Picking up on a news item which appeared on Swissinfo back in April of this year and on which a referendum is to be held on 14th of this month: Should Switzerland have a new tax to finance the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, or a new radio and TV fee system that accounts for listening and viewing habits?

Pertinent to the on-going debate in the UK concerning the funding of the BBC; as the title to this article states, here we have the idea of ‘Referism‘ and point 5 of The Harrogate Agenda which encapsulates that idea of referism, in operation.

Regardless of one views on the subject – and the comments on the Swissinfo article so far – it is only right that those who have to pay a tax should have the right to decide whether they wish so to do – unlike in this country where the taxpayer basically does not get a choice.

Linked to this matter of choice one can but refer to the ‘burning question du jour’ of ‘purdah’, one which yesterday consumed many words and opinions from our elected representatives the highlight of which was the speech from Owen Paterson.

Whatever ones views on the subject of ‘purdah’, or media fees, matters not as we, the people, have no voice – yet both subjects are just as important as each other in that at the end of the day it affects us, the people; yet we, the people, end up being dictated to and as a result become powerless.

All of which tends to make a mockery of the desire of our political overlords to devolve power, does it not?