damaged us.