From Cork to Toronto

Dublin driver driving an articulated vehicle at way over the posted 50km/h limit in the new Dublin Port Tunnel with U2 blaring and one hand on his mobile phone. Hopefully with enough eyeballs on it this person will either be prosecuted or get a good kicking, whichever is convenient, before other people have to suffer.

Cheri DiNovo, NDP MPP for Parkdale-High Park, has been spearheading an increase in the Ontario minimum wage to $10 an hour . The current wage is due to go from $7.75 to $8.00, an increase of 3.2%, on February 1st subject to certain exclusions . I am a bit wary of the round number of $10 since like the publishing of public service salaries over $100,000 it tends to be worth less over time and might take a while to edge up again - instead it should be linked at least to the Consumer Price Index. I also note that in the U.S. there are moves to increase the Federal minimum, which is popular in many states since those states already exceed both the existing and in some cases the new federal floor, although it has run into trouble in the Senate . In Ireland the rate is C$12.68 with some exclusions. The Liberal government, who just raised MPPs salary's by $22,000 annually (2,750 hours at minimum rates just for the increase!) opposes this and bloggers duly went to bat, with Jason Chern...

BUPA closing down , so are FCI . But never mind, have a prison instead ! Obviously since Portlaoise was bypassed the law and order types in Cabinet felt the youngsters travelling from Dublin-Cork could do with the sight of a depressing edifice. Not really sure that counts as public art ...

As Environment Minister Baird muses aloud about how those pesky Liberals like Stephane Dion subsidised the tarsands and he can't figure out why, the U.S. House of Representatives votes 264-163, including 36 Republicans voting with the majority Democrats, to repeal US$14bn of oil subsidies and other financial benefits . (NYT, rego required) Garth Turner fires back at Baird, pointing out some interesting issues: Dion was not involved in the programme Baird mentioned the programme began when oil was at $21/bbl, not $50 as it has been recently tarsands get more financial benefits than conventional oil and gas - in fact the same incentives as renewables Turner goes on : what we don’t need is an environment minister who has started his mandate lying about who did what, when, instead of what he’s going to do, now. Indeed. However, it would have been good to see the Martin government think aloud about these subsidies when they had the chance. From when Martin took power in December 2003...

I'm trying out SNAP which gives you a preview picture of a link when you hover over it. Check it out!

Harper's trial balloon for equalisation is peeking out and it looks like $1.5bn more for Quebec and $600 million less for Saskatchewan. This is achieved by only counting 50% of resource revenues. Now SK might complain that other provinces benefited more or less in the past but the 50% is ridiculous. Resource revenue should be counted the same as everything else. Transitional equalisation payments rather than immediate clawback should be a function of equalisation rather than of how provincial revenues are counted. The effect is the same but the sense of fiddling with the system is removed. This is how structural funds work in the European Union. Ireland still managed to draw down quite a bit after we approached 100% of average EU GDP by use of regionalisation due to disproportionate economic growth in certain areas like the east coast. Like the income trust tax, the 100% exemption for Saskatchewan was a bad promise but it's a pity the Tories couldn't be similarly d...

That David Beckham's move to LA is more about money and a possible film career for Victoria is one thing. Real Madrid's reaction in its childishness , with Capello's public decision not to select him for the remainder of the season essentially constructively dismissing Beckham and then the club criticising him for wanting to join LA Galaxy early rather than sit in the stands is shocking and I hope true Madrid supporters are ashamed. This is a club that has had no compunction about raiding clubs for their players by declaring their interest (especially when Presidential elections are afoot) but for once are confronted by a deal they can't match even with the historic assistance they have had from various levels of government. This behaviour is making the Americans look like the classy ones - how did that happen?