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Continue reading →: Thought-Crime or mere Expatitis?
I often wonder how different my view of today’s Britain would be if I had not lived abroad for 20 years. Expats often find it hard to resettle in their home country. Sometimes they are not “comparing apples with apples” when reviewing their life in a low-wage country against that…
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Continue reading →: Hypocrisy, thy name is Labour
The Paul Flowers affair confirms it: 2015 will be a dirty election | Jonathan Freedland | Comment is free | The Guardian. Here's a simple thought experiment for all leftists feeling aggrieved at the 'smear' that crystal meth user Paul Flowers, late of the Co-op Bank (lender to the Labour…
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Continue reading →: Power crazed head teacher threatens to label 8-year olds racists if their parents fail to follow her orders
School children as young as 8 told they would be labelled 'racist' for missing school trip – Telegraph. Click to enlarge and marvel at the arrogance of the state's servants When I tell my friends abroad about life in modern Britain, they think I exaggerate. This story illustrates just how…
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Continue reading →: These laughable, cryable NHS reforms
Following the government's response to the Francis Report on Comrade Sir David Nicholson's performance in mid-Staffs is discouraging. Listening to a newsreader brightly announce that patients will in future be told the name of the consultant and nurse responsible for their care or that medics with a history of catastrophic…
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Continue reading →: Nostalgia blast
This excerpt from the US edition of Top Gear really brought my US Road trip back to me.
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Continue reading →: Of Englishness and hijab
I spent the weekend pleasantly at the southern stronghold of Clan Paine; a fifteenth-century coaching inn in Berkshire owned by my cousin. It is built partly of oak reclaimed from Royal Navy warships of the Age of Sail. No more English place could be imagined. It has been in her…
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Continue reading →: Beyond Satire
Why Britain could never make Borgen – Telegraph I am disappointed in Michael Deacon of the Telegraph. He is that once-Conservative paper's Parliamentary sketch-writer, a profession unique to these islands. Satire exists elsewhere, of course. It was invented in Ancient Rome, so that Italian politicians have been exposed to it…
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Continue reading →: Comrade Doctor
Guardian profile: David Tennant, our favourite Doctor … his time has come | Culture | The Guardian. I try to avoid conspiracy theories. The **** up theory is usually just as explicative – and given the ineptitude of the average human usually far more plausible. It's getting hard however to…
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Continue reading →: Why I fear Scottish independence
Union ‘has cost Scotland £64bn over 30 years’ | The Sunday Times. Let me be clear. Since I overheard a ned pour vile anti-English hatred into the ear of his toddler son at the Wallace Memorial some years ago, I have been in favour of Scottish Independence. I realised that…
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Continue reading →: The self-righteousness of cyclists knows no bounds
I have adequate self-esteem and a burning desire for justice but I just cannot compete in these respects with certain urban cyclists. My brother-in-law got a £50 fine for parking outside a charity shop on Chiswick High Road for the few seconds it took him to run in a…
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…
[…] – Tom Paine […]
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Blogspot Archive Mar 2005 – Sep 2006
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The Great American Road Trip of 2013
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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.