Peter Wuffli ex Head of UBS has returned 12 million CHF in bonuses. I guess he can maybe afford it, but that's a significant amount of money, not just a gesture.

The big question on everyones lips is will ex-chief Marcel Ospel follow suit? Already with little public sympathy because of his perceived role in the grounding of Swissair, will he be able to resist? He received no bonus last year, but maybe people expect him to reach into his renumeration from previous years.

I received these quotes from an American friend.

Bush 2004: "Let me put it to you this way: I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it."

Obama 2008: "And, to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president, too."

The Swiss elections have returned increased support for the right wing SVP People's Party as expected. Centre left Social Democrats lose out, and the Green party also gains. I think this reflects the general feelings of the people I talk to.

A few things to note. The effect of this inside Switzerland is totally different to it's portrayal by foreign media who have jumped on the bandwagon rolled out by the unfortunate, although maybe highly calculated media campaign. Characteristically the Swiss are being labeled racist and fascist by people who don't really know the country. Sure there is xenophobia here - show me a country where there isn't - but the move is driven more by the fact that the Swiss are proud of their country and any perception, rightly or wrongly that it is going downhill will provoke a reaction.

It also however marks a bit of a change in Swiss politics where major issues are polarising opinion and sides are being taken in a normally consensus-driven system. Maybe other parties will take the lead of the SVP in future

Before anyone jumps to conclusions remember that Swiss politics has a lot of checks and balances - especially compared with the sham democracy that exists in the UK for example. So the SVP are not swept into power, but will probably have 2 out of 7 votes in the Assembly. In addition of course major legislature changes will always be subject to referendum - try getting Gordon Brown or the like to trust the people to make any decisions. (Or rather Rupert Murdoch)

It took a long time for the debris of political correctness to wash up on the shores of Switzerland. I wish I'd collected all the examples of non-pc Swiss advertising that I've seen. Recently the forthcoming elections have thrown up some more.

Migros, one of the supermarket chains appears to have got into bed (sorry, wrong metaphor) with some of the candidates. This young lady for example is a candidate, and also it appears a Migros customer.

I couldn't help wondering if Gordon went down to the Kirkcaldy Co-op and asked them if they had any Union Jack boxer shorts.. damn, I wish I hadn't thought that thought - the image is going to take a long time to wash away. And in any case there ain't going to be any election..

The black sheep advertising campaign of the SVP is becoming more of an embarrassment to them. The German NPD right wing Neo-nazi party has taken it to heart. The SVP is trying to distance itself, but I think it just shows their naiveity if they didn't foresee how attractive this image would be for extremists.

More of the story in 20mins. Here is my original post about the campaign

The SVP, the right-wing Swiss People's Party, have done it again and catapulted themselves into the spotlight with another advertising campaign. However I'm not sure the results are quite what they wanted. Criticism from all sides, including UNO, citing racism, human rights abuse, discrimination etc etc. Especially as what they want is for entire immigrant families to be kicked out if one family member transgresses. However I think their biggest crime is a childish naivity and a complete obliviousness of how the rest of the world works. In explaining the poster, an SVP spokeswoman carefully described the concept of a black sheep - I'm sure we are all familiar with this anyway - and said that was the meaning of the image. However any political party that fails to foresee how this would be interpreted (rightly or wrongly, and I'm no friend of political correctness) doesn't deserve to be treated seriously, or to be handed any more power than they can handle.

The delightful outcome of this,as with other SVP posters has been the immediate purloining of the idea by opponents.

Some other links on this blog

They have a chain of railway loos or "hygiene control centres" here called McClean's. I think they exist in France Germany and Luxembourg as well. The loos are like entering some Swiss nuclear laboratory, and they are very, very clean. In fact they are downright unnerving.

The problem is that they are patrolled by a squad of cleaners (all women from what I can make out), and they leap into the WC as soon as you leave. On the face of it to clean up after you, but I mean... I spend more time in the loo cleaning up after myself now, making sure there is no sign of mischief, or dust along the top of the door, not to mention any unmentionables. Think of the red face you'd have. And if you happen to let rip a smelly one? Forget it - you're stuck there for a while. Unfortunately being like a Swiss nuclear establishment these cubicles are hermetically sealed.

