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Continue reading →: Not right and left, but right and wrong
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Who will be the biggest winners from the Expenses Scandal?. This post from the excellent politicalbetting.com sums up the parliamentary expenses scandal for me. For most people (including most politicians) morality is history. It is "old-fashioned." It is something to profess semi-plausibly to get votes…
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Continue reading →: Of mischief and comeuppances
White mischief Cholmondeley gets its comeuppance – Africa, World – The Independent. Did you ever read a nastier headline? Disturbed in the act of theft, a criminal set his dogs on Mr Cholmondeley. He died after being shot in what the judge seems reluctantly to have accepted was self-defence. The…
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Continue reading →: I am feeling pretty foolish right now
BBC NEWS | UK | Time limits on innocent DNA data. Miss P the Younger says that, while Mrs P is a genuine cynic, I am merely a constantly-disappointed idealist. She may have a point. After more than a decade of Labour, I actually thought on Sunday that the government…
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Continue reading →: Great rows in the pub, remembered
Tom Paine- No explanation needed – inamdar's posterous. This, courtesy of Posterous (great name!) a communal blog I have never heard of before, is a plaque on the wall of the White Hart in Lewes, Sussex. Next time you think your bar room oratory (or your pamphleteering blogging) is a…
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Continue reading →: The smile that’s fresh as ice
John Prescott is most unfair to his embattled Leader. Just look at that relaxed, natural smile! Did ever a man look more at home?
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Continue reading →: British politics explained
Prodicus: 'In place of strife – Unite!' Mrs Dromey announces her candidacy. Prodicus is on form. Do read the whole thing, but here's the nub of his thesis: So, to recap, the deputy leader of the Labour Party is sleeping with the Hon. Treasurer of the Party who is a…
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Continue reading →: Live by the sword, perish by the sword
Speed camera boss caught doing 102mph on a 70mph road – Telegraph Have at you, Tom Riall, you varlet. I hope your shareholders are vigilant enough to ensure you don't circumvent your punishment by charging a chauffeur, taxis or other forms of transport to the company (and therefore, given tbe…
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Continue reading →: Debate frappé
Labour peer Baroness Uddin claims £100,000 expenses on empty flat – Times Online. The facts of this story seem simple enough and (subject to their being confirmed by due process) the legal conclusions quite clear. Perhaps a more interesting aspect of the story is how difficult it is to discuss…
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Continue reading →: A new kind of policy reannouncement
DNA profiles of innocent citizens on police databases to be destroyed – Telegraph. One of New Labour's routine deceptions has been, if it had something "good" to announce, to do so again and again. Contemptuously, it thinks us such mugs that we will remember only the "good" headlines, not their…
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Continue reading →: Just over 4,000 to go…
Petition to: resign. | Number10.gov.uk. … to get the petition for Gordon Brown to resign to over 50,000 signatures. Are there any friends and family you can direct to it this Bank Holiday weekend?
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…
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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.