-
Continue reading →: The psychology of a libertarian
Sometimes I worry that my personal response to state power is a matter of psychology, not reason. My parents were strict. Though essentially a charming and well-behaved boy, I spent my childhood always “in the wrong.” It was meant kindly, of course, but independence came as a relief. I set…
-
Continue reading →: ‘Terror law plans to be unveiled’
Link: ‘Terror law plans to be unveiled’. For once the craven, useless BBC tells the truth, albeit inadvertently. These are indeed "terror laws." We should all be more afraid of them than we are of the hapless, if fanatical, incompetents of Al Qaeda who far more frequently blow themselves up…
-
Continue reading →: Three cheers for the fighting Irish
Link: How three robbers fled after victim fought back – Telegraph. This self-made, self-reliant gentleman (God bless him) is the human material for a great nation. Starting with £30 in his pocket, he has created wealth and jobs and kept his spirit, despite every depredation of the parasitical idlers and…
-
Continue reading →: Gordon Brown’s Black Wednesday | Anatole Kaletsky – Times Online
Link: Gordon Brown’s Black Wednesday | Anatole Kaletsky – Times Online. Just for once, the most trenchant political commentary of the day is not in the blogosphere. Anatole Kaletsky in The Times – for so long a propaganda organ for New Labour at the behest of its owner, the Dirty…
-
Continue reading →: Leaving medicine
Link: NHS Blog Doctor: Leaving medicine. Socialists will tell you that "boom and bust" is a capitalist phenomenon, but if you want real "feast or famine" try central planning. After sucking in foreign doctors for years, the UK’s central planners girded up their loins and achieved a surplus of trained…
-
Continue reading →: Visiting Switzerland
The partners in my group are meeting in Switzerland this weekend. I have never liked skiing, but the views from the terrace are nice…
-
Continue reading →: Alex cartoon.Telegraph
Link: Alex cartoon.Telegraph. I always start my business day by looking at the Alex cartoon in the Daily Telegraph. It encapsulates life in the City of London. Even though based offshore, I still regard myself as a City lawyer. When a Labour minister said over lunch at our Embassy in…
-
Continue reading →: Why are we all doing this?
I am more than slightly surprised to score the same as Bag (to whom a tip of the virtual hat). Although he has discarded his beard and sandals for a metaphorical white collar now, he is much more the real techie than me – a mere wannabe. I fear he…
-
Continue reading →: Everyone to be fitted with zips?
Link: The Daily Mash – EVERYONE TO BE FITTED WITH A ZIP. I have so busy coughing and spluttering in apoplectic indignation at the proposal to nationalise English corpses that I have not found time to blog about it. Now that the ever-brilliant Daily Mash has published the linked article,…
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.