The dark side of referendums  

Switzerland recently banned the construction of minarets, with a little help from their direct democracy system. Tory MEP and crazed opponent of the NHS, Dan Hannan, has now taken to defending the system, despite accepting that the new law is "regrettable".The three reasons he gives for the law being regrettable are good reasons. However, he misses the most glaringly obvious point of them all and the main reason that direct democracy sadly doesn't work: it breeds tyranny of the majority.Minarets are as much a part of Islamic culture as steeples are to Christianity; to ban them is an unnacceptable infringement on religious freedom. Obviously, I accept that it could be worse, but it's still rreligious persecution and if that's a product of direct democracy then it's simply not worth it....