By Andy Preston

Last week, as I rushed past the Odeon Café in Zurich, where Einstein hung out, people scowled at me.

I was out of breath, dragging my suitcase with one hand and holding my phone in the other, noisily chatting on loudspeaker to a friend.

It finally dawned on me when I got to the station: I’d been having a loud, intrusive conversation in public, forcing strangers to hear every word. That’s not the gravest crime, but it is selfish and rude. Speakerphone conversations are much more intrusive than people talking in person.

Being noisy in public is selfish and the Swiss rightly frown. They’ve preserved something we’ve lost: the idea that public spaces belong to........

© LBC