On a resolution to condemn Israel (and Israel alone) at the WHO, Switzerland didn't vote NO like Canada, the UK or Germany. Switzerland didn't abstain like Norway, Sweden, Finland and 29 other countries - or simply joined the 56 "absent". Switzerland made a point of voting YES to a resolution co-sponsored by Syria, Cuba or Turkey.

Two questions to Foreign Secretary Cassis and the Federal Government:

1. Is this a mistake, for which someone has to be sacked (as it happened recently in Uruguay)?

2. Or is it a naked appeal to votes from dictatorships in the ill-considered candidacy of Switzerland to the UN Security Council?

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In Britain, I am struck how much society is geared for competition rather than cooperation, be it the school system, debating competitions or first past the post. You need a balance between the two, of course. This game looks like an interesting way to show how the Swiss society (and direct democracy, woefully misunderstood here) works. #politix

Hutton was a hero of swissroll.info, see our posts from August-September 2003.

An occasion to mark the anniversary of this blog, started on 3 August 2003. As we explained elsewhere, Jean-Paul Guisan (aka Guillaume Barry) and I were inspired to start one by reading blogs ourselves, notably the Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan. He stopped 5 years ago, being a confirmed commentator in mainstream media - but it's due to reappear as The Weekly Dish! Behold!

#politix #webpublishing

Un post à lire sur Un Swissroll, avec peut-être une adaptation anglaise à venir...

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On Un Swissroll, my take on the British General Election (in French). I share here my views on the state of the Left and it's future.

The 2015 surprise election of Corbyn as leader of Labour has been followed by a complete change of the party:

• The fraction of far left dinosaurs around Corbyn has taken over all the levers of control inside the party. They have no intention to surrender them despite their appalling result at the General Election: they want a corbynite after Corbyn.

• After 4 years the composition of the membership has been transformed, thanks to waves of younger and idealistic members: the party is now solidly out of tune with the aspirations of the voters and society at large, and revolutionarily proud of it!

Some people have started (re)joining Labour in order to take part in the election of the next leadership. But it will go nowhere without organising a proper campaign to transform the party again: now is not the time to trust some invisible hand! Basically, we need a drive for one million Labour (former) voters to join, but where is the potential leader with a clear program of renewal? I don't really see this happening.

However, there is an alternative: accepting that we are at the end of an historical cycle for a Left based on class struggle (after all, Social-Democracy did win the argument for a regulated market economy with welfare provision!). Corbyn has destroyed Labour, but Johnson is also destroying the old Right.The next elections will be in 4 or 5 years. Now is the time to build anew the two main parties.

Better to abandon the politically, ethically and financially bankrupt remains of the Labour Party to the corbynites. We need the 120 or 150 pragmatic MPs (at the start) to breakaway and elect their leader, who will immediately take over as leader of HM Opposition and the Shadow Cabinet, then call on Labour members and all interested citizens to join and for Unions to stop supporting the corbynite party. They have nothing to loose and a few years to organise. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joining the new party could be a welcome boost...

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After a very successful tour in Pilsen and Prague around modern architecture and design organised by the C20 Society, we stayed a few more days in Prague.

The Museum of Communism is definitely worth a 2-hour visit, cleverly intertwining a thorough presentation of what communism really means and the history of the country since the First Republic in 1918 to the Velvet Revolution and the restauration of democracy and market economy.

As a scathing complement, I would highly recommend the permanent exhibition in the Jerusalem Synagogue, The Jewish Community of Prague from 1945 to the Present Day.

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Battisti n'est que le dernier en date d'une longue liste de "causes célèbres", de Sacco et Vanzetti en passant par les époux Rosenberg, dans lesquelles nombre d'intellectuel-le-s et humanistes de gauche se sont hélas fourvoyés. #politix

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