TTIP — who would benefit? - Scepticism is justified on trade deal

When voices as diverse as Greenpeace, the Irish Farmers’ Association, and some of Britain’s most eccentric Colonel Blimp champions of Brexit agree, and when Europe’s trades union and France’s Front National’s Marine Le Pen find common cause, it is time to sit up and take notice. 

When that concern is amplified by very significant Dutch, German, and French public opposition, it is time to properly engage with the issue at hand — only 17% of Germans now back this game-changing, all-embracing project.

This growing opposition is, according to one of Britain’s most conservative and pro-business commentators, based on the fear that the deal is a “secretive stitch-up by corporate lawyers, yet another backroom deal that allows the owners of capital to game the international system at the expense of the common people”. The alarm bells are indeed ringing loudly.