Possibly so Richard, but time has moved on and many people including me think that Britain is being taken for a mug. NHS abuse by people not entitled, terrorists allowed to stay here, people on benefits sending money home to other countries, it is all one bubbling cauldron of soup. And it needs dealing with. The ECHR reform is just one component of that.

There are good and bad parts to everything as in the "Curates Egg". But yes, I think that a properly thought out British Bill of Rights would be better than what we have now.

Well, that's one off your list as it's being privatised with a "deadly" trapdoor installed...

..."This means that American investors in NHS services that are privatised now or in the future will be able to use TTIP to sue the government if it tries to bring them back into public hands".

What is TTIP?

"The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a series of trade negotiations being carried out mostly in secret between the EU and US."

WHY?

Possibly so Richard, but time has moved on and many people including me think that Britain is being taken for a mug. NHS abuse by people not entitled, terrorists allowed to stay here, people on benefits sending money home to other countries, it is all one bubbling cauldron of soup. And it needs dealing with. The ECHR reform is just one component of that.

There are good and bad parts to everything as in the "Curates Egg". But yes, I think that a properly thought out British Bill of Rights would be better than what we have now.

Well, that's one off your list as it's being privatised with a "deadly" trapdoor installed...

..."This means that American investors in NHS services that are privatised now or in the future will be able to use TTIP to sue the government if it tries to bring them back into public hands".

What is TTIP?

"The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a series of trade negotiations being carried out mostly in secret between the EU and US."

WHY?

Indeed. That's the elephant in the room.

& the country has handed the keys to the cage to Kermit...

...or should that be Miss Piggy as it's a damned big trough!

..."This means that American investors in NHS services that are privatised now or in the future will be able to use TTIP to sue the government if it tries to bring them back into public hands".

What is TTIP?

"The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a series of trade negotiations being carried out mostly in secret between the EU and US."

WHY?

Criticism of the agreement is first and foremost a concern for environmental, health and animal welfare standards is considered need to be lowered in favor of free trade and that consumers will be exposed to products they are now protected from.

Nice. Business as usual.

...and always will be as a senior member of the Western world.

& therein lies the problem. This is the 21st century not the 17th. It's time those at the top stopped looking down their noses at the rest of that world.

You yourself have highlighted that glaringly...

...what about the rest of the planet?

Isn't that a "superior" attitude?

...and always will be as a senior member of the Western world.

& therein lies the problem. This is the 21st century not the 17th. It's time those at the top stopped looking down their noses at the rest of that world.
You yourself have highlighted that glaringly...
...what about the rest of the planet?
Isn't that a "superior" attitude?

"Western" economy.
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21623758-chinas-back?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/chinasbacklivechart#
For the first time it is China’s economy that are the world’s biggest in purchasing-power-parity terms.

Yep & just wondering if they are seen now as they were in the past...

..."Chinks" "Gooks" "Slant-eyes" as well as other derogatory comments.

It's a very thin line between being "superior" & Racist.

Some call us Pale Faces:)

Some call us Pale Faces:)

Yeah, & there were at least 20,000,000 at the breakfast table last Friday morning :-(

Cameron said the Tories were "the real party of working people".
Sounds familiare:)
The new Moderate. Sweden Workers Party.

Moderate Party is our Tories...

Cameron - Focus on "Bread & Butter"

...while he focuses on Caviar & Champers.

5 years on, just wonder how many items on his manifesto will actually be achieved.

"The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a series of trade negotiations being carried out mostly in secret between the EU and US."

WHY?

TPP. The west is attempting to form another hegemonic trade (and central control) bloc which forcefully excludes those who will NOT be subservient to biased "rules of some men" favoring some and punishing others. A recipe for conflict. Entanglement in the affairs of others as opposed to peaceful commerce with ALL, as recommended by the founders.

..All sounds very interesting...

---

The Kite Fliers

--------------------
Kite fliers: An imaginary club of solo members, those who don't yet
belong to a formal team so "fly their own kites" - as the saying goes.

"The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is a series of trade negotiations being carried out mostly in secret between the EU and US."

WHY?

TPP. The west is attempting to form another hegemonic trade (and central control) bloc which forcefully excludes those who will NOT be subservient to biased "rules of some men" favoring some and punishing others. A recipe for conflict. Entanglement in the affairs of others as opposed to peaceful commerce with ALL, as recommended by the founders.

..All sounds very interesting...

Actually none of that. First of all, this is a bilateral agreement between the EU and the US. Its bilateral because it has to be. It is after all, about standardizing trade rules between the US and the EU. Its funny that TTIP gets all the flack while in reality the EU is negotiating similar treaties with other parts of the world. I think they recently finished with the Canadian one.

