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Continue reading →: Journey’s End
1,600 miles later, Vittoria and I are back in the North of England. Normal blogging service will return soon (after a long-anticipated family party, which I am hosting tonight). In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the trip (click to enlarge). L-R: Vittoria in the Assynt, the Scottish…
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Continue reading →: Islay
Yesterday, I spent hours navigating single track roads to get to the CalMac terminal at Kennacraig to catch the last ferry of the day to Islay. After some nervous moments watching lorries bounce up and down the boarding ramps I gingerly embarked Vittoria without grounding as I feared. One fellow…
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Continue reading →: Another superb day
It is not normally my destiny, gentle reader, to comment on what a superb gift life is. I focus too much, perhaps, on the perfidies of our “leaders.” To hell with them all, I say. Life is good. Scotland always makes me a better, kinder man (let us charitably turn…
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Continue reading →: From Lochinver
At last, an hotel with internet access. Free wifi for guests in the lobby area, no less! Congratulations to the Inver Lodge Hotel for being the hippest hotel in the Highlands (although I am afraid it does give the impression – as do all Scottish interiors – that my granny…
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Continue reading →: Light blogging alert
I am currently en route to England to pick up Vittoria from the dealer in Manchester. I shall be driving her to Scotland tomorrow for a "get to know you" tour of Highland roads. I have no hotels booked (except for the first night in Fort William – email tom.paine@mac.com…
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Continue reading →: Memories are made of this
I was reminiscing with work colleagues today about how my parents banned me from watching The Avengers for a month because, as a fan of Diana Rigg, I complained when an episode was cancelled because of coverage of the assassination of JFK. They say everyone remembers where they were. I…
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Continue reading →: Same-sex couples could create children; but should they?
Link: Same-sex couples could create children – Telegraph. Instinctively, I feel this technology is wrong. I would not use it and would disapprove of anyone who did. However my personal revulsion is no reason to want a law against it (as we have at present). There are many things I…
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Continue reading →: Security theatre
Link: Security theatre | Samizdata.net. Johnathan Pearce over at ever-good-value Samizdata has posted an interesting account (linked above) of being caught up in a Terrorism Act 2000, section 44 search in London. The comments are entertaining (if rather "salty" at times) but I particularly want to draw your attention to…
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Continue reading →: The Line, the Bitch and the Wardrobe
Adam Boulton’s interview with George Osborne today came at a significant moment. For the first time, with the Labour government visibly crumbling, Osborne’s credibility matters. Boulton gave him a harder time than he would any interviewee from further left, but Osborne held up well. He avoided cheap attacks and refused…
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…
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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.