On 27 May 2015 at 1:46pm Lewes Stop TTIP wrote:
All your questions answered on the 31st of May at the All Saints centre doors open 5:30pm.
Speakers,Interactive games,food,drinks and music!!
Edutainment.
On 27 May 2015 at 2:23pm SouthStreeter wrote:
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ( in case it saves anyone looking it up ) . Appears to be some idealists who've made some promo stuff out of cardboard and felt pens ( see website ) and believe we'd be better of without big business . Welcome to 2015
On 27 May 2015 at 2:24pm Jennifer wrote:
Just show me to the stand where the abolition of trade tariffs is demonstrated so we can export and import freely with the United States. Also will your event illustrate the way that unified high standards on food and consumer goods will allow the best exports of Britain and the United States to be sold everywhere without needless extra testing or costly modifications, presently needed? The Federation of Small Businesses welcomes TTIP. I look forward to being free to sell our business services into the world's most prosperous market without being treated as a suspicious entity. Why can't people stop complaining and do something positive instead? The TTIP will put an average of £400 into the pocket of every British family each year. Will the event mention this? One might as well leave the EU.
On 27 May 2015 at 2:33pm TTIP Transparent? wrote:
Is it true that if the TTIP goes through there will be meetings behind closed doors whereas once they were all open & transparent to public scrutiny?
On 27 May 2015 at 3:18pm Mark wrote:
Hush now... TTIP is a secret thing... No one's meant to know about it. Our betters are busy deciding what's good for us.
On 27 May 2015 at 6:57pm TTIP Transparent? wrote:
Who really benefits from a TTIP deal?
Is it individuals in a position of Governmental power who would like to see TTIP go through?
Remember 'Where all in it together' said Dave to his 'Bullingdon Club' compatriots ..
Check it out here »
On 27 May 2015 at 7:12pm Squeaky Clean Honest wrote:
'Individuals in a position of Governmental power' who also have interests in all kinds businesses that would benefit from TTIP
On 27 May 2015 at 11:05pm RedHeartedCyclist wrote:
@SouthStreeter is right...we have all been to idealistic...good job the Millennials haven't been 'pumping and (will be)dumping' your pension, shares and house prices....welcome to 2015>
On 28 May 2015 at 1:02am King of Sussex wrote:
Essentially, it means things like the stupid communist NHS has to be closed down because it impedes an American healthcare business’ opportunity to make a free market profit.
It will give US tobacco companies the right to sue British taxpayers for loss of profit, if any more stupid communist anti-smoking laws are enacted.
It gives US businesses the right to sue British taxpayers if British businesses are given stupid communist tax breaks that give them a advantage over US businesses. It will mean that stupid communist safety standards have to be lowered so cheap US products that don’t comply get into the shops. It’s the missing piece in the neo-liberal idyll of government by business interests.
Why it’s all being done in such secrecy is a complete mystery – why wouldn’t we all want it signed up asap? I can only imagine the govt. are saving up an even more lovely surprise for us all.
On 28 May 2015 at 1:52am Really.. Nice Castle wrote:
Free Market?
Your having a laugh..
This Neo Nazi Government has sold us out for a few coppers in their back pockets.. The amazing thing is the misguided middle class house buyers wanting to protect their investments voted for the fascist !
On 28 May 2015 at 7:03am Paul Newman wrote:
The NHS was set up along broadly Communist lines having been captured as project of the far left of the Labour Party from its inception . It could have worked a number of other ways and will certainly have to be reformed to have any hope of meeting the ever increasing demands on it
I am certainly hopeful that patients will be returned to the centre of the picture over the next few years just as parents will be empowered over the educational establishment .
Exciting times really , and with 20 more Conservative seats due to coem form the boundary commission and Labour in pathetic disarray I think we can confidently expect ten years in which the country will be transformed .
On 28 May 2015 at 7:38am Ed Udtainment wrote:
Is he the speaker? Has he got a cat that looks like hitler?
On 28 May 2015 at 8:42am Squeaky wrote:
Don't you mean the NHS was set up along Humanitarian principles!
On 28 May 2015 at 9:21am Merlin Milner wrote:
A link to a government document about it. I am attaching for information, not necessarily out of an opinion.
Check it out here »
On 28 May 2015 at 12:21pm Paul Newman wrote:
Squeaky - Nothing humanitarian about Communism matey, or incompetence
Thanks Merlin , I thought this was supposed to be the whole point of the EU ie to give us bargaining clout with other trade blocks increase free trade thereby making us all a bit more prosperous . This is one of the reasons I support our continued membership and will , if needs be , put up with the many things I do not like about it
Anyway the truth is that no-one cares about the NHS being privatized they only care if their free treatment is not there and a link has quite illogically been drawn.
