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Continue reading →: Democracy gone sour?
The furore over Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time showed me just how much Britain has changed since I left it in 1992. As I followed the interminable and intemperate "debate", I felt more and more disconnected. The mob at the BBC Television Centre calling for Griffin and his followers…
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Continue reading →: MPs’ expenses: still not getting it
MPs' expenses: pay rise for MPs to stop rebellion – Telegraph. Unlike angrier members of the blogosphere, I would be happy for a reasonable number of MP's to be paid a handsome salary. We have too many for the size of country and the scope of the role, given that…
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Continue reading →: Crime mapping
Crime mapping for English and Welsh police forces – CrimeMapper. A new crime mapping website is available in England & Wales. I used it to check the area around my house in England and the results surprised me. It's a city centre and I knew there was crime but was…
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Continue reading →: It gets better
MPs' expenses: parliamentary privilege could hamper police inquiries – Telegraph. If they use (spurious) claims of parliamentary privilege to interfere with police investigations, even the densest voters will know them for what they are. Our elected representatives seem intent – for the first time – on solving the problem of…
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Continue reading →: Could we really be this lucky?
Labour MPs may sue over expenses | Politics | The Observer. If these aggrieved gentles act on their threats, the effects will be wonderful. Some lawyers will make an honest living. The corruption of our members of parliament will be kept in the public gaze throughout the next election campaign.…
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Continue reading →: Tom’s day of heavenly peace
[Click on pictures to enlarge] It has been a strange week. A few meetings in Beijing, but mainly I have been on conference calls with Europe, lasting – because of the time difference – into the late evening. It has been oddly tiring, although not unusually busy. Today, however, was…
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Continue reading →: Trafigura releases report
Minton report: Carter-Ruck give up bid to keep Trafigura study secret | World news | The Guardian. So Trafigura has given up its counter-productive attempts to suppress the Minton report. We can all read it if we wish. It's a dry technical account of what happened, setting out the possible…
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Continue reading →: The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers
Carter-Ruck in new move to stop debate in parliament | UK news | The Guardian. I understand all the concern about injunctions preventing the reporting of Parliament, but why are the lawyers at Carter-Ruck the villains (and partner Adam Tudor in particular?) There have been flash mobs outside their offices…
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Continue reading →: The Boys Who Cry Racism
The Boys Who Cry Racism by Harry Stein, City Journal 15 October 2009. The linked article is an excellent piece about how the once-serious issue of racism has become a casual political smear. …the charge of racism is invariably a crock; indeed, that more than simply an expression of (often…
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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I miss the more traditional Anglican services that I remember from my younger years. I haven’t regularly attended church services…
I’m an optimistic person but also a practical one. We need to take action and waiting for some deity to…
I am not sure if you’re encouraging me to be more optimistic or not?
Ukraine isn’t really doing anything spectacular. The terrorists of the middle east have been using simpler kit for decades successfully.…
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The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
She may be gone but you have all those wonderful memories :-)