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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…
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Continue reading →: Investment advice
I have just enjoyed a lunch with some of my profession's "good eggs" in the City. After an hour of gloomily exchanging notes on our (and our clients') businesses and the government's approach to the crisis, I asked what investment recommendations they could give my readers. After a pause, one…
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Continue reading →: Patriotism vs Nationalism – Part 1: A complicated subject
Following a recent downbeat presentation by an economist from IMEMO, I told my Russian colleagues I thought their “Slavic soul” (a romantic euphemism for pessimism/excuse for boozy inaction, in my experience) was blinding them to reality. No Russians had ever enjoyed such possibilities as they. I added, scathingly, that I…
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Continue reading →: Nominations please…
Channel 4 – News – Your nominations please…. Channel 4 is calling for nominations for its Political Impact Award 2009. I suggest we all nominate Damian Green MP. We must all at least hope that the scandalous abuse of executive power to humiliate a political opponent (and intimidate public servants…
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Continue reading →: Thank you
A reader sent me this photo, taken last week in New York, together with some kind words of praise and encouragement. They were particularly well-timed, as Mrs Paine has serious health problems at present. I am blogging this from her hospital room right now, as it happens, while waiting for…
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Continue reading →: The Convention for Modern Liberty
Why? :: Modern Liberty. Across Britain, on 28th February 2009, a convention organised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, openDemocracy, No2ID, Liberty and (implausibly, I know) the Guardian, will bring as many people together to see what common ground can be reached in defence of our freedoms. Finding common ground on…
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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The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
You cannot have a reasonable argument about any of this because we are not allowed to make statements that could…