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Continue reading →: Christmas 1941
OK, so it's wartime propaganda, but it's interesting. The narration reads, in part; There is no reason for America to feel sorry for England this Christmas. England doesn't feel sorry for herself. Destiny gave her the torch of Liberty to hold and she has not dropped it. She has not…
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Continue reading →: Welfare, Crime and Abortion – Were Levitt et al. Correct?
A Very British Dude: Welfare, Crime and Abortion – Were Levitt et al. Correct?. The Dude makes elegantly a point I have been crudely sledge hammering for some time. He observes astutely that the notion of "moral hazard" applies equally to the recipients of all state handouts, whether welfare claimants,…
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Continue reading →: Election Poster?
Over lunch the other day, I criticised the Conservative Party for its poor performance as HM Opposition. One of my friends asked how I would do it differently and this (above) was one of my tongue-in-cheek suggestions. What do you think?
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Continue reading →: The Quick and the dead (career)
Comment Central – Times Online – WBLG: What Bob Quick tells us about Damian Green. If the comments on Daniel Finkelstein's piece are anything to go by, the public has lost all confidence in the senior leadership of our police forces (and particularly the Met). With the exception of one…
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Continue reading →: Britain’s generous welfare system triggered baby boom
Britain's generous welfare system triggered baby boom – Telegraph. So a piece of academic research seems to confirm what the nasty right-wingers have been saying. Given the red/pink (shall we call it burgundy?) bias in Britain's academia, that's a rare occurrence. On our way to hospital this morning for the…
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Continue reading →: Political policing
BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Cameron demands police retraction. Pace many decent policemen trying to do their jobs in difficult circumstances, it is now apparent that – for their politicised leadership (and particularly that of the Met) – the police service is now the paramilitary wing of…
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Continue reading →: Compare and contrast
This, with this. The worst part of the first story is that someone can get a job writing for a national newspaper who doesn't understand the meaning of a simple word like "voluntary" Compulsory volunteering is win-win and a recession is a perfect time for it. Lots of new jobs…
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Continue reading →: Patriotism vs Nationalism – Part 2: Virtue or vice?
Patriotism was one of the virtues that made Rome great. Unless many Roman citizens had believed in Horace's classic expression of patriotism; dulce et decorum est pro patria mori the glory of Rome could never have been. The sacrifices of an ordinary legionnaire were probably not as great as they…
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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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.