TTIP

Pardon?  You've probably not heard of it, but economically those four letters could prove to be of utmost importance for your future, the future of this country, and - for as long as we are part of it - the future of the European Union.  They stand for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and this is an agreement - essentially a trade agreement -  which is being worked on as we speak by the US and the EU. Problem is, this is all being done in secret, so we shan't know what has been agreed until it's been agreed.  Except of course that it's virtually impossible these days to keep anything secret. And Greenpeace claim to know something of what's going on. They have published documents purporting to show that (surprise, surprise) America will have the whip hand in matters of trade and effectively the EU will have to go along with whatever the US say.  Perhaps the most worrying claim Greenpeace make is that one of the main objectives of the US is to "improve EU rule making" - and I guess we can all work out what that means!