Bilderberg conference 2014: eating our politicians for breakfast

Sat May 31 12:32:32 BST 2014

Bilderberg conference 2014: eating our politicians for breakfast

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/30/bilderberg-copenhagen-2014-osborne-mandelson-balls
George Osborne, Lord Mandelson, Ed Balls and Eric 
Schmidt arrive for day two of the conference in Copenhagen
    * <http://www.theguardian.com/profile/charlie-skelton>Charlie Skelton
    * 
<http://www.theguardian.com/>theguardian.com, Friday 30 May 2014 23.44 BST
    * 
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/30/bilderberg-copenhagen-2014-osborne-mandelson-balls#start-of-comments>Jump 
to comments (75)
[]

George Osborne and John Micklethwait. All photos: Hannah Borno

So here he is, our esteemed chancellor of the 
exchequer, George Osborne, arriving at the 2014 
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/bilderberg>Bilderberg 
in Copenhagen. In a snappy suit, and with a new 
razor-sharp hairdo, Osborne looks ready for 
business. You could skin a goat with that fringe. 
He probably got a trim and a shoe polish at the 
airport, wanting to look his best for the conference.

Osborne rolled up to the hotel with John 
Micklethwait, the editor-in-chief of the 
Economist and board member of the Economist 
Group. This year, in all, there are three members 
of the Economist board at Bilderberg: 
Micklethwait, John Elkann (the billionaire 
Agnelli heir) and Eric Schmidt (the executive chairman of Google).

During his stay in Copenhagen, Osborne will also 
have the chance to hammer out economic policy 
with three senior members of Goldman Sachs, three 
board members of Shell Oil, and two people whose 
nickname is "the Prince of Darkness"  Richard Perle and Peter Mandelson.
[]
Peter Mandelson

Here's Mandy  or should I say, the chairman of 
Lazard International  arriving now. Mandelson 
perfectly embodies the ghastly, muddy fudge of 
public and private that so typifies the 
atmosphere at Bilderberg. Throw a rock and hit a 
public servant turned investment banker. 
Actually, don't throw a rock, because this guy 
will have your brains on the pavement before you can say "revolving door".
[]
Security guard

Mandelson's boss at Lazard is also here in Copenhagen: Kenneth M Jacobs.

He's the chairman and CEO of the investment bank, 
and also sits on the board of trustees of the 
Brookings Institution. This year's Bilderberg 
seems quite Brookings-heavy. Jacob's has two 
fellow trustees in Copenhagen: Klaus Kleinfeld 
(the CEO of Alcoa) and Paul Achleitner (the head 
of Deutsche Bank)  both of whom also happen to 
on the board of Bayer, the multinational pharmaceutical company. Cosy.

There are so many interwoven corporate, 
think-tank and advisory board relationships at 
Bilderberg it fries your brain to try and unpick 
them. Take John Elkann for example  the board 
member of the Economist and part-time knitwear catalogue model.
[]
John Elkann

Elkann is another Brookings connection: he sits 
on Brookings' International Advisory Council 
alongside Marcus Wallenberg (one of the two 
Wallenberg billionaires here this year) and the 
always dapper Nicolas Berggruen  seen here 
having a 'moment' with one of the conference 
staff. Berggruen Holdings has a net equity in 
excess of $2bn. No wonder he's laughing. Also, to 
be fair, it always gives him a cheery glow to 
have someone fired for leaving a bottle of Windolene in the back of his limo.
[]
Nicholas Berggruen

Billionaire Berggruen runs the Institute on Good 
Governance, a think tank aimed at promoting 
"globalization 2.0", which sounds like a sequel 
so terrible that Nicholas Berggruen will probably 
find himself being played by Adam Sandler.

One of the main projects of The Institute for 
Good Governance is the '21st Century Council', 
which features three of this year's 
Bilderbergers: the ubiquitous Eric Schmidt, Reid 
Hoffman of LinkedIn, and the publisher Juan Luis Cebrián.

