The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – sounds boring doesn’t it?
But TTIP negotiations between the USA and the EU are being carried out largely in secret with little opportunity for democratic scrutiny, alarming in itself, and the outcome could be disastrous as the treaty could allow foreign corporations to ignore our regulations, for example on food safety or protection of the environment, and to sue states whose regulations stand in the way of free trade. A few organisations are monitoring and campaigning on this little understood trade treaty: Friends of the Earth have produced a readable briefing on TTIP and 38 degrees is actively lobbying against it.
Should you be rude to chuggers, and are you obliged to sponsor acquaintances to climb mountains?
Humanist philosopher Julian Baggini offers a philosophical roadmap to charitable giving in The Guardian .