The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

It's been a fun, but tough, year so far. Just as the Asian working day comes to an end, the one in Europe begins and I have duties on both continents. I am taking a week's holiday in England to catch up on my rest before heading off to the South of France on a business-building mission. All I have planned is a tour of the House of Commons on Monday, escorted by Miss Paine the Younger (who is working there at present) and lunch in the Cheshire countryside with a couple of bloggers – one hyper active and one retired – on Wednesday.

There seems little to blog about at present. All the political stories are tedious and repetitive. Labour has scaled down its fearsome assault on our civil liberties to mere finger-wagging about the size of chip shop chips; such are the intermittent wonders of democracy. It is the calm before the storm and personally I can't wait for it to be over. In the meantime, I hope a few days' rest will restore my blogging mojo.