Davos does not rule the world

I do not get invited to Davos. Reading about what the guests say and do, I can hear all the same things in the Commons from Labour, The Lib Dems and SNP. There is nothing secret in the Davos remedies. Those who get reported at Davos tell us what most western governments and political parties are already saying. The  business people who go want to win and keep government business.

Their main preoccupation is climate change. They regard this as the biggest task facing mankind, as they think man made CO 2 is the only driver of climate change and will transport  us to too warm a world. They wish to transform what we eat, how we heat, how and if we travel, how business produces things by ending the use of fossil fuels. They still have not worked out what mixture  to go for in green hydrogen, or renewable electricity with batteries, or restricted use of heating and travel. They are regularly criticised for failing to lead by example as they fly around in private jets, ride in chauffeured cars and stay in air conditioned hotels.

They dress this up as good for green jobs, without answering questions about how much this huge transition will cost, how much capital in present energy and industry will need to be written off and how many jobs will be lost as factories, mines, oil and gas wells and traditional processes are closed.

They also favour open borders and free movement of people. They speak of diversity and tolerance, though they are often intolerant of different opinions to their own. They like every type of diversity save diversity of thought.

The disappointment about Davos is twofold. They do not invite people who will challenge the governing consensus. They fail to engage with the important difficult questions like Who and what caused the inflation? How can we boost real incomes?  Why did President Biden deliver Afghanistan to the Taliban? How do we stop Russia blowing up Ukrainian cities?

The world has too many globe trotting conferences to repeat the doctrines and policies which have failed. It needs some new thinking.

154 Comments

  1. Javelin
    January 22, 2023

    You’re missing the important point. Well two actually.

    Davos are “thought leaders”.

    First The “thoughts” derive from WEF think tanks are not democratic and people would never vote for things like Net-Zero or mass migration derive from Davos.

    Second the “leaders” have power. Every conservative PM in the past decade has a WEF page all to their own and the PMs are implementing highly destructive policies that were never voted for.

    So the clear facts point to you simply being in denial of the seriousness of undemocratic, very harmful, highly coordinated policies existing.

    1. glen cullen
      January 22, 2023

      Hear Hear …and their instrument of choice is social engineering and the whip

  2. Gary Megson
    January 22, 2023

    No laws are made at Davos. Laws are made in Parliament. The Conservatives have been making laws for the UK for over 12 years now, and very badly too. Please, stop trying to distract attention from the real source of the UK’s problems. It’s not Davos. It’s the disfunctional flailing Conservative party

    1. hefner
      January 22, 2023

      Indeed, GM, people who are losing their bearings usually find succour in conspiracies, specially in ones much bigger than themselves. Believing in the all-powerful WEF is a perfect example of such a behaviour (Psychology.101).

      Then, today is a ‘they’ comment day for Sir John, so much easier than writing about ‘we’.
      When will he write something about ‘we’ as in ‘we in the Government’ or ‘we in the PCP’ or ‘we in the CUP’. Or is it these days something impossible to write about as the various bits of the Conservatives are so far away from each other when thinking about and/or addressing the present problems?

      1. Philip P.
        January 22, 2023

        Hefner, perhaps you need to understand the difference between power and influence (Politics 101). The WES graduates, originally Global Leaders for Tomorrow, then from the late 90s called Young Global Leaders, gradually get themselves in power. When they are in power they implement the policies that were advocated by global influencers at Davos and spread around the world by the media, always strongly represented there. If you’ve been following, you may remember Klaus Schwab proclaiming in 2017 how proud he was of his YGL graduates, such as Blair, Merkel, Macron and Ardern, spreading their influence in so many countries:
        https://www.influencewatch.org/organization/young-global-leaders/
        The WEF is nothing to do with a conspiracy, and people who point to the great scope and effect of its activities are no kind of conspiracy theorists. They don’t have to be. It openly proclaims its aims and achievements on its website, which I recommend you visit.

        1. PhilipP.
          January 22, 2023

          Typo: WEF’s ‘graduates’

        2. hefner
          January 22, 2023

          ‘You need to understand the difference between power and influence’: thanks a lot for the advice. So please help me there, tell me do the Institute for Economic Affairs, the Adam Smith Institute, the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Centre for Policy Studies, the Initiative for Free Trade, the 1828 Group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation in the UK or the US-based Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, Cato Institute, American Legislative Exchange Council have more or less influence on the British policies than the WEF?

          And as a subsidiary question, could you please indicate which policies Ardern, Blair, Macron, Merkel took under the direct influence of the WEF in each of their countries? Thanks a lot in advance.

