This will send the Righteous up the wall

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than seeing an article which is almost guaranteed to send the "Righteous" into paroxysms of outrage because it's being promoted by the ordinary proles out there, will be voted on by the proles and if passed will become law and there's nothing the political/chattering classes of the "Righteous" who think they and only they know what's best for us can do about it, other than moan about it in the Guardian.
One of the things that gets their goat is the fact that the USA has the death penalty and they use Europe, dear old civilised Europe as an example of how superior their system is to the barbarous USA (They ignore China and other foreign death penalty states as it's a cultural thing and besides they are not white, so that makes it ok)

Pravda. (Yes I know, but if you want to know what's really going on in the EU and Europe it's best to take an outsiders view)

Switzerland is ready to challenge European traditions again. The controversy about the prohibition on the construction of minarets in this country had hardly subsided before the small nation prepared another surprise to the tolerant Europe. The Swiss started collecting signatures to conduct the referendum to reinstate death penalty.

Capital punishment was officially cancelled in Switzerland in 1942, but was valid during the war period. The last execution by shooting took place in Switzerland in 1944. Twelve death sentences were enforced in the country during the WWII years: eleven of them were about the citizens of Nazi Germany, whose actions caused considerable damage to the security of Switzerland.

What made the Alpine nation think about the retrieval of such anachronism? The initiative was set forth by a group of seven people, whose relatives had fallen victims to paedophile rapists. The members of the group believe that Switzerland should retrieve death penalty "for those committing a murder or responsible for a death resulting from sexual abuse of children, sexual violence or rape."

One shall assume that the restoration of death penalty in the country may trigger protests in Switzerland's neighbouring nations. They will obviously pay attention to the fact that such will expressions contradicts to the European Convention for Human Rights. It would not be a first for Switzerland, though: the country has been previously accused of the same twice. Whatever the case, the authorities of the Alpine nation found no obstacles for collecting signatures.

The group will have to collect 100,000 signatures for the referendum to occur on February 24, 2012. We do not know what common people think about the initiative, but the leaders of many political parties of the country treated it extremely negatively.

Yes, just 100,000 signatures triggers a referendum where everybody gets a vote, the main political parties might hate it, however in Switzerland they have very little power once the people have spoken. It's one of the reasons why we don't have strong local democracy or a tradition of referendums in the UK, after all if the people got to decide what they wanted, where would that leave the political classes?
Now, my main objections to the death penalty are that if you make a mistake, it's impossible to put it right, not against offing violent criminals per se. However in cases where there is no doubt whatsoever, I have no objection, getting rid of the likes of Sutcliffe, Huntley and sundry others who cost us money to feed and house for the rest of their pampered lives.

Still, if anything, this Swiss attempt will drive the righteous to distraction and give them something to do which might make them leave us alone... Well I can dream can't I?