by dbeach » Fri Sep 30, 2005 10:06 pm
The "bildies" are known as the 'kingmakers'<br><br><br>BUT maybe they are just a bunch of good ole folk trying to make a few dollars...<br><br>BUT my bet is they are the voice of the ruling elites dressed up to look respectable. <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4290944.stm">news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world...290944.stm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>"Inside the secretive Bilderberg Group <br>How much influence do private networks of the rich and powerful have on government policies and international relations? One group, the Bilderberg, has often attracted speculation that it forms a shadowy global government. As part of the BBC's Who Runs Your World? series, Bill Hayton tries to find out more. <br> <br>Bilderberg's head Viscount Davignon plays down the group's role in setting the international agenda <br>The chairman of the secretive - he prefers the word private - Bilderberg Group is 73-year-old Viscount Etienne Davignon, corporate director and former European Commissioner. <br><br>In his office, on a private floor above the Brussels office of the Suez conglomerate lined with political cartoons of himself, he told me what he thought of allegations that Bilderberg is a global conspiracy secretly ruling the world. <br><br>"It is unavoidable and it doesn't matter," he says. "There will always be people who believe in conspiracies but things happen in a much more incoherent fashion<br> <br><br>"I don't think (we are) a global ruling class because I don't think a global ruling class exists. I simply think it's people who have influence interested to speak to other people who have influence," Viscount Davignon says. <br><br> <br>Bill Clinton was featured at a Bilderberg meeting while he was governor of Arkansas <br>"Bilderberg does not try to reach conclusions - it does not try to say 'what we should do'. Everyone goes away with their own feeling and that allows the debate to be completely open, quite frank - and to see what the differences are. <br><br><br>Observers like Will Hutton argue that such private networks have both good and bad sides. They are unaccountable to voters but, at the same time, they do keep the international system functioning. And there are limits to their power - a point which Bilderberg chairman was keen to stress, "When people say this is a secret government of the world I say that if we were a secret government of the world we should be bloody ashamed of ourselves." <br><br>Informal and private networks like Bilderberg have helped to oil the wheels of global politics and globalisation for the past half a century. In the eyes of critics they have undermined democracy, but their supporters believe they are crucial to modern democracy's success. " <p></p><i></i>
