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DirectDemocracy - gleanings from Switzerland ๐จ๐ญ - Thereโs no perfect way, but is there a better way? Is. 58:12 - ๐ ๐ก๏ธ
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From my latest book, Democracy โ Swiss Style (Small is the New Big):
In Switzerland, the people are the ultimate sovereign authority. To uphold that sovereignty, citizens have access to a wide range of democratic instruments designed to ensure their power remains intact. Below are two excerpts from my new book that explain these tools and how they are structurally embedded in the Swiss Constitution.
#DirectDemocracy
A great inspiration - the art of David Inshaw
There is something profoundly English about David Inshawโs paintings.
They seem to belong to a world we recognise instinctively, yet can never quite explain: summer gardens, churchyards, fields, trees, distant hills and quiet country lanes, all rendered with an almost unnerving stillness.
His landscapes are rural, but they are never merely pastoral. Beneath their apparent tranquillity there is always the suggestion of another world pressing gently against this one.
Inshawโs England is an England of memory, mythology and half-remembered stories.
It has something of Thomas Hardy in it, and something of Samuel Palmer, but also something of the English imagination itselfโthe feeling that an ordinary landscape may contain centuries of secrets.
A tree is never simply a tree; a garden may be a stage; a woman standing in a field may appear to be waiting for something that we, the viewer, have somehow arrived too early to witness.
There is even something faintly Agatha Christie about it. Not the murder mystery itself, but that peculiar English atmosphere in which everything appears perfectly civilised and peaceful while, somewhere just beyond the edge of the picture, something inexplicable may have occurred. The cricket lawn is immaculate. The garden is beautifully tended. The sunlight is warm. And yet something is not quite right. You find yourself looking for clues.
That is perhaps what makes Inshawโs paintings so compelling. They do not tell us what has happened. They invite us to imagine it.
His famous The Badminton Game, for instance, freezes a moment which seems both utterly ordinary and strangely charged. Inshaw himself spoke of wanting to capture a moment in time while giving it a deeper, more universal meaning, and described the Wiltshire landscape around Devizes as filled with โmystery and wonder.โย
His Englishness is therefore not simply about subject matter. It is psychological. It is the England of ancient earthworks beneath modern fields, of churchyards and country houses, of summer evenings, thunderstorms, bonfires and gardens, where the present seems to coexist with everything that has gone before. His landscapes feel inhabited not only by people, but by memory.
And this is where Inshaw becomes almost mystical. The countryside is not scenery; it is a vessel for emotion. Love, loss, desire, anticipation, childhood and mortality seem to linger within it. His paintings possess a strange ability to make the familiar unfamiliarโto make an English garden feel like a place from a dream.
Perhaps that is the deepest mystery in David Inshawโs work. Nothing appears to be happening, and yet everything seems about to happen. The world is completely still, but it is a stillness charged with possibility.
You look at an Inshaw painting and feel that you have entered a story whose beginning you have missed, whose ending you will never know, and whose secret is somehow contained in the landscape itself.
Check him out and listen
๐จ๐ญ The Fiscal Shield ๐ก๏ธ
In Switzerland they installed a debt break, a constitutional rule introduced in 2003, following approval by approximately 85% of Swiss voters in a 2001 referendum.
Its purpose was and is to prevent the federal government from continually spending more than it can sustainably afford, passing the burden of debt to future generations.
The principle is straightforward: government spending must be aligned with revenue over the economic cycle.
This allows flexibility during recessions and exceptional emergencies, while requiring financial discipline in normal economic conditions.
Rather than relying on politicians to restrain borrowing voluntarily, the debt brake establishes a binding framework for managing public money responsibly.
The results have been significant. Between 2003 and 2019, Switzerland reduced its federal debt by approximately CHF 27 billion.
Lower debt also helped limit interest costs, leaving more public money available for other priorities.
Academic research has found evidence that the debt brake contributed to improved fiscal outcomes, although economic growth and other policy decisions have also played a part.
The Swiss model demonstrates how constitutional safeguards and democratic accountability can work together to protect public finances.
Its central lesson is that governments should retain the flexibility to respond to genuine crises, but should not routinely finance todayโs spending by leaving tomorrowโs taxpayers with the bill.
If the UK had more #DirectDemocracy maybe it wouldnโt have 3 trillion of debt. Something to learn here from the Swiss.
The Fiscal Shield ๐ก๏ธ A Sure Protection
Who to follow
Sean Briggs
@Sean_Briggs
#Artist always #drawing & #sketching. All artwork available as prints or to license. My online shop here https://t.co/WGmGJRm44H also on https://t.co/l0CozFBSBd
Nooshin Sheekhbahi
@nooshin1
I am an Artist living and working in my studio .
Pawel Sych Art
@PawelSych
Artist, jazz lover
...if I can't see your eyes, I have nothing to say ... #painting #abstractart #jazz #SnaW
Available now
๐จ๐ญ The Fiscal Shield ๐ก๏ธ
In Switzerland they installed a debt break, a constitutional rule introduced in 2003, following approval by approximately 85% of Swiss voters in a 2001 referendum.
