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Continue reading →: World Builder
This award-winning short movie showcasing the CGI talents of Branit FX will resonate with those readers who have experienced the strange delights of building in Second Life. Others may find it of interest too (or not). Apparently it was filmed in a single day but took two years of post-production…
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Continue reading →: Classical liberalism – Part 1
The discussions here at The Last Ditch are generally (our friend and active contributor Mark excepted) informed by a broadly classical liberal view. LearnLiberty.org has an interesting series of short video lectures by Dr Nigel Ashford of the Institute for Humane Studies explaining five different schools of thought in modern…
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Continue reading →: HSBC puts MPs under [their own] microscope
HSBC puts MPs under microscope | Money | The Guardian. When practising abroad as an international lawyer, I often had to raise with clients dealing with companies associated with local politicians the delicate issue of money laundering. You can imagine how the politicians concerned reacted when informed that English legislation…
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Continue reading →: A danger to the state?
The Courier – 'I started laughing, and kept on laughing' — Olympic torch protester gets a police visit. I was asked earlier this year at a professional gathering what change I had noticed on returning to Britain after 20 years. I answered that the police seem more interested now in…
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Continue reading →: Are we sure it wasn’t an inside job?
Armed robbers target Santander in Tooting (From Wandsworth Guardian). Is it too cynical to speculate that this could be nervous depositors jumping the queue or the bank's management hoping to claim on the insurance? h/t @GawainTowler
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Continue reading →: Off for a chat at Tom Paine’s old “local”
The White Hart Hotel. Though many leftists who focus selectively on his ideas on social security and land tax object to my using his name to blog, I am a genuine admirer of the original, best and only important Tom Paine. He was a man who – by use only…
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Continue reading →: Is this government stimulating the economy?
'Online snooping' scheme expected to cost at least £1.8bn | Technology | guardian.co.uk. The national debt continues to rise, yet the Tories have £2 billion to spare to snoop on our online activities. It will cost much more in the end no doubt, as government IT estimates usually bear very…
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Continue reading →: Plenty to Hide?
Plenty to Hide. "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" is one of the most dangerous (and irritating) arguments advanced to justify state intrusion in our private lives. In the linked post at Lifehacker, Jay Stanley of the American Civil Liberties Union provides a handy set…
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Continue reading →: Can any Canadian reader please help?
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1 Another video by Ezra Levant did the round of the blogs a while back. You know it; the one in which he was filmed taking an Alberta Human Rights Commission functionary apart. Now there's a new one in which he takes the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council to task…
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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Almost. I think Archbishop Sarah is a Christian. I just think she’s at a loss to know how to reach…
It’s almost as if they are not actually Christian but simply a person being advised by woke PR people in…
She may be gone but you have all those wonderful memories :-)
I miss the more traditional Anglican services that I remember from my younger years. I haven’t regularly attended church services…
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The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
I’m sure there are a few fire and brimstone types they could have had instead of a woke woman. Putting…