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Continue reading →: Oliver Cromwell is not (yet) buried and dead
Sir Olly C and the case for free speech in Bexley. Like I said, the police in this country seem more concerned with what people say than what they do. There should, in my humble opinion, be NO criminal laws that penalise mere speech.
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Continue reading →: Of angels, pinheads and snake-oil
Harry's Place » Judge at Passover: “nobody” saw Raed Salah blood libel sermon as harmful. Harry's Place is an interesting site, full of diverse opinions around a narrow point of view. Its strapline ("Liberty, if it means anything, is the right to tell people what they don't want to hear")…
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Continue reading →: Of petrol, pasties and the rape of Liberty
I have taken a break from the world for a week. I cruised the single-track roads and waiting smilingly in the passing places of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. I drank whisky, ate poor food and looked at magnificent scenery. I pictured my ancestors (for, despite Salmond's history-pokery, we are…
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Continue reading →: Of sheep and distemper
From comments to my previous post, some readers seem to think I am pessimistic and gloomy – even 'distempered'. Not so. Despite my personal sadness about losing my wife, I am generally quite happy and optimistic. I certainly don't share many commenters' fears about the decline of the West, for…
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Continue reading →: Of sheep and cyclists
Traffic and why "I Hate Cyclists" :: A Very British Dude. A few friends have flatteringly complained that I don't blog enough now. I occasionally try to exert myself with my old enthusiasm, but it's gone. There's no denying it. I miss morning news discussions with the late Mrs P.…
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Continue reading →: My week in a single graphic
Nourishing obscurity » Vintage posters Magpie mind James Higham is running posts on vintage posters. This one sums up my week in and around Cap d'Antibes, Cannes and Mougins. I drive home today and tomorrow, so blogging will be non-existent.
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Continue reading →: What use is eternal vigilance if you’re unarmed?
Sean Linnane: GUN CONTROL. As a man who never saw military service, I can only be respectfully grateful to men like Sean who have put themselves in harm's way to protect us. Orwell said "We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit…
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Continue reading →: OTT or what?
The Last Ditch is not going to become a food blog. You should still look to Sicily Scene and others for your culinary fix. However, I thought this photo of a few spoonfuls of granita served in a tower of ice might amuse you. Bruno Oger's presentation of food is…
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Continue reading →: Greece is not the word
I heard Jim O'Neill speak yesterday. He's the Chairman of Asset Management at Goldman Sachs and the macro-economist who coined the expression "the BRICs". He pointed out that while the European press is full of the Greek debt crisis, on a global scale it simply doesn't matter. The Chinese economy…
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Continue reading →: A peaceful interlude
Last year a very kind reader of this blog (whom I have never met) arranged for mass to be said for the soul of Mrs Paine at an Abbey in Provence. She was a French teacher by profession and a lover of that country. Provence was where we most liked…
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…
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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.