My greatest fear is one of those giant stools that just refuses to go away. What an embarassment - or maybe pride for some people. Another risk to look out for is nipping into a cubicle before one of these nice lasses has been in to check it out. What if your predecessor had left something distasteful? You'd have no option but to clean it up yourself.

(This post is a tribute to Billy Connolly)

Yes - they're at it again. Go to a foreign country , jeer and leer at the natives and then trash the place.

Only this time it's the Swiss  - well one Swiss actually, but I know the Swiss and they can get pretty boisterous. Anyway this one chap was out getting la-la'd in Thailand, and due to local licensing regulations (Kings birthday) they switched the beer off.  Affronted by this he did what every red-blooded Swiss does when confronted with bureaucracy - he resorted to graffitti,

Unfortunately he graffittied the current Kings picture which is like washing your car on a Sunday in Switzerland only much, much worse

Apparently looking at 75 years in jail....

One of the tricks of evolution is the development of self protection mechanisms. So we have the "best run away now" gene, and the "dont eat that" gene etc. If we step out of the local supermarket and find ourselves amidst some foraging velociraptors, the "run away now (quickly)" gene kicks in.

Over the years objective dangers have changed. "dont try and cross the road in Italy" would have been worthless in 25000bc but could be a lifesaver today. While we should still worry about velociraptors, a more recent objective peril is electricity. As a child I guess I was told like everyone else not to poke my tiggy-winkles into sockets, or to try and find out what a couple of bare wires tasted like.

Now I have been gifted something called a foot spa. I suppose everyone knows what this is. Basically you have a plastic bucket. You fill it up with water, you stand in it, and then you plug it into the mains. My self protection genes may have developed in a different way from yours, but  as of yet they have prevented me from making full use of this undoubtedly beneficial gadget.

Last year I had a blog entry about the green campaign against offroaders (Züriberg-Panzern) and the stickers that the Junge Grünen were using to discourage them. Now a new twist, and another oblique look at Swiss politics/society.

The SVP right wing peoples party has been campaigning against the Schengen agreement and it's potential impact on the Swiss. Their campaign has been fronted by a comical, hysterical poster which owes more to Marvel comics than Swiss rationality and shows what could be taken as a young Swiss mother terrified at the prospect of being mugged and raped by outsiders.

Designed to appeal to an older generation, the ridiculous aspects of this advert have been purloined by the Junge Grünen for their on-going anti-Züri-Panzern campaign - and to good effect I think. I like it because it balances the normal outside view of the Swiss, which would place them all firmly in the SVP camp.

Also - more publicity for the JG as their co-opting of this graphic has again brought them to the attention of the Swiss legislature, this time for copyright breaches I suppose, but I think if the SVP want to cling to and preserve ownership of this ridiculous image then a slide into irrelevance is guaranteed. Don't know what the result will be this time. Watch this space

I just saw an interview with some smug corporate type about  BAE and how the company's outlook looked very good and he expected shareholders to benefit from increased US Military expenditure. (applause all round)

How sick is that ..

SBB (Swiss Railways) just announced their punctuality figures for 2006. Excuse me if this is going to bore all you car addicts out there, but here they are.

96% of all trains arrived within 5 mins of scheduled time (6500 trains per day)

98% of all connections were made (3000 per hour)

However the SBB admitted it's disappointment that on the main businesss routes Bern-Zurich and Basel Zurich only 90% of trains arrived within 3mins of scheduled time. For me the second statistic is the most impressive. One of the reasons that Swiss public transport works is the extensiveness of the connections, coupled with the fact that you never have to wait more than a few minutes for a connection. Given the relative size and complexity of the network in a small country you can imagine how easily this could get out of kilter with knock on effects if there were any serious delays. Anyone who has tried to catch the last Easyjet flight on a Friday night will know what I mean.

Or maybe it should be Victoria goes to Hollywood...... Only in America I guess could a fading footballer with middling talents become the world's highest paid sportsman. Call me old fashioned, but I think this says a lot about modern values.

At one million dollars a week playing for Los Angeles Galaxy, it will be interesting to calculate the price per goal at the end of the season. You're going to say but he's more than just a free kick wizard isn't he? Well no, he isn't, at least not on the football field. Maybe better to add up how much extra merchandise they sell - that's really what it's about

One of the big items of news this week has been the start of the trial of managers implicated in the grounding and bankruptcy of Swissair in 2001. This was an event that traumatised the Swiss - many people lost everything and the Swiss economy and morale took a serious body blow . It even led to a box office cinema hit (in Switzerland) - the action packed drama "Grounding - the last days of Swissair" . The film was successful because every Swiss felt this as a personal tragedy and humiliation, but also I suspect because it dramatised characters who are part of daily news and life. Especially Marcel Ospel, head of UBS (should have cast Sylvester Stallone - wouldn't that have been great?) who doesn't come out too well in the film version.

