I've come from Bern straight to Slough/Berks! And although everyone in the UK calls Slough a s***hole, I absolutely loved it... I'm now in the much cleaner Brighton (apart from that dog poo) and must say, I still feel like coming home when I go back to Slough...

And yes, one of the things that make me LOVE the UK is, that nothing feels sterile... I feel alive!

I've walked through Zurich, just off the centre... It was a December night last year around 11pm... I was scared as hell!!! Whereas in the UK you do at least have CCTV and a fair amount of police presence, Switzerland in most places is just dead... So when you do see dodgy people on the streets it's normally just you and them...

Scared as hell? In Downtown Zurich? Really? Did you think perhaps that maybe there isn't a police presence or CCTV because there is no need for it? I've never felt the slightest bit uncomfortable walking around by myself at night at 3 AM let alone 11 PM.

How many people have been saved by CCTV cameras? They may record the crime but it doesn't stop people getting hurt?

Do you get scared in your house because you don't have a CCTV camera observing you there?

The point is that Zuerich generally doesn't need CCTV cameras everywhere. It's not crime-free but there is much less crime and hardly any anti-social behaviour compared to a British city.

Plus, in Switzerland people aren't yet so brainwashed by the media as to think that being under constant surveillance is a good thing...

Yes - this is the big drawback of Switzerland as far as I'm concerned. It's a beautiful place, incredibly well kept, extremely civilised but unfortunately it has that sterile, disembodied feeling about it.

Sounds like a small nit-picky thing but if it's the sort of thing that bothers you it can really get to you in the long term. To me, it felt like living in a real world 'Stepford Wives' environment. On the other hand, it's great for a holiday or short-term visit and I'd guess that if I had a family that concern would be far outweighed by the benefits.

Really like your sarcasm...

I haven't seen ANY articles in UK newspapers or on telly that would suggest constant surveillance being a good thing. Most people do complain about England becoming a Big-Brother-State... So I'm not quite sure where you get your information from...

Apart from that I couldn't really be bothered about me being under 'surveillance'... Why should I be, when I haven't got anything to hide?

Scared as hell? Yes
In Downtown Zurich? Yes
Really? Yes

Good for you to have never felt uncomfortable... I've had quite a few dodgy or scary encounters in Switzerland, whereas in England I couldn't have counted one...

Fair point... It certainly doesn't stop crime but if it makes me feel safer just knowing that somebody might see what's happening and who might alarm the police, what's wrong with that? Not saying I will be saved, but if the thought helps to make me feel safe (r), I think that's all that counts...

I cannot imagine how or why the fact that your attack/ mugging/ rape/ murder is recorded on video tape would make you feel safer...

I try not to think about getting attacked, mugged, raped or murdered for a start... If I'd imagine all the possibilities of cruelty I could suffer I might as well not leave the house... The same way I won't think about a plane/car/train crash whilst travelling...

Bottom line, being in trouble won't ever be positive, with or without cameras, but thinking that there might be somebody seeing what's going on, alarming the police, might just make me feel that little bit safer walking through town (NOT DURING THE ATTACK!), even if it isn't true.

Just to repeat what someone else commented on... How many people's lives have been saved through CCTV? I wouldn't know as the positive news hardly ever break through in the media, or do they?

Wow! That's about opposite of anything I've ever heard about the UK and Switzerland from anyone.

Would you care to elaborate on your scary encounters or would that be prying?

Chemgoddess, I really hope this is a serious question and not a sarcastic one...

One incident included four blokes chasing me and a friend through Aarau around 1am... We were just sitting in the middle of the town centre when those guys came up... We didn't feel very comfortable and decided to walk away, trying to get rid of them... They didn't have none of it and closed in on us... Then we started to run round the corner... At the end we found a young couple walking home and we told them we're being followed and if it'd be alright to walk with them... They were ok with that and we even passed those guys again who were obviously still looking for us...

Other story was another incident of me and another friend being followed by a really dodgy man, nobody else around, so we ended up running home as quickly as we could...

My best friend has been attacked and escaped rape and that wasn't even in the middle of Zurich but in Muri AG...

Luckily I've never actually been attacked and I really do hope you don't expect me to tell you a gruesome story about rape or GBH for you to understand that I have felt less safe in Switzerland than in the UK (where nothing like this or worse has ever happened to me!)...

What makes Switzerland more scary for me is the fact that many towns can look like Ghosttowns after 10pm, whereas in the UK you have a balanced mixture of normal people and lunatics even late at night and more shops that stay open, where you could go to if you felt unsafe...

Hope this makes sense to you... xx

I would hate to complain against Switzerland, but I feel that I have wasted three years of my life here and might waste some more. My advice is, if you are young, unless you have managed to land an excellent job opportunity that you wouldn't have back home (unlikely) or have a mega salary (unlikely) then it is not worth it. You are not saving any money and unless you live in Zurich/Geneva (and even then...) will be just wasting the best years of your life here. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If one aspect is very nice, there is bound to be some real downsides. If you have no family... why even bother. Cultural life here is nil, the people boring and will in general not accept you as one of their own. I know Geneva pretty well, and all expats are very tribal there hanging out in their little cliques.

So Switzerland is great... but not for everyone and not for the same reason.

Weird, but I really felt more safe in Montreal then in Zurich. I dunno, I get a weird vibe from it, especially arounf the central train station. I mean I've been to some seedy places in Montreal and felt perfectly safe, but around Langstrasse??? Forget about it.

Zurich feel more dangerous than the UK! Just wait till you experience your first mugging in the UK in full view of the talking CCTV camera saying " please stop the mugging, it's not nice"

You sound like EVERYBODY will get mugged in the UK regardless... If I get mugged I will, if not then not... Really I shouldn't be answering cynical comments like that in the first place...

And as it shows I'm not the only one who didn't feel safe in Switzerland/Zurich...

But there you go, that's why this topic is called a 'general rant'... We won't find common grounds...

I'm as yet to hear about someone who has been been mugged in CH. I've been mugged 3 times in London. All using life threatening weapons, not all in dodgy areas.

Sorry to hear about your muggings... But do you actually think Switzerland is only Milk & Honey? And the chance that you don't hear about muggings in Switzerland is quite high, as the Swiss like to sweep things under the carpet as if it had never happened...

And just on that note (sweeping under the carpet) how come that BBC2 (who normally does do their homework!) said that Switzerland's supposed to have the happiest citizens in the world, whereas they are on rank 16 with the highest suicide rate in the world, but you never hear about it? Family members, Friends and Neighbours have been dropping like flies due to suicide... But anyway, that's a whole other kettle of fish!

I'm willing to bet I don't get mugged 3 times. Any improvements on that is good in my books, but maybe I've had it harder than most.

I believe that BBC2 have done their homework, though in Bahrain, where doctors aren't allowed to look at a woman's vagina directly, house parties result in sink plugs being pulled when the police turn up (hence "pull the plug") and husbands are decided, the rate is 5 times lower. Based on that, I'm not sure what to say with respect to members of an internet forum. Things are surely different for us discussing this here and the people considering their lives.