Public support for TTIP has plummeted in Germany and the US to 17% and 15% respectively
A report for the Bertelsmann Foundation has shown plummeting support for TTIP in Germany and in the US – down to 17% in Germany and 15% in the US, with 18% of Americans and a full third of Germans saying that it is ‘a bad thing’. Read more
If the BBC advertises Tesco, why is there a licence fee?
Just listened to a ten-minute advert for Tesco on ‘You and Yours’ on Radio 4, masquerading as news. I have some questions: Read more
How the CEOs of Europe’s biggest corporations write EU policy
There’s an organisation based in Brussels called the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT). It’s a club – invitation only, not transparent, not democratic – just a private club. Read more
Should the TV licence fee be scrapped?
It’s a tricky one. The argument for the licence fee (and one that I used to subscribe to until I watched the Panorama corporate propaganda piece – see below) is that the Beeb produces drama of a quality not found anywhere else. Read more
More on the EU referendum from a low-impact perspective: is another Europe possible?
Is the European Union an empty vessel into which any political content may be poured? Can it accommodate not just neoliberal conservatism but also Keynesian social democracy, hard-line greenery and even pro-nationalisation democratic socialism? Read more
The EU referendum from a low-impact perspective
We’ve got a referendum coming up in June that Cameron didn’t want, but was forced to promise at a time when it looked as though votes lost to UKIP might have cost him the election. His arguments now are largely based on the number of jobs that could be lost if we leave. Read more
Artists against TTIP, and how the new ICS differs from ISDS (spoiler – not much)
‘Corporate interests have got to stop coming first’ – well said, Juliet Stevenson. A group of artists including actors Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott and Juliet Stevenson and designer Vivienne Westwood are fronting a campaign (artistsagainstttip.org) to raise public awareness of the trade deal TTIP Read more
‘Trade Secrets’ legislation: another little piece of the corporate takeover that most people won’t know about
EU Trade Secrets legislation will criminalise whistleblowers and journalists who expose corporations and their products or services. It’s another in a long list of steps aiming to put corporations above the law, but the rest of us very much under it. Read more
Read this German MP’s account of the TTIP reading room and decide what you think about TTIP ‘transparency’
So, you all know about TTIP? Here’s a link if you don’t, plus see the posts to the right. It’s a proposed ‘trade deal’ that is designed to give more of our economy to the corporate sector. It’s supposed to be ‘transparent’, but of course it’s completely secret. Read more
Custard creams and the ‘network of global corporate control’
I bought a packet of custard creams the other day, and saw that they were made by a company called Crawfords. I wondered who Crawfords were and who ultimately owns custard creams. I have a general feeling that a small cartel of giant corporations owns more-or-less everything branded Read more
NHS Chief Executive was a founder member of an organisation lobbying for health to be included in TTIP
Just allow a few seconds for that to sink in. Simon Stevens was Vice President of UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the US. He was in charge of global expansion of their business. Now he’s Chief Executive of the NHS. Read more
The discipline of economics presupposes corporate capitalism and perpetual growth, which renders it invalid
Economics is not an unbiased academic discipline, it’s an ideology. Furthermore, economics is based on the false premise that perpetual growth is achievable. It is not, and the reason most people can’t see this is Read more
‘Business Against TTIP’ launched yesterday; we could actually win this
I’m beginning to think that we could actually win this struggle against TTIP – the latest in the corporate strategy to undermine democracy. Yesterday, ‘Business Against TTIP’ launched – no corporations involved, obviously, but Read more
US bans pipeline, TransCanada sues US taxpayers for $15 billion. How TTIP will transfer wealth from taxpayers to corporations
Investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) have been around for over fifty years. Originally meant to protect investors from losses due to government actions – what may have seemed a good idea at the time has spiralled out of control Read more
Why the Real Farming Conference gave me grounds for optimism
Sometimes, when I’m sitting in front of my laptop screen, I forget how many great people there are out there doing wonderful things, and it’s easy to believe that we’re never going to get rid of this damaging system, and that it will eventually damage ecology so much Read more
Live from the Real Farming Conference: Equality in the Countryside – a rural manifesto
I’m blogging from the Real Farming Conference in Oxford, in Oxford Town Hall. This is the seventh annual conference, set up as a counter to the corporate farming conference running at the university in Oxford. I wasn’t expecting such a huge affair – 850 attendees, with some fantastic sessions. Read more
What will TTIP mean for European farmers?
A new report from the US Department of Agriculture assesses the potential effects of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership on farmers. It’s pretty difficult to decipher, but our position is that we don’t want an increase in Transatlantic trade when it comes to agriculture. Read more
Review of ‘Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi’ by Mark Boyle – part 1: reformism and the Transition movement
This was a very challenging and thought-provoking read. Mark lived without money for three years, and wrote the Moneyless Manifesto, published in 2012. This is his latest book about the corporate ‘Machine’ and appropriate responses to it. Read more
What will TTIP mean for small companies and local economies?
Promoters of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) claim it’s good for all business, but is this really true? The European Commission (EC) and the USA say it will especially help SME businesses (small and medium-sized enterprises), not just multinationals. Read more
How has the 2008 financial crash affected the wealth of the rich and the poor, and what can we do about it?
Have we all suffered equally since the crash of 2008? Have we all shared in the austerity? Well, no – the gap between the rich and the poor is widening in the UK, the US and in fact, in the OECD. In the US, Robert Reich reports that 95% of economic gains since 2009 have… Continue reading How has the 2008 financial crash affected the wealth of the rich and the poor, and what can we do about it? Read more