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Continue reading →: The Witanagemot Club Awards
Link: The Witanagemot Club – News. The results are in and, despite having myself voted for Tim Worstall, The Last Ditch has been chosen by Witanagemot Club voters as the "Best ex-pat Blog". I am also chuffed to have come third in the "Best Libertarian Blog" category, behind the redoubtable…
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Continue reading →: La vie en rose
Vittoria comfortably knocked two hours off our previous North of England to Champagne record. In fairness to the late, great Claudia this could partly be attributed to the fact that we set off at 3am and were therefore around the M25 and in Kent before Londoners stirred. We caught the…
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Continue reading →: Parp! Parp!
It’s that time of the year again. My desk is cleared (more or less) and my Outlook "out of office" message has been cheerfully crafted and set. Tomorrow (Swiss airlines permitting) I shall return to England to collect Mrs Paine and Vittoria. We shall drive from the North of England…
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Continue reading →: More Time for Politics
Link: Amazon.co.uk: More Time for Politics: Diaries 2001-2007: Tony Benn: Books. The first time I remember hearing the name "Tony Benn" was in 1975. I was discussing with my father how to vote in Harold Wilson’s referendum on whether to remain in "the Common Market". This was my first vote…
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Continue reading →: What has this to do with the the state (or me?)
Link: Tory MP Alan Duncan to enter civil partnership – Telegraph. I wish Alan Duncan and his partner every happiness today. I don’t know anything about Mr. Dunseath, but Mr Duncan seems a nice, amusing chap and I am happy for him that he has a relationship he wants to…
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Continue reading →: If Glasgow East isn’t a Labour seat…
Link: BBC NEWS | Scotland | Glasgow, Lanarkshire and West | SNP stuns Labour in Glasgow East. …where is? Is this the end of triangulation in British politics, with the core vote taken for granted by New Labour finally biting back? Does it signal the end of the United Kingdom?…
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Continue reading →: Labour have failed to control binge drinking. No ****, Sherlock
Link: Labour have failed to control binge drinking – News Story – Conservative Party. I was a member of the Conservative Party for years. I led my University’s Conservative association to control of our student union. I have an instinctive affiliation with the party. Knowing that I will probably not…
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Continue reading →: The Englishman on “Saint Al”
Link: An Englishman’s Castle: Balance on Channel 4. I have said this often to my friends and colleagues, but have never published it. The Englishman’s post stimulated to me to write it in a comment over at his Castle, so I reproduce it here (with apologies for quoting myself); Al…
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Continue reading →: Dr. Dragan Dabic’s Website
Link: Dr. Dragan Dabic – Neuropsihijatar i Bioenergeticar – Neuropsychiatry, Alternative Medicine and Energy, Eastern Meditation, Yoga, Spiritual Cleansing, Chinese Medicine, Medicinal Herbs and Macrobiotic Diet. Here’s an interesting website to check out before it goes down. I have always thought you have to be careful about some of these…
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Continue reading →: Michel Roux, French chef, quits Britain
Link: Michel Roux, French chef, quits Britain for safer Switzerland – Telegraph. Michel Roux should have been knighted and feted and given the Freedom of the City of Westminster. Perhaps even elevated to the House of Lords. Instead, after 40 years, the most important fact about him to the Telegraph…
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…