On top of that it makes a certain amount of sense to negotiate with the US first, given how the EU and the US are big trading partners.

As for why this is done in secret, well all negotiations happen in secret. You can't negotiate effectively if everything is out in the open, because it would show your position and how far you can shift from that position to the guy you are negotiating with. That would significantly weaken your negotiation position.

That all said, I'm not a fan of TTIP. I don't want to see it signed and I sincerely hope it gets blocked by the EP.

That all said, I'm not a fan of TTIP. I don't want to see it signed and I sincerely hope it gets blocked by the EP.

If some parts of TTIP would include EU regulations, Why not?

Criticism of the agreement is first and foremost a concern for environmental, health and animal welfare standards is considered need to be lowered in favor of free trade and that consumers will be exposed to products they are now protected from.

That all said, I'm not a fan of TTIP. I don't want to see it signed and I sincerely hope it gets blocked by the EP.

If some parts of TTIP would include EU regulations, Why not?

Criticism of the agreement is first and foremost a concern for environmental, health and animal welfare standards is considered need to be lowered in favor of free trade and that consumers will be exposed to products they are now protected from.

I'm afraid they will just go for the lowest standards, not the highest ones.

Also, that 'Freedom Index', do consider its source, the CATO institute. Basically that list describes whose most free according to Ayn Rand, which why its possible for Hong Kong to be number three on the list and Germany and France to not even make it to the top 30.

Мишель as we know is doing an MSc in European politics, this is his particular area of expertise, and I for one am willing to listen to what he has to say. This TTIP is just the next stage further on from forming the EEC in the first place surely? One of the basics of the EEC apart from harmonising free trade between EU countries, was that a group of trading nations would get a better deal together than individually. e.g. If 6 countries each want to buy 1000 bushels of wheat, and 1000 Tonnes of sugar beet, then the USA will charge them €X per bushel or Tonne. If they club together and buy 6000 bushels of wheat, and 6000 Tonnes of sugar beet, they will get a better price.

Well sure, but that is just collective bargaining, thats just generally helpful when trying to come to international agreements with non EU partners.

You could argue that TTIP is the next step in trade liberalization, given that for the vast majority of products from the US the custom tariffs have already been removed. TTIP focuses on removing non tariff barriers, like different safety standards, by harmonizing them. If the European safety standards for say cars is the same as the American standard, then you don't need to make two version of the same car, one for the European market and one for the American market. You can just make one car and sell it on both markets.

The problem with TTIP is two fold. At the one hand there is the fear that instead of going for the highest safety standards, TTIP will pick the lower safety standards, thus making it easier for shoddy products to come to our markets and remove protection measures that we used to have.

The second problem comes from this vague idea that after TTIP it becomes harder to keep certain products (such as GMO's) from the European market either due to the lower safety standards or because of this shady investors court, which bypasses national courts and has the power to overturn national or European legislation in favor of big business. Now there was some talk about removing that provision from the TTIP treaty, and its quite possible that if its still there the EP and several European member states will not agree with the treaty.

The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded as the Charles Koch Foundation in 1974 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch. The name was changed to the Cato Institute and was established to have a focus on public advocacy, media exposure and societal influence. According to the 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report (Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program, University of Pennsylvania), Cato is number 16 in the "Top Think Tanks Worldwide" and number 8 in the "Top Think Tanks in the United States

I wouldn't take too much notice of the CATO lot, just another bunch of out of work academics.

Those 'out of work academics' do have a major influence on American policy, and the kind of policy they advocate is rather dangerous if you are not part of the 1%.

Clearly they are not part of the Bilderberg Group, the people who really run this world.

You might wanna look up who the Koch brothers are and how much influence they have over American policy.

I wonder is Cameron and crones be doing what Howard did in his first 2 elections ...!!

Work Choices = 0 hour contracts ?
" " = cutting social security , the dole with work for ya dole
" " = Cutting pay rates , conditions , overtime rates etc:

Only i bet he's not calling it that .

If he's redoing the E.U agreement and getting a drop in social security by stopping immigration be care full work choices was a total flop here , backfired , bosses got to greedy as always .

Howard claim 's he paid off Dept but there was a big social cost , we now find out he was a pig at the trough for rich people and why we have some problems .

Very quick post from me on the subject, not knowing if others have voiced their opinion on the matter.

I think the Tory win was because the English did not want the SNP to have a say in English politics if they had been in coalition the Labour party.