Photograph by Shepherd Johnson
The Bilderberg conference is a three-day event held every year in which between 120 and 140 influential people from Europe and the US including finance ministers, heads of state, and CEOs, meet to discuss matters in private. The 61st meeting of the Bilderberg Club began today.
Normally, about one-third of participants are from government and politics, with two-thirds from finance, industry, labour, education and communications. This year’s Bilderberg conference, sometimes also referred to as the Bilderberg Club, will be attended by Chancellor George Osborne, IMF secretary Christine Lagarde, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt amongst many others.
The group was set up in 1954, with the first conference held in the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands, in response to a perceived increase in anti-US sentiment in Europe, with the group aiming to promote Atlanticism, with the old and new worlds working together.
The discussions are held behind closed doors, with the press not allowed access, in order to allow the guests to speak candidly and openly about matters. However, this secrecy has resulted in a number of conspiracy theories over the years from both the left and right of the political spectrum. The left have accused the group of conspiring to impose capitalist domination, whilst the right have argued that the group plans to impose a world government and planned economy.
Further criticism of the group relates to the expensive extra policing that is needed to host the conference each year, with local tax payers picking up the tab. This year’s event is being held at the five-star Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire, with Watford mayory Dorothy Thornhill describing it as “outrageous” that the local taxpaers pay for hosting a “private meeting of trillionaires”.
