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Continue reading →: What happened to legal tender?
Transport for London has announced that its buses will soon no longer accept our nation's bank notes and coins as payment. If this is legal, it shouldn't be. I was consulted and expressed strong views (be fair, I have few weak ones). If one of my daughters is in a…
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Continue reading →: Citizenship ‘is a privilege not a right’
Minister says citizenship 'is a privilege not a right' – ITV News. To call something a 'privilege' sounds flattering. Those of us lucky enough to be citizens of rich, relatively free nations may – in everyday terms – feel privileged. But the way Mark Harper is using the term is…
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Continue reading →: A disappointed idealist
The young Misses Paine say that I am not a cynic, but a disappointed idealist. As I think to reach middle age without cynicism is the mark of a fool, I am not sure that's the compliment I hope they intend. I was reminded of this last week when chatting…
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Continue reading →: If I had a hammer
…I would be hammering The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph and the BBC for bombarding me with nonsense about the late Pete Seeger's 'idealism'. Even his ideological chums over at the New Republic acknowledge he had been a Stalinist stooge. He and his musical colleagues sang anti-war songs in…
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Continue reading →: World’s Smallest Political Quiz
click to enlarge World's Smallest Political Quiz. Have a go. My result was no surprise! My red dot appears to be trying to burst out of that diamond at the top.
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Continue reading →: And still it gets worse
Gagging bill defeat: Britain's democracy just got worse – Index on Censorship | Index on Censorship. What's the difference between lobbying and telling your elected (or would be elected) representatives what you want from them? Is it whether it's done well or badly? Or whether it costs money or not? It…
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Continue reading →: I am embarrassed to have the world see us this way
Can a Tweet Put You in Prison? It Certainly Will in the UK – The Daily Beast. In the excellent book Bring Home the Revolution author Jonathan Freedland points out that the ideas embedded in the US Constitution originated in England. The USA has been a successful testbed for the…
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Continue reading →: For Polly Toynbee: a guide to due process, and why it matters
For all Lord Rennard's supporters: a guide to sexual harassment, and why it matters | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian. I am not really going to offer her a guide. Her job is well-paid and undemanding. She can google it or even read a book. That…
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Continue reading →: The Raccoon’s Return
Watch Out! There’s a Raccoon about!. Many of us feared that – her blog having been taken down as she said would happen if she died – that Anna was no more. I am delighted to see that she's blogging again, though concerned to learn she is still very ill.…
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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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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They are servants. Just not of the public. He gets a full pension because he did his job for his…
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The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
There are many reasons they’re not passed down, Tom. The Triune code, laid out in scripture in all reputable versions…