-
Continue reading →: Has the truth sunk in yet?
I had an interesting conversation with a member of my family yesterday. She handles mortgage approvals for one of the few institutions still lending. She was telling me they are being more prudent. They closed 25% of their mortgage call centres at the beginning of the crisis and they are…
-
Continue reading →: It’s Sunday, let’s think about something other than the crisis
http://embed.break.com/NTg2MTgyClumsy Best Man Ruins Wedding – Watch more free videos
-
Continue reading →: Philippe Starck on designing a toilet brush
http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf I can think of no better insight into what it is to be French; no better illustration of what it is to be civilised. And he’s funny too. He says that he is not intelligent. He says he designs to prove he has a right to exist. But there…
-
Continue reading →: A toxic culture of blame
Many years ago, a driver in Liverpool was plagued by local children who would jump on his truck as he was manoeuvring. He was always chasing them away. One day a boy was clinging to the back when he reversed up to a wall and was crushed and killed. He…
-
Continue reading →: The sheep and the wolves
Link: Gordon Brown hails £500 billion bank rescue plan – Telegraph. I am no economist, so perhaps a reader can help with the questions I have today. If people are unwilling to lend, how does reducing interest rates help? If our problem is that too many have borrowed too much,…
-
Continue reading →: Why not vote for this project?
Link: International Medical Corps Matched With Top 25 American Express Members Project Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children. Why wouldn’t you?. This is off-topic for my blog (and I am pretty suspicious of the long-term effects of foreign aid in Africa). However, the organiser is a private charity trying to…
-
Continue reading →: PJ O’Rourke on Death
Link: PJ O’Rourke: Death’s homework | Comment is free | The Guardian. It had to happen. An interesting article at the Guardian’s "Comment is Free" site. However, PJ O’Rourke may have misjudged his audience. In reacting to being diagnosed with cancer, he writes God created a free universe. He could…
-
Continue reading →: Switzerland again
This weekend I am in Switzerland for a motor tour organised by my firm. Various of my partners and our clients met at Interlaken to spend a couple of days driving around beautiful scenery in a variety of exotic and/or delightful cars. Today we lunched at Meiringen, which Sherlock Holmes…
-
Continue reading →: Pastures new
I have a new job and it is not (only) Russia any more. I shall confinue to live in Moscow, but it is now entirely by choice. It could as easily be London, Geneva, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Shanghai or Ho Chi Minh City. At this depressing juncture in our…
-
Continue reading →: Photo Competition for Freedom not Fear
Link: Old Holborn: Photo Competition. I am a keen if not particularly ept photographer and would love to take part in this. I shall not be in Britain on the day, so can only urge you all to follow the link above and have a go. The event is to…
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.