Davos

Here is an idle thought not from a mountain, but which germinated in the depths of my armchair last night whilst watching the Ten O’Clock News on ITV.  The World Econmic Forum is upon us and a report was made from Davos.

I have never been there; I have always assumed it to be a fairly upmarket Swiss town the size of which might make it a bit of a hike to the lifts.  Better to go to Klosters, down the road.  That is about as much as I have thought about the place.

However, the reporter last night said something about Davos being deeply odd at many levels.  I wonder what he meant.  It is an annoying habit of reporters today to introduce their opinion when they should be reporting fact.  Tom Bradby led the way it seems to me, but now everyone seems to be joining in the fun. That is my opinion anyway!

As a vaguely related idle thought, I have noticed over the years that whenever something is reported in the newspapers or on television on a subject I know something about, the report is inaccurate.  Was it ever thus? Was William Howard Russell sending wild fantasies to the Times during the Crimean war? Were Ed Murrow’s reports on the Blitz made by simply topping and tailing a press release? I am not one to think the past was always better than the present, but in this regard the point might have some traction.

Equally, I don’t think the Bilderberg Group is a conspiracy against the people of the world; as a casual observation though, I would say it is always best not to be in a ‘plane trying to land at Zurich when the great and the good (I use the term loosely) are landing there to go on to Davos.  You and the 200 or so other ordinary souls travelling with you will be left circling the airport until the chosen few have landed.