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Continue reading →: Bandol
Monsieur D., with whom I lunched in Antibes last Sunday, lives in Bandol near Toulon. Yesterday I left the home in Cannes of my Polish friends and drove here to stay with him. It was the shortest drive of the trip and passed uneventfully. Having parked Nira at our home…
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Continue reading →: Preparing to move on
I had a quiet day yesterday after the various social and engineering excitements of the trip. I did some washing, some reading and watched some TV. My local friends in Mougins had told me I reminded them of Raymond Reddington; the anti-hero of the Netflix FBI procedural The Blacklist. So…
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Continue reading →: Another misadventure
Yesterday was – for the most part – an excellent day. I had arranged with an old friend from Moscow days (let's call him Monsieur D.), now resident once more in his native France, to meet him for lunch at my favourite restaurant in the whole world. I was very…
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Continue reading →: Catching up
My first outing from my new base was to visit my friends in Mougins – let's call them Mr & Mrs L. I respect their privacy so no photos today. I met them 18 years ago through their son. A mutual friend sent him to me in Moscow. He was…
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Continue reading →: Mougins
One of my favourite places in the world is the little village of Mougins, up in the hills above Cannes. It was the home of Picasso in his later years and is just ridiculously cute. If you have a mental image of the perfect French village, this is it (although…
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Continue reading →: Safe in Cannes
I breakfasted handsomely at my castle hotel in Italy, looking out at the splendid landscaped gardens, which must alone cost many thousands to maintain. I was alone for dinner in the restaurant last night and there was only one couple in the breakfast room this morning. I am a little…
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Continue reading →: Goodbye Yoko
I had a great breakfast in Lucerne and set off in good spirits. The only nagging concern in my mind was that the blood/alcohol limit for driving in Switzerland is low and I'd had a skinful of wine and martinis the night before. Best not to get breathalysed eh? Yoko…
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Continue reading →: To Luxembourg and back to Luxembourg again
Gentles all, this was my plan. In my first serious road trip for a long time, I aimed to visit seven good friends (five of whom I haven't seen since before COVID) and to begin to enjoy life again after a miserable period of which I have already said…
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Continue reading →: On the road again
My political despair is too profound to blog on my once-usual subjects. The “deep state”in the UK has grown enormously under the “Conservatives” so they don’t now even serve as a brake on Britain’s crazed (and yet seemingly popular) lurch towards totalitarianism. I carefully don’t say communism or socialism, because…
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Continue reading →: Three hours that will fix your character and soul?
3 HOURS THAT WILL FIX YOUR CHARACTER & SOUL – Jordan Peterson Motivation – YouTube Firstly, let me wish you a happy new year. I hope 2023 proves to be a good one for you all. A friend sent me this video a while ago. He didn't say why.…
THE LAST DITCH
Your blogger
Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.
Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.
He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that
“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”
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One can only hope his neighbours, fellow lodge members (?) etc give him the cold shoulder.
The problem is that they already know about the blog and some read it. Why is that an issue? If…
Conversationally, I already operate on NATO “no first strike” principles. I am not going to start a political discussion with…
Why don’t you stick with what you are doing on the blogs but simply withdraw from discussion on politics with…
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The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
They are servants. Just not of the public. He gets a full pension because he did his job for his…