Boycott Switzerland, says Ken

“The Swiss vote to ban minarets on mosques isn’t a surprise. There’s always been something unpleasant lurking beneath the respectable veneer of Swiss society. It was only in 1971 that they allowed women to vote, and in some backward areas they weren’t allowed right up until 1990. The Swiss refused to give up the wealth German Jews deposited in Swiss banks before they were exterminated in their millions by Hitler. After the war Swiss banks pulled every trick in the book to hide these bank accounts from relatives who survived the Holocaust.

“People should be free to practise their religion as long as they allow others to do the same. The Swiss vote is what we expect from the BNP, not a modern democracy. The world should boycott their cuckoo clocks and Swiss chocolate and refuse to go skiing on the Swiss Alps until this disgusting result is reversed. The International Olympic Committee’s HQ is in Switzerland. How can they represent the world’s sporting nations after this insult to the quarter of the world’s population who are Muslim? The national Olympic committee should vote to move the HQ to a country where all religions are respected.”

Ken Livingstone in the Sun, 4 December 2009