This year, the annual Bilderberg conference was held in the UK - at the Grove Hotel near Watford, and thus attracting a bit more attention than usual.
The Bilderberg group meetings are grist to the mill of all conspiracy theorists. Once a year, the rich and powerful get together for a few days behind closed doors and talk about.....well, we don't know what they talk about. Minutes of Bilderberg meetings are never made public, so all sorts of suggestions have been made, usually along the lines that these people are plotting world dominion, or something similar.
With suspicion of politicians on the increase in this country and elsewhere, it is hardly surprising that more attention is being paid to who actually attends these meetings. Lists of attendees were circulated before the meeting started. Alongside José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund HRH Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands and the venerable Henry Kissinger could be found a number of British politicians including George Osborne, Ken Clarke, Ed Balls and the prince of darkness himself, Peter Mandelson.
I am as equally suspicious of conspiracy theorists as I am of secret meetings. I can recall being sent an e-mail which asserted that the EU would be opening concentration camps by 2010 and a secret plot was being hatched which would see the UK forced into the Eurozone. Well, Katherine was using Sterling when she did the shopping this morning, and bearing in mind that most of the different aspects of my job have some connection with withdrawalists, I think I would have been locked away by now had the concentration camps been up and running three years ago.
Nonetheless, the secrecy of the Bilderberg meetings is not a healthy thing. If they are not plotting world dominion, what exactly are they talking about? Why don't they want anyone to know? In particular, in a nation like the UK with its tradition of politicians being elected representatives of the people and accountable to them, is it right that British MPs should be allowed to attend a meeting where no minutes are ever published? Is it fair that the British taxpayer has to foot the significant security bill for a gathering which could be up to no good?
Full marks to Labour's Michael Meacher for addressing a "fringe" meeting outside the security cordon and for requesting to the Speaker that either Cameron or Osborne makes a statement to Parliament as to what went on. "Why do they want secrecy?" he asked. Why indeed? - and why has it taken a socialist to stand up for democracy and accountability? I hope that tall MPs of all parties who care about freedom will support his call to hold these men to account.
The Bilderberg group meetings are grist to the mill of all conspiracy theorists. Once a year, the rich and powerful get together for a few days behind closed doors and talk about.....well, we don't know what they talk about. Minutes of Bilderberg meetings are never made public, so all sorts of suggestions have been made, usually along the lines that these people are plotting world dominion, or something similar.
With suspicion of politicians on the increase in this country and elsewhere, it is hardly surprising that more attention is being paid to who actually attends these meetings. Lists of attendees were circulated before the meeting started. Alongside José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund HRH Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands and the venerable Henry Kissinger could be found a number of British politicians including George Osborne, Ken Clarke, Ed Balls and the prince of darkness himself, Peter Mandelson.
I am as equally suspicious of conspiracy theorists as I am of secret meetings. I can recall being sent an e-mail which asserted that the EU would be opening concentration camps by 2010 and a secret plot was being hatched which would see the UK forced into the Eurozone. Well, Katherine was using Sterling when she did the shopping this morning, and bearing in mind that most of the different aspects of my job have some connection with withdrawalists, I think I would have been locked away by now had the concentration camps been up and running three years ago.
Nonetheless, the secrecy of the Bilderberg meetings is not a healthy thing. If they are not plotting world dominion, what exactly are they talking about? Why don't they want anyone to know? In particular, in a nation like the UK with its tradition of politicians being elected representatives of the people and accountable to them, is it right that British MPs should be allowed to attend a meeting where no minutes are ever published? Is it fair that the British taxpayer has to foot the significant security bill for a gathering which could be up to no good?
Full marks to Labour's Michael Meacher for addressing a "fringe" meeting outside the security cordon and for requesting to the Speaker that either Cameron or Osborne makes a statement to Parliament as to what went on. "Why do they want secrecy?" he asked. Why indeed? - and why has it taken a socialist to stand up for democracy and accountability? I hope that tall MPs of all parties who care about freedom will support his call to hold these men to account.