madam president i would like to put one question to the house
why is switzerland doing so well
you would have thought that a country particularly exposed to the financial sector would have suffered unusually during the recent banking crisis but the helvetic confederation in two thousand and nine had a gdp per head two hundred and fourteen of that of the eu
its people are twice as rich as the citizens of the member states
in part of course that reflects the deal that the swiss have struck with brussels
they are in the free market they are covered by the free movement of goods and services and so on but they are outside the common agricultural policy and the common fisheries policy they control their own borders they settle all their own human rights issues they pay only a token contribution to the budget and they are free to sign accords with third countries in commercial areas
what a great model for britain if seven million swiss relying on bilateral free-trade agreements can give their people the highest standard of living on the continent how much more so could we a nation of sixty million a trading maritime nation whose colonising and enterprising energies have touched every continent
and we should not leave it at our relations with brussels having got the power back we should copy the swiss in their system of localism and direct democracy and push powers down to the lowest practicable level