Its purpose was and is to prevent the federal government from continually spending more than it can sustainably afford, passing the burden of debt to future generations.
The principle is straightforward: government spending must be aligned with revenue over the economic cycle.
This allows flexibility during recessions and exceptional emergencies, while requiring financial discipline in normal economic conditions.
Rather than relying on politicians to restrain borrowing voluntarily, the debt brake establishes a binding framework for managing public money responsibly.
The results have been significant. Between 2003 and 2019, Switzerland reduced its federal debt by approximately CHF 27 billion.
Lower debt also helped limit interest costs, leaving more public money available for other priorities.
Academic research has found evidence that the debt brake contributed to improved fiscal outcomes, although economic growth and other policy decisions have also played a part.
The Swiss model demonstrates how constitutional safeguards and democratic accountability can work together to protect public finances.
Its central lesson is that governments should retain the flexibility to respond to genuine crises, but should not routinely finance todayโs spending by leaving tomorrowโs taxpayers with the bill.
If the UK had more #DirectDemocracy maybe it wouldnโt have 3 trillion of debt. Something to learn here from the Swiss.
The Fiscal Shield ๐ก๏ธ A Sure Protection
In Switzerland they installed a debt break, a constitutional rule introduced in 2003, following approval by approximately 85% of Swiss voters in a 2001 referendum. Its purpose was and is to prevent the federal government from continually spending more than it can sustainably afford, passing the burden of debt to future generations.
The principle is straightforward: government spending must be aligned with revenue over the economic cycle. This allows flexibility during recessions and exceptional emergencies, while requiring financial discipline in normal economic conditions. Rather than relying on politicians to restrain borrowing voluntarily, the debt brake establishes a binding framework for managing public money responsibly.
The results have been significant. Between 2003 and 2019, Switzerland reduced its federal debt by approximately CHF 27 billion. Lower debt also helped limit interest costs, leaving more public money available for other priorities. Academic research has found evidence that the debt brake contributed to improved fiscal outcomes, although economic growth and other policy decisions have also played a part.
The Swiss model demonstrates how constitutional safeguards and democratic accountability can work together to protect public finances.
Its central lesson is that governments should retain the flexibility to respond to genuine crises, but should not routinely finance todayโs spending by leaving tomorrowโs taxpayers with the bill.
If the UK had more #DirectDemocracy maybe it wouldnโt be in this mess. Something to learn here from the Swiss.
Yep - I agree with that
I like this precision from Christian Fantoli. โEvery major step goes before the peopleโฆa negotiated path, slow, but chosenโ
โDigital Financeโs Achillesโ Heel: When the Cloud Goes Down, Your Money Goes With Itโ
2026 - Switzerland is officially the worlds 3rd most peaceful country.
2026 Global Peace Index (GPI), published by the Institute for Economics & Peace.
๐จ๐ญ Switzerland has ranked third among the worldโs most peaceful countries in 2026, behind Iceland (1st) and New Zealand (2nd). The index assesses 163 countries and territories using 23 indicators across:
๐จ๐ญ societal safety and security
๐จ๐ญ ongoing domestic & international conflict,
๐จ๐ญ and militarisation.ย
In a world seemingly on fire ๐ฅ it says a lot. Perhaps Switzerland has something to teach us!
https://t.co/Cw03upYPP0
I wonder if it has anything to do with its political system of #DirectDemocracy ?
@FarmingUK That was a time, and it should be again.
Lots of evidence coming out now!
โDigital Financeโs Achillesโ Heel: When the Cloud Goes Down, Your Money Goes With Itโ
๐จ Google lost power in London this morning and Revolut, a bank with 80 million customers, went down with it.
I've spent the morning reading what Revolut users went through. It's wild.
People stranded at petrol stations, unable to pay for fuel or a taxi to the airport.
One traveller couldn't get out of a train station in Japan.
A 71-year-old woman stood at a supermarket till for an hour. Her kid had to drive 30km to bring her cash.
Card payments, transfers, ATM withdrawals, currency exchange, share trading. All down.
Revolut's statement said "all our customers' money and data are safe."
Safe. You just can't touch it.
Google's explanation so far is a "power event" in one zone of its London cloud region. Its advice to affected customers was to move their workloads to another zone or region "if feasible."
Must be nice. Revolut customers couldn't even move ยฃ10.
In July the UK government put Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft and Oracle under direct Bank of England oversight, because one outage at any of them could shake the entire financial system.
12 days ago the Bank of England ran a drill with the UK's 38 biggest banks and market operators. The scenario they practised was a global cloud outage.
And exactly one year ago today, AWS went down and took Lloyds and Halifax with it.
Same date. Different cloud. Lloyds was having problems again this morning.
Revolut spent five years earning a UK banking licence.