Of interest only to absent ex-swiss-ex-pats is the news that Migros has bought Denner in an ongoing supermarket war. Migros is the budget supermarket (think Asda) while their main rivals Coop are a bit more upmarket (Think John Lewis/Waitrose). Denner were a smaller budget chain, but the interesting thing is that they were well know for their booze, and Migros were well known for their moralistic attitude towards it. You could never buy drink in Migros - although it was interesting that if there was a Migros there was usually a Pick'Pay not far away. Not sure if Migros stores will now have booze in them, or if they will retain the Denner brand. Have to wait and see. What excitement, eh?

It won't be long now before Switzerland aligns itself with the no smoking countries of Europe (Italy, Scotland, Sweden, Ireland etc etc). The political parties recently came out 3-1 in favour of a smoking ban in all public places (pubs cafes restaurants etc). The opposition came out with all the old tired arguments - detrimental to business, enforcement problems, freedom to do what you like etc. However these can only appear half hearted given that the experiences of the countries which have adopted a ban doesn't seem to bear out any of the fears.

I was recently in Venice, and spent an afternoon watching rugby in an "irish" pub. Now I don't want to boast, but I reckon I'm a bit of an expert at observing pub life, and it didn't seem to me that the absence of tobacco had changed the atmosphere compared to any other smoky establishment. I also thought there seemed to be less smoking in the streets, certainly in comparison with Zurich. Was this as a result of the general ban? I stood at the railway station in Venice early morning, watching all the commuters disembark, and it was obvious to me that not a lot of them were desperately lighting up as soon as the doors open. This is what happens in Switzerland, and you can't avoid great lungfuls of the stuff at tram stops and elsewhere.

A Swedish acquaintance recently came back from Stockholm, where they also have a ban. An enthusiastic smoker, she was complaining how all the pubs now stank of alcohol, implying that smoke had previously cancelled this out leaving a sort of neutral effect. Ha ha I thought - now you know what we've had to put up with for all these years

Widely reported in the world press, the Swiss (people that is, not politicians) have decided by a rather convincing majority (69%) to ratify new restrictions on accepting asylum seekers and immigrants from outside the EU. Commentators have put it down to increasing annoyance at abuses of the system which have been highlighted recently. The common consensus seems to be that the Swiss value their  humanitarian attitude towards human rights, but not at the cost of law breaking and general taking of the piss, I don't blame them I guess. I also think many people may have linked this with an increase in things like vandalism which even to me seems to be on the rise, although nothing in comparison to places like the UK.

Most of the foreign comments I have seen concentrate exclusively on the asylum-seeker restrictions , especially the clause that requires id papers. Argument being that a lot of asylum seekers fleeing persecution don't have such niceties. However in effect the asylum issue is not such a big one here, numbers are decreasing, and I wonder if the restriction on immigration was not more important to most people.

An interesting development that pits Swiss conservatism against concerns about the environment. For some time now there has been a campaign running in Zürich against what the rest of the world knows as SUVs and what the Zürchers like to call the "Züriberg-Panzern".

The Junge Grünen (Young Greens) have been plastering what they regard as offending offroaders with stickers like the one shown in the picture ("Ich saufe für drei" .- I drink enough for three). Now, in what must be some kind of landmark decision this activity has been ruled as "legal" by the judiciary. This assuming that the stickers can be removed without causing any damage to the bodywork - that would be illegal. Hurrah, I say. I think it's pathetic seeing a grown man driving one of these oversized penis substitutes, usually with a mobile phone clamped to his ear. Especially somewhere like Zürich. This decision surprised many people I've talked to. There is an underlying feeling that this sort of behavious is wrong and un-Swiss, however there is a lingering acknowledgement that the protesters have a point. I read the article in 20mins, which is the giveaway paper in Zürich (www.20minuten.ch). A poll on the website comes out 82/18 against the decision. A vote not so much against environmental controls, but for the old generation view of Swiss law and order