Everyone here's so profoundly interrelated you 
expect them all to have seven toes, three knees 
and drink champagne through their ears. 
<http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed-the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html#.U4j2N_aTfe4>It's 
like one gigantic, pulsing amoeboid corporation, 
held together by a sticky mesh of board 
memberships and advisory councils. It gloops 
hungrily along, oozing cash like a snail trail, 
digesting every politician and policymaker in its path.

Which makes me feel kind of sorry for Ed Balls. 
Particularly after he made what has to be the 
worst entrance to a conference in 
conference-entering history. Balls arrived at the 
gate without his security pass, spent ages trying 
to find it amongst the great armful of files he 
was huffing along with him, and ended up flapping 
some ID at a policeman, saying: "That's my name, 
I'm on the list". Sadly for Balls, 
<http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-files-caught-on-camera/>his 
frustration was caught on camera by an Infowars 
reporter, and the resulting footage makes painful 
viewing. And by painful I mean hilarious. And by hilarious I mean poignant.

A flustered Balls was escorted around to another 
entrance, carefully scrutinized, and finally 
allowed in. Once he'd got through security his 
assurance returned and a triumphant Ed strode magnificently into the lobby.
[]
Ed Balls

He looks like the cat who got the cream. And then 
went back for more cream. And then found half a 
chicken at the back of the fridge and had that as well.

Perhaps Balls will be persuaded by some of his 
fellow conference goers to join them on their 
daily jogs. Here's Facebook board member Peter 
Thiel, setting off for trot along the waterfront.
[]
Peter Thiel

You've never seen anyone take his jogging more 
seriously than Thiel. The frown doesn't leave his 
face for a second. In fact, his face has been 
locked in a granite frown since he arrived at the hotel.
[]
Peter Thiel

Someone should warn him he's going to get crow's 
feet. Or maybe he thinks that by the time he's 
due for wrinkles he'll already have melded with 
AI and be sharing a kind of ageless cyberternity with Eric Schmidt.

Here's Schmidt himself, enjoying a cosy patio 
chat during the lunch break with his fellow 
tech-head Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir 
Technologies, the data analysis and surveillance 
software company (which was co-funded by Thiel and the CIA).
[]
Eric Schmidt, Alex Karp and Viviane Reding

Karp and Schmidt are deep in conversation with 
Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner who said 
recently that the 
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2556397/%20Britons-ignorant-EU-referendum-Top-official-says-debate-Europe-distorted-people-not-make-informed-decision.html>British 
public were unable to make an "informed decision" about Europe.

Far better that decisions about Europe are taken 
by wiser heads, like those hobnobbing at 
Bilderberg. Heads belonging to people like "EU 
doyen" Viscount Davignon, seen here (on the 
right) enjoying a smoke with former World Bank 
boss (now private equity investor) James Wolfensohn.
[]
James Wolfensohn and Viscount Davignon

Wolfensohn looks like he's glad to be out of that 
heavy morning session on "What next for Europe?" 
Wolfensohn arrived at this year's conference with 
another megarich investor, Roger C. Altman, the 
executive chairman of Evercore, the "premier 
independent investment banking advisory firm".

Altman followed Thiel's example, and popped out 
for a jog after he arrived at the hotel, although 
he found it tricky to snake his way out through the heavy security.
[]
Roger C Altman

All this patio chit-chat and ostentatious jogging 
about Copenhagen seems like a new venture for 
Bilderberg: as if they're doing their level best 
to look normal and relaxed. At lunchtime, the 
delegates were led out on the patio by the 
conference organisers, who spent the whole time 
beadily watching the cameras. If I were a 
suspicious person by nature, which I am, I'd 
suspect this of being a bit of a PR experiment for the group.
[]
People-watching on the patio

Over the last few years they've found themselves 
under so much more media scrutiny than usual that 
they've decided to show off a new "informal" 
front. I slightly admire them for trying. 
Although I'd admire them a hell of a lot more if 
they stopped behaving like children and held a 
press conference and released the minutes of the meetings.

Either that or they could give us our politicians 
back. Ideally before they've digested their 
backbones and spat them back out on into the 
carpark. Actually, you know what, they can keep Ed Balls as part of the deal.

Keep Balls and release the minutes. Have we got a deal?

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