Bitcoin has been running for almost 18 years. It doesn't have a London region.
๐จ Google lost power in London this morning and Revolut, a bank with 80 million customers, went down with it.
I've spent the morning reading what Revolut users went through. It's wild.
People stranded at petrol stations, unable to pay for fuel or a taxi to the airport.
One traveller couldn't get out of a train station in Japan.
A 71-year-old woman stood at a supermarket till for an hour. Her kid had to drive 30km to bring her cash.
Card payments, transfers, ATM withdrawals, currency exchange, share trading. All down.
Revolut's statement said "all our customers' money and data are safe."
Safe. You just can't touch it.
Google's explanation so far is a "power event" in one zone of its London cloud region. Its advice to affected customers was to move their workloads to another zone or region "if feasible."
Must be nice. Revolut customers couldn't even move ยฃ10.
In July the UK government put Google Cloud, AWS, Microsoft and Oracle under direct Bank of England oversight, because one outage at any of them could shake the entire financial system.
12 days ago the Bank of England ran a drill with the UK's 38 biggest banks and market operators. The scenario they practised was a global cloud outage.
And exactly one year ago today, AWS went down and took Lloyds and Halifax with it.
Same date. Different cloud. Lloyds was having problems again this morning.
Revolut spent five years earning a UK banking licence.
Bitcoin has been running for almost 18 years. It doesn't have a London region.
@DirectDemToday And as you have said many timeโs Greg our direct democracy gives voters a regular veto on tax hikes and big spending, which helps explain why the productive economy has more room to grow.
Yep - I agree with that
๐ฆ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ด๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ ๐บ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ป ๐ณ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ๐ ๐ณ๐ฎ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒโ๐ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ด๐ด๐ฒ๐๐-๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐.
From 2019 to 2024, real GDP per person rose:
๐จ๐ญ ๐ฆ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ: +5.8%
OECD average: ๐ฎ +6.4%
๐ฉ๐ช ๐ง๐ช ๐ซ๐ท ๐ซ๐ฎ Germany, Belgium, France & Finland: ๐ฎ +1.3% average
๐ง๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ป ๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฒ.
These are not failed states. They have skilled workers, strong institutions and advanced industries.
Yet governments absorbing around half of GDP delivered near-stagnant living standards.
Energy shocks, ageing and industrial weakness matter. But so do high taxes, dense regulation, expanding transfers and a public sector that leaves less room for investment, innovation and risk-taking.
๐ฆ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ: ๐บ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐บ๐โ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ป๐ด๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ด๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐๐ต ๐ถ๐ป ๐น๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฑ๐.
๐ฌ๐ผ๐ ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป๐ป๐ผ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐
๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐.
Lots of evidence coming out now!
Hallucinant ! (cf vidรฉo โคต๏ธ)
Le maire de Marseille doit absolument publier les vidรฉos quโil dit dรฉtenir !
โก๏ธ Les Blackblocs laissรฉs libres de casser sans รชtre arrรชtรฉs, sous les yeux de policiers !
ยซย Il y a eu un mouvement.
Les forces de sรฉcuritรฉ se sont รฉcartรฉes de la mairie.
Les casseurs sont alors entrรฉs dans la mairie.
Puis ils sont ressortis libres de la mairie alors que la police รฉtait ร lโintรฉrieur !ย ยป
ยซย Je veux savoir qui a donnรฉ les ordres et qui a demandรฉ ร ce quโon les relรขche !ย ยป
ยซย Ensuite ils ont continuรฉ dโaller casser la ville !ย ยปโฆ
โก๏ธ Diffusez svp : il faut toute la vรฉritรฉ !
Hallucinant ! (cf vidรฉo โคต๏ธ)
Le maire de Marseille doit absolument publier les vidรฉos quโil dit dรฉtenir !
โก๏ธ Les Blackblocs laissรฉs libres de casser sans รชtre arrรชtรฉs, sous les yeux de policiers !
ยซย Il y a eu un mouvement.
Les forces de sรฉcuritรฉ se sont รฉcartรฉes de la mairie.
Les casseurs sont alors entrรฉs dans la mairie.
Puis ils sont ressortis libres de la mairie alors que la police รฉtait ร lโintรฉrieur !ย ยป
ยซย Je veux savoir qui a donnรฉ les ordres et qui a demandรฉ ร ce quโon les relรขche !ย ยป
ยซย Ensuite ils ont continuรฉ dโaller casser la ville !ย ยปโฆ
โก๏ธ Diffusez svp : il faut toute la vรฉritรฉ !
Marie Choquet, commerรงante ร Lyon
"quand j'ai vu les pillages sur les camรฉras de videodurveillance, j'ai appelรฉ la police.
Reponse : "NOUS AVONS ORDRE DE NE PAS INTERVENIR"
Ayant repรฉrรฉ les pilleurs, rรฉponse de la police "ORDRE DE NE PAS INTERVENIR"
Qui n'a toujours pas compris ?
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