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Continue reading →: Michael White says something sensible; Shock!
Phone-hacking scandal: Not even the News of the World is all bad | Michael White | Politics | guardian.co.uk. Michael White agrees with me on something, it seems. As his paper is, with the BBC, conducting the trial by media prosecution of News International, this is a particular surprise. He…
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Continue reading →: Join us in Stony Stratford
Stub Out The Stony Stratford Smoking Ban. I used to visit Stony Stratford for a drink from time to time when I worked in Milton Keynes (of which New Town it forms an ancient part). Its old coaching inns, on the route from London to Ireland, saw the exchange of…
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Continue reading →: Journalistic ethics
News of the World: bereaved relatives of 7/7 victims 'had phones hacked' – Telegraph. I was tempted to leave the space beneath my heading blank, save for the link, but that would hardly have been fair. It's wrong except in jest (and this is no laughing matter) to condemn a…
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Continue reading →: More than a little careless
Ministry of Defence loses £6.3bn assets | UK news | The Guardian. Ask yourself if, in any private sector job you can imagine, you could lose assets on this scale without your job being at risk. Now ask yourself if you expect any senior employee of the Ministry of Defence…
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Continue reading →: Public/Private wage gap ‘widens’
Public sector workers paid 7.8pc more than private sector as wage gap 'widens' – Telegraph. Although economic illiterates keep telling us that "public sector workers are taxpayers too" those 'taxes' are purely cosmetic. In fact they are worse than that. The bureaucracy wastes a hefty chunk of the 'tax' in…
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Continue reading →: The old age of Prudence
Surely one key motivation to work and save your whole life is to remain independent? Why then do Conservatives habitually bemoan the fact that those with assets are required to use them (if their cash is insufficient) to take care of themselves when elderly? Why are they so envious of…
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Continue reading →: An invitation
Click the image to enlarge. h/t Navigator, who tells me it's from the Daily Mash but I can't find the link.
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Continue reading →: Smug pensions moocher accidentally makes sensible point
Signs of protest: the best banners at the public services strike marches around Britain – Telegraph.
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Continue reading →: Advancing liberty, one smoke at a time
The cross-party group of MPs hosting this afternoon's sunny "Save our Pubs & Clubs" reception on the Commons Terrace comprised only non-smokers. Messrs Knight and Hemming, like me, have never smoked but feel strongly about liberty. The Labour co-host Roger Godsiff-is an ex-smoker, by his own free choice; a choice…
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.