The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

I already mentioned here that I left China at the end of last year. On February 1st, I rented a new home in Sofia, Bulgaria. Last week, the contents of my Moscow apartment and office, which never made it to China, arrived here instead and I was able to move in. My few possessions from Shanghai are still in transit but should be here in a couple of weeks.

I obtained my long-term residence card today from the friendly folks at the Bulgarian Interior Ministry's migration directorate. Their procedures don't seem entirely compliant with the Treaty of Rome but they were easy enough to follow and they made me more welcome than I have felt on my visits to Britain since Labour gave the immigration officers FBI-style badges and a bad attitude.

Hence the new masthead. I number several aesthetes among my readers so I am braced for criticism. I didn't take the picture myself this time. I haven't shipped my "proper" camera here yet and the weather has not been good enough to present this charming city in her best light. Did you know that, when ancient Rome was founded, Sofia was already a thriving city? In Europe, only Athens (obviously) can say as much.

My business situation has been resolved. The lawyers have laid down their arms and submitted their final accounts. A settlement has been paid and at least until the governments of the anglosphere dilute their currencies to defraud the creditors they are making no effort to repay, I have no financial worries. My accountants are busy arranging for me to pay taxes in my new home country. My financial advisors are buying shares in companies of my choice (feel free to offer investment tips). As from the end of this month, though still young at heart, I shall be a free agent. I plan to take advantage of the sluggish economy to relax for some months. Then I shall look about myself and do something productive and, I hope, fun.

On the blogging front, I hereby declare the coalition government's honeymoon period over. It is a failure in civil liberties terms. In fact, it's hard to call it a success in any terms. It is taking our grandchildren further into debt, while at the same time attracting opprobrium for the vicious cuts it isn't making. The average voter confuses "deficit" with "debt" and does not realise that, while there is hope of reducing the former, the latter continues to climb. It would be funny, if we didn't care about our posterity.

It's therefore time for all men and women of goodwill to give the ruling coalition's members the kicking they richly deserve; unpleasant though it is to find ourselves alongside the unreformable statists of the Labour Party in the political melee. Conservatives and Liberals can be honest politicians again one day. The Labour Party is what it must be ideologically; a body of people convinced (despite rich historical evidence to the contrary) that they know better how to live our lives than we do.

Far more important than all of this, however, Mrs P's health continues to be a serious cause for concern. She has been in hospital in London for the past month, but I hope to liberate her this weekend. After a period of recovery in our house in England, I hope she will be able to join me in Sofia.