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Continue reading →: Sir John Mortimer, RIP
TheFatBigot Opines: Sir John Mortimer, a good hypocrite, RIP. Sir John Mortimer was (and I think this is the best that can be said of anyone) a kind but flawed human. On civil liberties, he was 100% sound. If our political leaders felt in their hearts one-tenth of the reverence…
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Continue reading →: It’s none of your business what we do with your money
MPs accused of keeping expenses secret – Telegraph. Would the MP’s voting to exempt themselves from the freedom of information laws include the same charmers who tell citizens objecting to invasions of their privacy that “…if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear?”
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Continue reading →: Bleed The World?
Bleed The World. Catching up on emails now the Russian holidays are over, I got to a funny Christmas one from a friend which included this link. Poor taste? Brilliant satire? I leave that to you to decide. Don't send the requested donations though. Your loving government has already taken…
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Continue reading →: A tale of two cities
John Redwood MP » Digby tells an inconvenient truth. Mr Redwood’s blog is a good, serious read – especially by the dire standards of the politician-blogger. Today he makes an “off-message” point about civil service bloat that may get him in trouble with the party leadership. I found myself moved…
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Continue reading →: Be seeing you
Patrick McGoohan – Telegraph. I am not a number, yet. I am still, just about, a free man. You saw where we were going years ago and you expressed it in a startlingly memorable way. I fear that such a theme may never be explored on British TV again. Certainly…
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Continue reading →: A privatisation we should all oppose
Jack Straw plan for private inquests back on agenda | UK news | The Guardian. When any government seeks to deny public justice on the grounds of "national security," alarm bells should ring. Politicians have a track record of confusing the nation's security with their own political convenience. In this…
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Continue reading →: Join us at the Convention on Modern Liberty
Liberal Conspiracy » Join us at the Covention on Modern Liberty | creating a new liberal-left alliance. This is shaping up to be an interesting event. There will be a bloggers "summit" (which makes me laugh, isn't it more like a base camp?) hosted by Liberal Conspiracy and Comment is…
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Continue reading →: Liveblogging Dave on AM
As our country slides further and faster into debt, I am incredulously watching the leader of the allegedly Conservative Opposition propose continued increases in public spending. He is visibly terrified of the word "cuts" ever being uttered again in proximity to the word "Tory." He is craven in the face…
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Continue reading →: The Reader
I read and enjoyed Bernhard Schlink's novel The Reader when it was first published in English. I was reluctant to see the film adaptation, as I always am when I like the book. A movie can hardly improve on any but the shortest and lightest of novels, so the risk…
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Continue reading →: Using your money to exclude you
Public money used to stop public having a greater say in policing – Telegraph. Don't ask whose money it is. Our public officials certainly don't think it's ours. Listening to "The World at One" as I drove along the M56 today, I heard Yvette Cooper, Labour's current irritant-in chief, talk…
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.