Trade deal fightback marks sea change

A protest in Berlin over the transatlantic trade deal between the EU and US shows people are not willing to simply lie down on the liberalisation of economic life, writes 

WHILE the people of Ireland were preparing themselves for the emotional rollercoaster of the Ireland-France clash at the Rugby World Cup, about 250,000 Germans were taking to the streets of Berlin to protest the prospect of their government signing the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, a trade agreement being negotiated between the EU and the US.

The demonstration in Berlin was one of the biggest ever in the German capital, but aside from a few newspaper columns it barely received any attention in the rest of Europe. Trade treaties are not exactly racy news, so demonstrations about them, no matter how big, are easy to ignore.