statism watch

Kelly McParland, National post
November 6, 2008

One thing you have to give the city of Toronto credit for is its absolute obliviousness to its own ridiculousness.

There is no sense of the absurdity within the politburo of Canada’s biggest city. City fathers are able to tramp resolutely from one inanity to another, undisturbed by the notion that people of their stature should have more serious things to do.

Recently there was the example of the Great Trash Imbroglio, in which the city forcibly rounded up all the blue boxes people have been using to dispose of recyclable trash, and imposed new grey boxes. Only they don’t have enough grey boxes, so they sent out colour-coded tags. The tags are only good for certain trash, of certain types, at certain times. If you run out of tags in some colours you can get more; other colours you can’t.

This week the city got into a tussle with Tim Hortons, over lids. The city wants the coffee chain to change its plastic lids to paper, or something equally recyclable. If Tim’s won’t comply, the city says it will ban paper cups and make the chain use styrofoam, like in the old days. Tim’s has something like 83 billion gazillion outlets in Canada, but Toronto figures it can invent a whole new type of lid just for those outlets within the boundaries of the city. One step across the line into Mississauga and they can make lids out of concrete, for all the city cares. Tim’s says its lids are already recyclable, it’s just that Toronto won’t make the effort required. Grown people, paid by taxes, spend their days thinking up these tiffs.

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Rupert Wright, The National UAE
November 6, 2008

Among the captains of industry, spin doctors and financial advisers accompanying British prime minister Gordon Brown on his fund-raising visit to the Gulf this week, one name was surprisingly absent. This may have had something to do with the fact that the tour kicked off in Saudi Arabia. But by the time the group reached Qatar, Baron David de Rothschild was there, too, and he was also in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Although his office denies that he was part of the official party, it is probably no coincidence that he happened to be in the same part of the world at the right time. That is how the Rothschilds have worked for centuries: quietly, without fuss, behind the scenes.

“We have had 250 years or so of family involvement in the finance business,” says Baron Rothschild. “We provide advice on both sides of the balance sheet, and we do it globally.”

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BBC News
November 6, 2008

Jacqui Smith says public demand means people will be able to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months.

The cards will be available for all from 2012 but she said: “I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don’t want to wait that long.”

The home secretary made the claim as she unveiled revised ID scheme plans.

Opposition parties say they would scrap the ID card scheme. The Tories call it a “complete waste of money”. The Lib Dems call it a “laminated poll tax”.

They accused Ms Smith of backtracking on plans to issue ID cards in 2009 for all airside workers, by announcing they would pilot them at just two airports.

The first biometric cards are being issued, to students from outside the EU and marriage visa holders, this month and it had been planned to make them compulsory for all 200,000 airside workers from 2009.

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Simon Avery, Globe and Mail
November 6, 2008

When wireless industry experts consider the challenges of adding an electronic wallet to our mobile phones, the biggest issue they face is no longer the technology.

It’s people — and specifically how we will react to having the power of a credit card folded into the circuitry of our favourite voice, e-mail and multimedia handset.

Next spring, three companies are launching a mobile payments pilot in downtown Toronto to examine how consumers will use cutting-edge technology that lets them wave a cellphone at the cashier rather than opening their purse or wallet.

Royal Bank of Canada, Visa and Rogers Wireless Inc. are working together to launch the trial, which will last about three months and involve at least 100 retailers and an as-yet-undetermined number of participants.

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