          1. Philip P.
            January 23, 2023

            Space restrictions prevent me from listing all WEF-inspired policies. In any case the WEF doesn’t so much propose specific policies, it puts forward an ideology which is then turned into policies, net Zero being the obvious example. Ed Milliband attended Davos in 20212, and the following year put forward the net zero bill in Parliament. Another one is Dutch PM and WEF graduate Mark Rutte’s policy of reducing farming, leaving opportunities for artificial food, a big theme for the WEF.

          2. Philip P.
            January 23, 2023

            Regarding your other point, Hefner, a recent analysis of Office for National Statistics data of the impact of tax and benefits on household income found that 54.2 per cent of people now live in households which receive more in benefits (including ‘benefits in kind such as health and education spending) than they paid in taxes. That’s a very significant macro-economic statement about the state of the nation in the 21st century. Could you say which of the think tanks and lobby groups you listed influenced government policy to achieve this outcome? The answer is surely ‘none’, indicating that they have less influence than you imply.

          3. Margaret Brandreth-
            January 23, 2023

            You are both arguing as if people actually know the derivation of their views , Not so .. a view either from the bridge or otherwise can be hype. most people aren’t academics looking for a suitable piece of work to back up their , what they consider to be their own views.
            Hidden citation’ All my sons’ A Miller

          4. hefner
            January 23, 2023

            As you say, WEF ‘puts forward an ideology which is then turned into policies’. As far as I understand the policies are proposed by governments and voted by parliament, ie possibly influenced by think tanks but not organically linked to them.
            Please tell me how is that different from Mrs Thatcher and her government being influenced by the IEA and the Centre for Policy Studies both directly following the ideas (ideology, or is that a concept inexistent on the right?) originally discussed by the Mont Pelerin Society of Hayek, Friedman et al.

          5. Ashley
            January 24, 2023

            @ Philip P. Indeed coldest temp at Heathrow for 12 years reported yesterday. The climate alarmism, net zero, renewables is such an obvious scam to anyone sensible or with any decent science understanding. Yes all but a tiny handful of MPs voted for the climate change Act and nodded three May’s moronic net zero lunacy. No we have people being paid to switch of their electricity appliances and use them later. Total insanity just put a bit more coal, wood, gas, nuclear fuel in the generators. The ones the foolish Sharma did not blow up.

            The same amount of fuel is used if they do the wash or have a shower later or earlier after all. The UK used to have an excellent electricity grid when it was run by competent engineers and not these deluded politicians.

        3. Stred
          January 22, 2023

          Klaus also seems keen on his helpers in the Royals. They knighted him KPNUT and Charles has made progress with the sustainable markets with the help of Mark Carney, the IMF, the banks and finance houses. Banning investment in gas and oli has already produced a huge spike in the price and is getting rid of unapproved businesses.

          https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/prince-charles-the-crucial-lesson-we-have-to-learn-from-the-climate-crisis/

    2. Berkshire Alan
      January 22, 2023

      Gary

      Indeed every time one of our Ministers, or in particular our Prime Ministers go to a meeting abroad, it costs the taxpayer ÂŁ billions, be it climate change, G7, G20, Nato, etc, etc, etc.
      The real problem is that the Population of the World is still growing too fast to be able to sustain that growth, and the need for ever growing consumption of the earths resources of all types, as well as food..
      Likewise more people, the more pollution being generated.
      If indeed it is only the action of the people who are warming up the Planet as we are constantly being informed (not the activity of the Sun) then perhaps Governments should try and encourage birth control, and taxation, non taxation methods, to incentivise people to have smaller families.

      1. glen cullen
        January 22, 2023

        +1

    3. glen cullen
      January 22, 2023

      But ‘laws’ are concluded by consenus by WEF members for national governments to rubber stamp

      1. Gary Megson
        January 22, 2023

        WEF? What fresh nonsense is this, glen? Laws are made by national Parliaments. The Conservatives have been in charge of ours for over twelve years. If the Conservatives have agreed to do something at Davos, it becomes law only because the Conservatives want it to be law. Stop imagining there is some conspiracy out there, start holding the Conservatives to account

        1. Berkshire Alan
          January 22, 2023

          Gary

          Perhaps as a Country we need to COP Out, rather than COP IN the whole time. !
          Wanting to trail blaze is always very expensive, because you spend/waste a fortune during the research/trials period, only to sometimes find out that the whole exercise has been/is a complete waste of money, because you got the supposed solution wrong for the problem in hand, or the right questions were never asked in the first place, or there was never a problem to solve which you had perceived needed fixing..

