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Continue reading →: Happy New Year, gentles all!
It has been an interesting year, politically and personally. The nation is divided. It seems many of the things we thought we had in common are no longer there. The verbal ferocity against the majority of us who voted for Brexit has confirmed that our decision was correct. It has even…
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Continue reading →: On becoming less of a man
I am just 100g away from losing 50kg this year. I am off to the pool to swim some more to see if I can make this happen by my “official” weekly weigh-in on Wednesday. My ultimate goal, by June 30, 2019, is to lose 68 kg. Even then,…
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Continue reading →: A diagonal division
When introduced at West London parties as "to the right of Genghis Khan", I smilingly reply that he was well to the left of me on economics but far to the right of me on social issues. At the same parties, I have become accustomed to being called a "Nazi"…
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Continue reading →: A road trip to Northern Ireland
I returned yesterday from an impulsively-organised road trip to Northern Ireland. For those of us who grew up during the Troubles, it's not an obvious tourist destination. The names of its towns and villages meant nothing to me but violence and – Giant's Causeway apart – I had never seen…
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Continue reading →: Two disappointing conversations
This week I had two conversations; one with a valued and respected friend and one with a total stranger. I found both of them profoundly disturbing. My friend is Jewish. In the course of a conversation over lunch he told me that he and his wife have decided to leave…
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Continue reading →: Their ideology is envy and their policy is theft
In comfortable, middle-class West London I am surrounded by the smug. The local websites recently erupted in prissy anger, for example, at the notion that the site of a local scrap yard (I am surprised we still have one) is to be redeveloped as apartments. "It's not green" or "it…
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Continue reading →: Truth, morals and democracy
Democracy does not determine right and wrong. Democratic outcomes are not necessarily correct. If you live in an unfettered democracy like that of the United Kingdom, you will often find yourself on the wrong side of majority decisions that are misguided at best and quite often wicked. Classical liberals must…
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Continue reading →: Flying the Khan Balloon in Parliament Square
Stop the Khanage by Tom Paine. The link above will take you to more pictures from this morning's protest in Parliament Square. I had chipped in £50 towards the cost of the Sadiq Khan balloon caricature and went along to see it launched. The organisers were "Make London Safe Again"…
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Continue reading →: Identity Politics is toxic
My new friend within the London Labour Party wrote to me recently saying, among other things, that The left, once famously critical of religion, will say nothing against Muslims! He has a point. The Roman Catholic Church is deservedly weathering a massive media storm over priestly abuse of children –…
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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One can only hope his neighbours, fellow lodge members (?) etc give him the cold shoulder.
The problem is that they already know about the blog and some read it. Why is that an issue? If…
Conversationally, I already operate on NATO “no first strike” principles. I am not going to start a political discussion with…
Why don’t you stick with what you are doing on the blogs but simply withdraw from discussion on politics with…
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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 
They are servants. Just not of the public. He gets a full pension because he did his job for his…