IT'S A basic principle of democracy that governments should be able to make decisions in the interests of the people who elected them. But the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) being negotiated between the US and the EU puts this principle under serious threat.

This trade deal aims to set up a secretive ‘court’ in which multi-national companies can sue governments if they think a law might harm their profits. For example, a tobacco company is currently using a similar court to sue the Australian government for billions of pounds because Australia introduced plain packaging for cigarettes. It’s also suing Uruguay for simply putting a health warning on cigarette packets there.

I want the UK government to be able make laws to protect the people of this country, which is why I’ve joined the World Development Movement’s campaign to stop the deal.

Paul Sutton

Cross Common Road

Dinas Powys