The PM is wrong to sneer at Switzerland - it's the sort of country Britain should try to be

By Nigel Jones for the Daily Mail

Published: 11:53 GMT, 19 July 2012 | Updated: 12:01 GMT, 19 July 2012

One of the most famous quotes in cinema history was spoken by Orson Welles as the character Harry Lime in the film 'The Third Man'. Aloft in a giant Ferris wheel high above Vienna, he looks down on the scurrying crowds beneath and pronounces: 'In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror. murder and bloodshed but they produced Michaelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock'.

Welles' contemptuous dismissal of the sturdy Alpine cantons has now been echoed by David Cameron. In an interview notable for several idiotic statements, just one stood out for me. The Prime Minister poured scorn on the idea that Britain might want to withdraw from the EU and become a 'greater Switzerland'. And what, exactly, would be wrong with that? 

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Switzerland makes plenty of cuckoo clocks, but has far more to offer than that - not least a staggering landscape

Switzerland, in fact, is exactly the sort of country that Britain should aim to be. In keeping with its historic neutrality and independence, it has steered resolutely clear of entanglement with the disastrous and dictatorial EU, let alone the horror that is the Euro. (The Swiss Franc is one of the world's safer and stabler currencies).

Switzerland is one of the world's wealthiest, healthiest and most crime-free countries. Its enviably prosperous economy enjoys a modest but sustainable annual growth rate of 1-7%. Unemployment - in stark contrast to its southern European neighbours cursed with the Euro - is, at 3.1%, negligible, and it has nil inflation. Literacy is universal, and its 12 universities turn out educated citizens, with more than 30% of its 20-30s age group holding a degree or higher education diploma.

Switzerland certainly makes plenty of cuckoo clocks, but it produces a hell of a lot more than that. Home to multinational giants like Nescafe, Switzerland specialises also in pharmaceuticals and precision engineering (nine out of 10 of the balls in the world's ballpoint pens come from Switzerland). Its productivity ranges far beyond the stereotypes of cheese and watches - though no-one makes better timepieces - into computers (two out of three of the world's computer mice come from Switzerland); fibre optics and the CERN Large Hadron Collider which is currently probing the secrets of life, the universe and everything.

Switzerland has maintained a sturdy and healthy independence since breaking away from the Holy Roman Empire in 1499. It wisely remained neutral in both world wars - thanks to its natural mountain defences and to maintaining strong national armed forces. (Every Swiss man is required to perform national military service and keep their weapons in their own homes). Nonetheless, for a small country, Switzerland has more than pulled its weight in international affairs.

It is the HQ of the international humanitarian organisation the Red Cross, which was founded by a Swiss, Henri Dunant, after he witnessed the carnage on the 19th century battlefield of Solferino. Among its other achievements, it was Red Cross food parcels that kept many of our Prisoners of War alive in World War Two. Between the world wars Switzerland was the location of the League of Nations, forerunner of the UN  which endeavoured, sadly without success, to maintain world peace, and today it is the site of several UN agencies.

The Red Cross was founded by a Swiss, Henri Dunant, in 1863

Above all, perhaps the Swiss are proud of their democracy. Most Swiss strongly believe that the people's will should decide national policy, not - as in our own fair land - that policy should be dictated by an out-of-touch political elite, uninterested in, and unresponsive to, the wishes of their own citizens. In stark contrast to Britain, Switzerland holds regular referendums  - on such burning topics as immigration - to determine its people's wishes.

Enviable though all this is, Switzerland is not quite an earthly paradise (where is?). Its powerful banking system is secretive, and has been criticised for holding the fortunes that unsavoury dictators have looted from their own people. It has dragged its feet about giving women the vote - although a woman became Switzerland's President in 1999 -  and its clean and crime-free streets may seem a little bland, if not downright dull.

Nonetheless, compared to sleazy, crime-ridden Britain, with its stagnant economy, tanking productivity, soaring unemployment, decaying social services, mushrooming debts and uncontrolled state spending - not to mention its useless, clueless and incompetent political leadership, - Switzerland is still what Britain once was, an island of the blessed, a patch of prosperity in a continent sliding into a black hole.

Cameron's typically ignorant and graceless sneer at the Swiss could not be more wide of the mark. Dave thinks that becoming a 'greater Switzerland' is to be avoided at all costs. I think that in the unlikely event that we ever get the chance to reclaim our freedom, prosperity and independence Swiss-style, we should grab it with both hands. We should be so lucky. 

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