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Continue reading →: In the dark again
This morning saw the first total eclipse of the Sun over Shanghai since (apparently) 1575. Sadly, after days of bright sunshine, the weather was overcast. One moment it was the light of morning, the next night. Drivers sounded their horns and people stopped to look up. Then the life of…
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Continue reading →: So what is the other 14%?
tompaine is 86% HeteroHow hetero are you? How hetero is Martha Stewart? Try out any Twitter name and get the real picture. Are we really the words we use? Hope to see you at Stockholm Pride! h/t The apparently 72% hetero Croydonian, without asking why he was cruising such…
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Continue reading →: On the word of a self-confessed liar, the PM is a moral man
Former No 10 aide Damian McBride breaks silence on smear scandal – Times Online. So, Mr McBride. You, a man who was prepared to spread a sickening lie about a political opponent to help your boss, now tells us said boss was shocked when you told him what you had…
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Continue reading →: Change
Last night I was in a Shanghai club, drinking with some young friends. We were discussing how the world might change in their lifetime. I remembered having a similar conversation with my late grandfather. His generation saw more change than any in history. He remembered seeing the first car in…
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Continue reading →: How to win an internet poll
You Are Awesome | Sharpe's Opinion.Wow. Mr Sharpe really wants your vote. He doesn't think much of his readers' self respect though, does he? Now my readers are intelligent, confident people who would despise such flattery. Aren't you? I do hope so, because I am rubbish at it.
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Continue reading →: They lie because it works
News Rage UK: Home Secretary statement on annual crime statistics. Fleet Street used to have a drinking culture. Maybe it's hard drugs now? How else can one account for journalists failing to connect the story linked above with the one I blogged about here? If you believe domestic burglary in…
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Continue reading →: You have a vote
No, there's no General Election yet. Gordon Brown is still denying the people their lawful prey and his party (not that he cares) will suffer all the more for it in due course. But until that happy day, you can at least vote for your favourite political blogs. Total Politics…
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Continue reading →: Banks should publish pay and bonuses of all top earners, if they want to export City jobs
Bank should publish pay and bonuses of all top earners, Walker Report recommends – Telegraph. Somewhere, there is a room. In it sit the chief looters of Britain; the leaders of leftist thought. Each day, over fair trade coffee, they ask themselves one question. How can we destroy Britain's economy?…
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Continue reading →: Bringing Jacqui to Justice
Sunlight COPs Will Prosecute Jacqui Smith | Sunlight Centre for Open Politics.The Sunlight Centre for Open Politics is going to do what the Crown Prosecution Service will not; prosecute Jacqui Smith for her fraudulent expenses claim. Nothing could do more to restore confidence in British justice than to demonstrate that…
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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There are many reasons they’re not passed down, Tom. The Triune code, laid out in scripture in all reputable versions…
I’ve always tried to live my life doing no wrong but life isn’t like that so you make compromised but…
Hate to tell you this, but it’s not going to end until you end it. You think people to whom…
[…] – Tom Paine […]
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First post (in case you want to read it from the beginning)
The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
A little bird tweeted in my ear that it was time to come over and see how things are.