I’m a Swiss immigrant living in London, and after watching five Prime Ministers come and go since 2018 I worry Brits are being conditioned to accept Westminster chaos as “normal”
I’m an immigrant living in London, and I wish British citizens knew what real democracy looks like. At first, the fact that I’ve seen five different Prime Ministers since living in the UK on and off since 2018, was amusing. But now, I worry my peers believe that this extreme instability in government is normal and that’s the best democracy has to offer.
The UK is a representative parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. However, that doesn’t make it an ideal democracy.
I come from a country that gets pretty close to what a direct democracy is: Switzerland.
So watching Westminster as an outsider living here can feel like watching a friend stuck in a toxic relationship: they ask for your advice, nod along, and then go straight back to doing whatever feels right in the moment rather than what makes sense.
Right now, British politics feels especially volatile in the wake of the May 2026 local and devolved elections. After heavy losses, Sir Keir Starmer is fighting for his political survival, meaning that I might witness Prime Minister #6 since 2018.
It still baffles me that a Parliament holds power and not a country’s people. And if this sounds too radical, communistic even, think again.
I think one of the reasons the UK’s politics is so chaotic is due to its parliamentary sovereignty. Parliament is the supreme legal authority: it can create or scrap any law, and in practice its decisions can’t be overturned by the public outside of periodic elections.
But I promise you, there are much, much more democratic systems that give power to the people. In Switzerland, the constitution establishes popular sovereignty, meaning citizens have an ongoing, direct role in lawmaking.
Swiss people can launch popular initiatives by collecting 100,000 signatures, allowing them to propose new laws or constitutional amendments. There is no equivalent UK mechanism that lets the public bypass Parliament to force a national vote.
So, even living now abroad, I regularly get to vote on initiatives, from major Federal bills related to immigration laws, to mundane regional proposals regarding a new local hymn. Swiss voters can also block laws through optional referendums.
If 50,000 citizens oppose a law passed by Parliament, they can trigger a referendum that may veto it. Like many, I can see how the UK system struggles with accountability and representation.
First-Past-The-Post can deliver huge parliamentary majorities on a minority share of the vote, leaving many ballots effectively “wasted”. Switzerland uses proportional representation, which tends to mirror the diversity of political views more closely.
This means we don’t have one erratic Prime Minister that lasts for a shorter period of time than a lettuce, but a collective, seven-member Federal Council that runs the country together with a “President” who rotates for just one year as a ceremonial chair and representative, not a dominant leader.
And, because councillors serve fixed four-year terms and are usually re-elected, the government stays stable even as the title changes hands. I’m also disturbed by the UK’s centralised power.
Switzerland is a highly decentralised federal state, with cantons holding significant autonomy over taxes and laws. How can a much bigger and divided nation be centralised in one capital city?
Ultimately, I view the current state of the British government as the predictable outcome of a system that hoards power in Westminster, shuts ordinary people out between elections, and then acts surprised when the country swings from one crisis to the next.
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