-
Continue reading →: Bunkum schmunkum
Gordon Brown's terror claims for ID cards are "bunkum" says GCHQ expert – Telegraph. Don't believe a mere security expert. Why would our beloved politicians lie to us? After all, if.. the only real value of identity cards would be to help state bodies share information about people… as this…
-
Continue reading →: Smashing Pumpkins
She will not forgive me for posting this, but I am so filled with paternal pride at the younger Ms Paine's pumpkin carving that I had to show you. Before more traditional readers accuse us Paines of being un-English, let me explain that it all started when she was at…
-
Continue reading →: More than 10 million ‘drinking at hazardous levels’ – Telegraph
More than 10 million 'drinking at hazardous levels’ – Telegraph. 25% of the adult population is drinking at hazardous levels, according to our lords and would-be masters. Personally, I blame them. Consider the following; In a speech on public service broadcasting, at the London School of Economics, Jeremy Hunt, the…
-
Continue reading →: These islands belong to the rats
Rat infestation threatens UK – Telegraph. Now that humans are a minority on these islands, should we be regarded as vulnerable and in need of special protection? Or does the danger that our recession will reduce food waste and thus threaten the well-being of the rats mean that they are…
-
Continue reading →: Gordon Brown vows to borrow way through recession
Financial crisis: Gordon Brown vows to borrow way through recession – Telegraph All over the country, businesses live in fear of their overdrafts being cut. If they don't have short-term facilities to cover the period it takes to collect their own debts, some perfectly good businesses will go down. It's…
-
Continue reading →: Economists condemn Chancellor’s spending plan
Economists condemn Chancellor Alistair Darling's spending plan – Telegraph. I don't understand how so many of us can obsess about trivia, when the situation in our country is as follows; Public borrowing is already the highest it has been since 1946, reaching £37.6bn in the first half of the year.…
-
Continue reading →: The Daily Mash is off form
Weekending – The Daily Mash. As regular readers know, I am a fan of the Daily Mash. Today, however, it is not being brilliantly satirical as usual, it's just being rude. I hope the day never arrives when we "satirise" male politicians in such terms. I look forward to the…
-
Continue reading →: Lord Mandelson and the passive voice
Lord Mandelson admits public were misled over relationship with Russian oligarch – Telegraph. I have remarked before that, during my brief stint as a criminal lawyer, I noticed that the bad guys are fond of the passive voice. Thus, not "I deceived the public", but "the public were [sic] deceived."…
-
Continue reading →: Sterling plummets, but all we care about is Deripaska’s yacht
Sterling plummets on the back of Brown's debt-fuelled economy | Coffee House. Can someone explain to me why the MSM is entirely focussed on the social lives of a couple of freeloading fools, when -as a nation- we are staring down the barrel of a financial gun? How can Brown's…
-
Continue reading →: Time will tell if she is history, Norm
normblog: She's history. I like reading Normblog. Norman Geras may always be wrong on any subject but cricket (and quite often on that), but he writes well. His blog is a place where I can keep up to date with the thinking of my opponents, without the usual strain 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.”
Socials
Subscribe
Receive content by email
Latest comments
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 […]
ARCHIVES
Blogspot Archive Mar 2005 – Sep 2006
TypePad/WordPress Archives Sep 2006 – date
The Great American Road Trip of 2013
The Great American Road Trip Posts
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.