The TTIPing Point



A view during my one-man climate march through the hills last Sunday



So Scots will remain in the UK, for the time being. It's now all out in the open – we know exactly how many people north of the border would really rather it was a country boundary. And as the estranging process of devolution gathers pace (who chose that word anyway? It's clearly not the opposite of evolution since Scots are not as far as I know demanding time is wound back to Cro-Magnon man..) our Prime Minister states his intention to solve the “West Lothian” question in the same timescale. Not having the internet to hand as I write this blog I'm unable to attempt to look smart by explaining why this issue has that particular name, but I'm quite happy to remain in blissful ignorance (and to keep those of you who share my ignorance, in it) of what is after all a piece of trivia that would just clutter up our brains.

I do know that it involves fixing the apparent unfairness of Scottish MP's being able to poke their noses into English-only problems, whilst the reverse is not possible (the Scottish parliament being notorious for not welcoming the views and votes of English MP's.)  Whilst some people are getting very hot under the collar about this I personally find it hard to muster much annoyance. I wonder whether Scottish MP's actually care enough about English-only issues to bother turning up to those debates anyway. I humbly submit that there is a much more concerning attack on our creaking democracy going on which if it was actually reported on and generally understood it would surely knock the West Lothian question into a cocked hat.

Imagine a world in which a government introduces some regulation to help limit the impact on the environment from industrial processes, say to stop a chemical company from discharging waste effluent into streams. This company, a multinational corporation, then sues the government through a clause in an international trade deal for bringing in a law that impacts its profits. The government is forced to repeal the law or face unlimited fines.

Unless you happen to be a starry-eyed neo-liberal, the above scenario will surely strike you, like me, as a Bad Thing. Something from the latest tranche of dystopian fiction maybe? But no – since last year the US and EU have been negotiating the largest trade agreement outside of the WTO and it includes this very clause.

The trade deal has the bland name “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” (TTIP for short) and is intended to boost economic growth, a laudable aim no doubt although there are some of us who think that we are reaching an end to global economic growth and should be finding ways of stabilising our economies in a zero growth world. Anyhow, TTIP has a clause called Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), which apparently is already standard in many bilateral trade agreements, whereby corporations can sue governments for making decisions that affect their profits.  Enshrining it as part of this huge trade agreement is the last nail in the coffin for our democratic ideals. However shoddy the reality of our democracy, at least in principle our elected governments must maintain legal authority over corporations.

The TTIP negotiations are ongoing, so now is the time to make a fuss. Read this briefing from the World Development Movement. Alert your MP, even if they are Scottish, as this is by no means an English-only problem.

Weighing a huge marrow I discovered lurking in the polytunnel. It's 3.2kg!