I've just gone on holiday in Switzerland - it is night and day from what is on offer in Scotland

On Tuesday, First Minister John Swinney will set out his “very radical” Programme for Government, charting a new course for his party ahead of the 2026 Holyrood election.

But it will need to be very radical indeed if Scotland is to be serious about competing alongside other European nations.

I am just back from Geneva and, as a tourist, it felt like everything worked. I cannot say I feel the same as a Scottish resident.

John Swinney's programme for government will be outlined tomorrow (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.

Let’s start off with public transport. Buses, trams and trains in Geneva are all free for tourists and incredibly reliable. As well as being clean, each carriage had live connection trackers, which was a game changer for a first-time visitor.

Last month ScotRail fares increased by 3.8 per cent and last year Labour MSP Paul Sweeney hit out at Glasgow bus fares being “the most expensive of any British city”.

It took seven minutes and cost me no money to get from the main train station in Geneva to the airport. In Edinburgh, taking the bus or tram from the city centre to the airport takes over 30 minutes and costs around £8 - and that is before we start on the scrapped proposals for a rail link to Glasgow Airport.

Whenever I am on holiday, my top concern is always the availability of public toilets, but not while I was in Geneva. There were so many and all toilets maintained by the city were free.

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In 2021, the Public Toilet Index ranked Switzerland as the second best in the world with 46 public toilets per 100,000 people.

By comparison, between 2007 and 2023 there was a 21 per cent decline in the number of Scottish public toilets. According to research by the Scottish Lib Dems, there are no public toilets at all in South Lanarkshire, only one in Falkirk, and East Dunbartonshire and Clackmannanshire have no standalone facilities.

Geneva is also incredibly clean. You can always see the bottom of Lake Geneva and fish because of how clear it is.

I saw several people swimming and a purpose-built diving tower. The city has a swimming club, which uses the lake as its pool.

Rachel Amery pictured at Lake Geneva. | Supplied

Compare this to the three-quarters of British rivers classed as being in poor ecological health.

In 2023, there were more than 500 sewage spills from private firms in Scotland, including 165 from the Seafield sewage works in Edinburgh, which saw partially treated sewage flowing into the sea for 890 hours.

Anecdotally the streets were well maintained in Geneva too, and I saw several free dog poo bag dispensers, which leads me to think the Swiss treat the land to a similar high standard.

Perhaps I should end my comparisons on what is undoubtedly one of Scotland’s biggest sources of shame - homelessness.

I saw very few people rough sleeping in Geneva. I am pretty sure I see more on my short walk from Waverley to Holyrood each morning than on my entire holiday.

Geneva, Switzerland. | Getty Images/iStockphoto

Last year, Scotland declared a housing emergency, with good reason. In 2023/24, 33,619 households were classed as homeless. According to Bern University, there were only 2,000 homeless people in Switzerland in 2024, despite having two million more people than Scotland.

If we drill down to specifics, Edinburgh and Geneva have roughly similar populations - 525,000 compared to 530,000. As of March, there were 14,200 homeless people in Edinburgh, including 3,980 children. The Homeless World Cup estimates there are 1,100 homeless people in Geneva.

I know Geneva is not a perfect utopia. But Scotland has a long way to go to be comparable, leaving Mr Swinney with a lot to do in his Programme for Government.