I thought for quite long before I came up with the title for this particular blog. I wanted to hark back to the jolly old days of Switzerland in the Mediterranean, evoking the fun and games we used to have when the Lil'Elves' hero was not yet the erstwhile Leader of the Labour Party.

It was Doctor Alfred Sant, the albatross that still drapes itself around the Labour Party's neck every so often, reminding everyone why they lost so many elections all the time, who had come up with the notion of eschewing Malta's membership in the European Union in favour of some sort of Swiss model.

Not that he had ever explained himself with any great degree of clarity, but that was never a reason not to say something in the political sphere.

The reason I wanted a Swiss flavour to this piece is that I was inspired by the recent spasm of xenophobia demonstrated by the good burghers of the Helvetic Republic, when they voted not to allow the building of minarets in the land of mountains, cowbells and darn fine chocolate.

This decision, taken in referendum (presumably without Lou Bondi's granny voting) tended to confirm in my mind that the Swiss are very much their own men (and women, though they haven't had the vote that long).

I don't recall the denizens of the Alpine valleys every having worried much about what the rest of the world thinks about them, being survivors of the finest kind, so I wasn't particularly surprised that they stuck two fingers up at the very idea that political correctness and/or tolerance deserves a place within the determination of national policies.

I was even less surprised that quite a few people around here wet their pants when the Swiss result was made known. The way all the racist xenophobes and bigots wrap them in the flag and embrace the crucifix at every opportunity makes it a given that as soon as someone else, individually or collectively, demonstrates similar tendencies, he, she or they will be raised to pedestals of colossal proportions.

I was even less surprised by the reaction of the Imam here, when he uttered the platitude of astonishing shallowness that the result will not enhance inter-cultural relations. Or words to that effect.

I find it a bit rich that someone who had himself made remarks that in and of themselves did more to give power to the elbows of the bigots than anything else should have the nerve to point fingers at someone else. I don't think that the Swiss decision was a particularly good one or one that demonstrates appropriate respect for others and for notions of liberal tolerance, but that does not mean that the Imam's comment itself did any good in this regard.

This is the tragedy of the current situation, of course. Little men and little women, people who work themselves into a tizzy, say, if someone makes a mistake about which cross gets stuck onto replica Maltese flags, get even more hysterical when debates like this get ventilated. Then we get equally idiotic hysterics on the other side of the cultural divide, proving that liberal tolerance of other people is as dead on that side of the fence as it is on this one.

The bottom line of the whole tragic mess, of course, is that if the hard-liners on both sides keep going the way their noses are pointed, we're heading for some fun and games, and at this rate we're going to blast ourselves back into the Middle Ages, whether we like it or not.

The ideal way forward, of course, would be for organised religions to be relegated to value-systems that are restricted to individuals, who should be enjoined, on pain of prosecution, from trying to impose their beliefs on anyone other than willing co-participants.

Some hope in hell (which is where we'll all be if the detritus hits the revolving blades) of that happening, obviously. Incidentally, while on my religion-bashing jag, might I give an "attaboy" to the Labour youths, who have asked for positive action for the introduction of divorce to be undertaken?

Good one, guys. But you'll be lucky.