At every single election since its beginning the Labour Party have accused the Conservative Parry of wanting to get rid of the NHS and on no single occasion has it been true .
In my opinion the stupid defence of the status quot for decades in health education and welfare has only succeeded in undermining the collective responsibility we all have to eachother .
The confusion on the left at seeing the working classes vote UKIP and support welfare reform has been delicious .....
On 28 May 2015 at 3:04pm Zzz.. wrote:
"The NHS was set up along broadly Communist lines having been captured as project of the far left of the Labour Party from its inception ."
Paul Newman, the drivel you spout could not possibly come from a sane mind. You are plainly mad.
There is a lot wrong with TTIP (see link below) but the worst problem is that it weakens our democracy by allowing US companies to take European governments to court if their policies can be construed as damaging their profits. This is a can of worms. For instance what if we don't want US companies running services in our hospitals and schools or fracking our countryside? Well, under TTIP we won't have any choice, unless we want to be sued.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. It says something that our leaders feel the need to conduct negotiations in private and hide the details of the treaty from their own citizens.
Check it out here »
On 28 May 2015 at 4:05pm Yawn.... wrote:
So Zzzz, so lets open up all such discussions (i.e. that affect UK residents) to the 60M residents of UK, so that we can all say our two-penneth worth, even if its a matter we don't fully understand. lets all respond to the knee jerk reactionaries (from both ends of the political spectrum)who may well have hidden agendas thy wish to promote eh?
That way whomever UK is negotiating with will be faced with up to 60M differing views and opinions, some well-informed, others half baked or poorly informed....
Nope, like it or not, such negotiations can only be handled by a small group of people chosen from among (or by) those elected at the last election, who will hopefully represent the vast majority of the UK, and seek to gain the best outcome for UK as a whole.
But I agree that the broader aspects of the pros and cons should be open to public viewing, though those on the left will always say any negotiation handled by a Conservative-lead Govt is favouring the fat cats and not considering the working man or poorer citizens, those on the right will always say any negotiation by a Labour or left of centre Govt is holding back the economy by failing to allow a free market to run its' course, and the Greens will always say that the discussion and outcome will ruin the planet for the future generations whoemever is representing UK unless it is the Greens themsleves... 'twas always thus...
The nay-sayers tend to twist things to support their own point of view (whatever that may be), and to stir up angst and mistrust where they can, those in favour of things tend to pretend there are no possible downsides to any outcome, and so push the positive aspects and try to overlook the negatives...
As ever, the truth is probably somewhere in between both!
On 28 May 2015 at 7:10pm Critical reader wrote:
There's an awful lot of misinformation and propaganda about TTIP. However, even without unpicking all the complex arguments, looking at the information that's being promulgated says a lot about what's really going on.
The BIS article that Merlin linked to is a great case in point. Half of it is about how the negotiation is being done (which isn't the real nub of the problem that people have with TTIP - it's the substance of what's being proposed that's dangerous; the way it's being negotiated is just the icing on the cake). The rest outlines various things that are myths because they won't happen - and yet these myths have only been debunked by negotiation that was driven by massive public opposition. Or, to put it another way, if it hadn't been for the huge petitions and large demonstrations throughout Europe against TTIP (and ISDS in particular) over the last couple of years, most of those myths would be impending reality. Which means that pamphlet is clearly pushing a line - the "don't worry, trust us, everything's fine, we have your best interests at heart" line - that it must know simply isn't backed up by the facts.
Now, even without knowing anything at all about the niceties of international law, UCITS and trade negotiations, a reasonable, sensible person would smell a rat. I don't think anyone can be blamed for not having a grasp of the detail, but I would hope we can now tell when we're having the wool pulled over our eyes. Then again... 
On 28 May 2015 at 7:29pm Paul Newman wrote:
Paul Newman, the drivel you spout could not possibly come from a sane mind. You are plainly mad.
Or perhaps it is because I know something about it. I posted a history of the politics surrounding the formation of the NHS fairly recently
On 29 May 2015 at 11:09am Mark wrote:
I do remember that and it was drivel also - some cloud cuckoo land nonsense about how a Trotskyist faction had foisted the NHS on a reluctant public. And then I posted material showing that free at source healthcare is the cheapest form of healthcare in the world - health economists are pretty much agreed on that - and you replied with more drivel about how that's all just because Americans sue each other a lot but that that situation wouldn't arise here because... err... it just wouldn't because it wouldn't.
On 30 May 2015 at 8:53am Zzz.. wrote:
@Yawn. It is worrying that you take the secrecy with with the TTIP negotiations are conducted so lightly, and that you have so much trust in our politicians when they have proved themselves unworthy of it so many times. Your attitude will sleepwalk us into a police state. It is useful that we have people with the intelligence, time and interest to challenge things like TTIP. They are the guardians of our freedom and I for one am very grateful to them.