Bilderberg: the world’s most secretive conference is as out of touch as ever. By Charlie Skelton
Say what you like about Bilderberg, but they’ve got a
sense of humour. The agenda for
this year’s secretive summit of the global elite is full of in-jokes. They get
big laughs straight off the bat by describing themselves as “a diverse group of
political leaders and experts”.They’re trumpeting the diversity of a conference where
less than 25% of the participants are female. Which would be a huge step
forward, if it were currently 1963. And as for racial diversity, there are more senior
executives of Goldman Sachs at this year’s Bilderberg than
there are people of colour. Perhaps by “diverse” they mean that some of the
participants own hedge funds, whereas others own vast industrial conglomerates.
Some are on the board of HSBC, others are on the board of BP. Some are
lobbyists, others are being lobbied. That sort of thing.
Dafter still is the agenda item: “Can globalisation be
slowed down?” You think that the assembled heads of Google, AT&T, Bayer,
Airbus, Deutsche Bank, Ryanair, Fiat Chrysler, and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
want to see a brake on globalisation? It’s the air that they breathe. Bilderberg insider Eric Schmidt,
who runs Google, once began a speech at Davos with the words: “I assume that
everybody here agrees that globalisation is wonderful.” Sitting in the audience
at Bilderberg are the heads of four of the world’s 10 largest financial
services companies: AXA, Allianz, ING and Banco Santander. You’ve got to assume
that “Can globalisation be slowed down?” is going to be met by roars of
laughter and a hail of bread rolls.
But my favourite joke by far from this year’s agenda is
this item: “The war on information”. Bilderberg is concerned about fake news?
The world’s most secretive conference, which is spending hundreds of thousands
of dollars keeping the press away from its sacred discussions, which has spent
decades lying and obfuscating about itself, wants to ensure the spread of
truth?..
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