TTIP & what 38 Degrees are up against

Papaoscar, I am amazed that you did not know about 38 degrees.
There are now lots of other petitions you can sign up to.

Very interesting, I was not aware about 38 degrees and will follow their progress. Many people are concerned about the way our so-called democracy is being exploited by powerful self-interest groups aided by our own politicians. What we need is a proper, written, constitution without all the b.....t that surrounds us at the moment.

minimouse we have the same set of problems where I live. Serious flooding in 2007 and before yet building on the flood plain continues. Two massive shopping centre developments, local campaigns against including the local MP to no avail. Massive traffic congestion, inadequate infrastructure yet nothing can stand in the way of the great God shopping/business.
I have just discovered the extent to which the NHS is being undermined. There is so much going on, I cant keep up with it. I'm no conspiracy theorist but I do think they don't want us to notice what they're doing while they feather their own nests.
I read today about the East Coast rail franchise which was taken back under state control, turned from a financial failure into a profitable business with a sizeable injection of taxpayer money and now it is being re-privatised with Virgin and Stagecoach fighting for it. Great enterprises those, ha, ha.
I feel as though the world has gone mad!

It's good to see some interest in this on GN. It seems to keep going under the radar - and in the wider world, too!

whitewave I think they like to forget that they're our employees, they prefer to believe that they're our rulers - as do big businesses!

It just seems that we're being bombarded with 'issues' these days and the conspiracy theorist in me can't help feeling that 'they' hope that this will lead us to just crawl away and let them do what they want because we just can't cope with it all.

Just in my locality we're dealing with overdevelopment (some of it on flood plains, naturally!) without increased infrastructure, fracking, flightpath changes including the possibility of over half a million flights per year over us! We even have five MPs fighting against it, but it's all being pressed for by big business.

It's great that we have 38 Degrees to turn to. I think that often there are many people who protest, but in scattered groups. 38 Degrees brings everyone together and really shows the numbers of people who are not happy with things.

I simply couldn't believe what I was listening to!
These people are our "employees" we pay their salary, and lucrative pension. We decide what we would like them to do over a period of years through the mandate. It is time they learned their place.

I do send money to 38 Degrees now and again, and now seems like a particularly good time.

I brought TTIP up with my local MP. She is young, keen and has quite a high media profile. I heard nothing from her. She seems to be interested only in campaigns that nobody could really take offence at - pay day loans, violence against women, etc. etc. I think that's when you know if a politician is really willing to stick their neck out - when something is more contentious and may put them in the firing line so far as other parties - or even the media - are concerned.

With more people becoming aware of and starting to oppose TTIP, I expect the very hostile and bullying attitude that David Babbs came up against in the Business Select Committee meeting will gather momentum.

durhamjen I had exactly the same response, for the same reason. In the past I've donated to 38 degrees on an ad hoc basis, but there's something about being patronised by politicians that really rankles with me, so I've signed up to a small amount by direct debit in order to 'put my money where my mouth is'.

It seems like the only parties that want to stop the TTIP are the Green party and the NHA party. I had the same email, minimouse. I get annoyed with 38 degrees always asking for money but I think I will sign up to it this time, simply because of the pat on the head attitude.

Having been out on the streets campaigning against TTIP I actually got very angry listening to this exchange. I have spent many hours researching TTIP and find the patronising arrogance demonstrated here to be typical of the steamroller approach to getting it through.
I am so glad that 38 degrees exists and is willing to make challenges on behalf of its members, because I believe that parliamentarians have stopped listening to the electorate.

Thanks minimouse. that rather aligns with a posting I put on the health boards about a meeting I went to about the privatization of the NHS. At the meeting the issue of TTIP arose and its relevance to what is happening within the NHS was clear. I don't know how much democracy means anymore, I think we are run by the big corporations now and politicians have become very corrupt and don't, for the most part, actually represent their constituents any longer.

I feel I am reeling these days at the number of petitions coming through and the massive changes that are taking place around us. It's hard to keep up with it all and I feel that's what 'they' want. Most people are too busy to be able to take notice until it's too late. Meanwhile, inequality rises, those in charge get richer and reward their friends and we are encouraged to get riled up about immigration which I think is a way of setting us at each other and distracting us from other issues, like TTIP.

Minimouse The absolute arrogance and rudeness of these Committee members took my breath away. How extraordinarily dismissive and bullying they were when speaking to David Babbs of 38 Degrees:

"We are not here to be challenged. You are here to be challenged. Let's understand the rules of it"

"Mr Babbs - we will not argue, we will ask the questions."

"Don't you think it is wholly irresponsible to be encouraging your membership to lobby their MPs to pull out of this agreement, based on an entirely pre-conceived idea that this is a bad thing for the UK, when you don't know, the trades unions don't know, the CBI don't know, so given the fact that you have not consulted any experts where does this arrogance come from that you presume that you know better than everyone else?"

David Babbs replied that, it being the case that nobody knows what is going to be in this TTIP Agreement, wasn't it arrogant of David Cameron to say he was going to "put a rocket launcher" behind this? David Babbs was immediately "shut down".

These Committee members surely have a duty to address the worries of a large number of people who are concerned at the secrecy of these TTIP talks. The member who said DB was irresponsible, acknowledged that nobody knows anything about what is happening in these talks. Given that that is the case, how is the Select Committee in a better position to argue that the TTIP talks will yield benefits for the people of this country?

38 Degrees and other groups concerned about the TTIP talks have noted the statements made by multi-nationals (e.g. that they want to get rid of "trade irritants" (these include things like certain Health & Safety regulations) and have examined previous and existing trade agreements to see what sorts of clauses are included (such as the Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions - allowing companies to sue governments)and have formed a view as to what the TTIP Agreement is likely to contain. The belief is that it will enshrine rules regarding automatic tendering of public services and other measures that will increase the powers of multinationals and decrease the rights of the ordinary citizen.

If these talks are so harmless and beneficial for everybody - why the huge amount of secrecy?

I am absolutely shocked by the way David Babbs was spoken to.
-