Road to TPP deal riddled with potholes

THE way the sportscaster usually cautions when it looks like your favourite team is winning (3-2), is: "It ain't over till the fat lady sings", but then, you are told, there are five more minutes left until the end of the soccer game.

You presume to know the outcome of the game based on the current state of affairs. After all, what could really happen in the last five minutes of the match? Hey, we're winning. Actually, quite a lot could happen. Two goals by the rival team in the last two minutes of the game, and you guys are toast.

So the popular American phrase that refers to an overweight soprano who is singing a long aria that leads directly to the end of the opera suggests that wha…