The Bilderberg Group
If there's a group of people who are deciding the fate of the industrialised world, this is probably it. Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Clinton were all attendees several years before they gained power. The group was formed in 1954 and meets annually to this day. It's strictly invitation-only and press coverage is not welcomed.

Recent attendees from the UK include Ed Balls, Peter Mandelson and George Osbourne.

Delegates from the business / finance world include Ben Bernanke (head of the US Federal Reserve), David Rockefeller, Jeff Bozos (head of Amazon), Bill Gates and the chairs of Barclays, BP, Nestle, Google, Shell etc.

So - do all these people meet up once a year for no real reason ?

I doubt that they morph into lizards and start drinking the blood of infants...however they must attend for some reason, and the delegates are almost without exception people able to change policies and influence world events.

And frankly, if they were responsible (as it appears) for supporting the careers and thus the road to power of Thatcher and Blair, that's a damn good reason in my book to be fearful of them.
(TheImmortalJenkins, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 14:18, 17 replies)

This...


I assume they are very much like the 'Quantum' group in Quantum of Solace....well...without the meetings at operas....
( Larry Death Anger Pain Fear Aggression, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 14:27, closed)

I wonder if they monitor mentions of themselves?
*WAVES AT GLOBAL ELITE* Can I come to your next one please? I'll bring cake.
( rob, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 14:33, closed)

Gee whizz.
Sometimes the powerful and likely-to-become-powerful meet up to discuss things away from the media. Not really all that much of a surprise - and not evidence of any kind of plot.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 14:43, closed)

All well and good,
but why would Ed Balls be there?
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 15:07, closed)

Yes, but...
...in the case of our politicians, they are *elected* by us and therefore meant (hollow laughter) to be **accountable** to us.

They shouldn't during their working time or in their official capacity be attending meetings like this. If they had nothing to hide, then they wouldn't go to such elaborate attempts to hide it.
(TheImmortalJenkins, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 15:32, closed)

they don't attend in their 'official' capacity, and they aren't exactly going out of their way to hide anything
given the list of attendees is made public to the press.
( The Great Architect is still waiting for his account to be deleted on, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 15:38, closed)

Agreed
If a host of power players are meeting regularly in secret then they shouldnt be power players, especially democratically elected power players.
If they want to remain out of the media spotlight whilst they make plans then they shouldnt be in public jobs. And the 'likely-to-become-powerful' being there implies that our prime ministers and officials are decided for us which is undemocratic.

Publishing an attendee list does not count as transparency.
(Joe Guevara is well known for stealing your biscuits, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 17:55, closed)

Nail hit
firmly on the head there.

Why else would extremely powerful and fairly busy (one imagines) people fly across the globe to meet up ? Why would they invite people like Thatcher and Blair - several years before they achieved power - to come and talk to them ? There are numerous opportunities - G8 and so forth - for world leaders to congregate. Bilderberg is more suspect simply because what happens goes on behind firmly closed doors.

I don't think this is a Monty Burns style "Council of Evil" or anything like that; however there must be some fairly major decisions made there, and made both by our elected representatives and the leaders of industry and commerce. Events like us going into Libya / Afghanistan / Iraq aren't unplanned. It's the mixture of politics and commerce that concerns me; politicians should (another hollow laugh) make policies because they reflect the will of the electorate, not because they produce a better 'bottom line' for the megacorps.
(TheImmortalJenkins, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 18:12, closed)

You're in for a long week if you're going to keep being rational about these things.

( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 15:41, closed)

^this^
(or is it!)
( sutit only the crumbliest, flakiest posts, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 17:02, closed)

I fear you may be right.

( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 19:49, closed)

If they do really rule the world from this one meeting per year,
then they need more meetings as they are doing a shit job.
( Smallbrainfield, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 15:35, closed)

A shit job for whom?

( Larry Death Anger Pain Fear Aggression, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 15:40, closed)

You're forgetting Bohemian Grove!

(Dildo Bugger destroyed a ring on, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 17:16, closed)

Bohemian Grove
is also populated with politicians and businessmen, but added to the mix are famous artists and so forth. It's secretive, but I'd be inclined to think less given to making major deals, and more about "boys" (it's strictly men-only) being able to get pissed well outside of the public eye. Also, being so large-scale, it has been infiltrated several times and reports are it is more about booze and being able to wee outside, than about deciding the fate of nations.
(TheImmortalJenkins, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 18:16, closed)

I think they all get together
to prance about in drag. Read the Guns of August (B.Tuchman). Kaiser Wilhelm started it in 1910.
(the other guy not the one that gave you coochie warts, Thu 1 Dec 2011, 20:26, closed)

The Skeptoid Podcast
...did an episode on this. Here's a link to the transcript.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 11:55, closed)