          If we had some proper open thinking scientists, commercially experienced Politicians (like JR) in Parliament then we may just save ourselves (taxpayers) a fortune

    4. Peter
      January 22, 2023

      I remember when I used to go Davos – to ski.

      The week either side of the WEF event was reasonably priced and if you got a flight from Heathrow you could check your luggage in and pick it up at the hotel. Transfer unencumbered on a pleasant train to the resort. Same thing happened on the way home.

      Then one year I saw John McDonnell, the Labour Party man, chastised on Guido Fawkes for the cost of staying in the same hotel I used.

      Nowadays I could afford to ski in Bulgaria but elsewhere is rather expensive and the snow is poor.

    5. a-tracy
      January 22, 2023

      Ok Gary, let’s say you’re right, why would people of that stature in their individual nations bother to turn up? Why did Reeves and Starmer hot foot it over and say Rishi was wrong not to join them?

      1. Mike Cross
        January 23, 2023

        ‘Cos they don’t have to pay for it and it’s a great jolly for the incompetent and irresponsible.

    6. Paul Cuthbertson
      January 22, 2023

      GM – Whichever party is in office the narrative/objectives are set by the Globalist UK Establishment and until our whole system of government is changed, nothing will happen. However CHANGE is coming.

  3. Sea_Warrior
    January 22, 2023

    I agree – so I’m disgusted to see British ministers there. Sunak should have made a statement to the House explaining that the WEF had become too big for its boots and that, therefore, HMG would send no representation. But he didn’t. He pulled his punch, missing an opportunity to wrong-foot Starmer & Co. Your party is becoming completely unelectable. It is unable to govern. It is unable to do politics. And I, despite being a member, despise it with a passion. Now, please, start doing some Conservative stuff, and use your majority, otherwise your party will be destroyed at the next GE.

  4. Sea_Warrior
    January 22, 2023

    OK, that was a rant. You, I think, are one of the very small number of MPs in touch with what the electorate actually want.

    1. IanT
      January 22, 2023

      And that’s the problem SW – Sir John is one of a very small number – NOT a majority….

  5. John Kirkham
    January 22, 2023

    Excellent article.

  6. turboterrier
    January 22, 2023

    Davos is the meeting and mixing place for the world’s richest people with the assistance of like minded presidents and prime ministers to further absorb their beliefs to ensure they increase their wealth from the projects and ideas they have formulated. The unelected puppeteers who are unaccountable to the people whose lives they affect so badly with their globalist dreams and aspirations.

    1. Sharon
      January 22, 2023

      TT Exactly, and the ideas discussed in Davos and agreed by the nation leaders, is then taken back and implemented in their countries. Think how many leaders were trained by Davos trainers and how they are all socialist leaning.

      Great Britain being a good example. Ban this, do that
 The big business organisations put pressure on anyone trying to think independently
 ESG being a fine example. Media outlets follow the rules handed out to them. Davos is indirectly powerful. (And have some rather deranged ideas!)

    2. David Cooper
      January 22, 2023

      Indeed, but what makes such individuals fail to recognise when they have accumulated (by fair means or foul) enough wealth and influence to leave themselves and their families set up for life, and press on towards the goal of wanting to control others’ lives for the sake of it? Without naming names, many in the Davos elite are so filthy rich that they could have chosen philanthropy – why choose megalomania?

    3. William Smith
      January 22, 2023

      It is also the ideal venue to exchange “Brown Envelopes” and arrange highly paid speaking contracts when one is removed from Public Office!
      Never mind WEF, Davos is the coming together of the Worlds Hypocritical Narcissists who always put ‘Self’ above everything.

    4. Fedupsoutherner
      January 22, 2023

      Spot on Turbo.

  7. AncientPopeye
    January 22, 2023

    I beg to differ on some points Sir John. Those meeting at Davos don’t give a fig for Climate change, CO2 emmissions or any other ill they prattle on about, their main concern is how to amass even more money for their coffers.
    Everything else is pure smokescreen. Why they want more of the World’s wealth is beyond me, they will never live long enough to spend what they have.
    The other answer is that it gives them power and the chance to Lord it over everyone else, rubbing our noses in it.

    1. a-tracy
      January 22, 2023

      They will never live long enough to spend what they have. TRUE

      It is bizarre, I watched a series about Getty and his grandson’s kidnapping which gave me some idea of their mindset. They like the power, they like politicians fawning over them and people fawning over them, they like the sense that they’re better than everyone else. They like the term the Davos Elite.

      Getty appeared to love his museums and legacy projects and the control over people around him. At the end of the day he still died, there are no pockets in shrouds.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        January 22, 2023

        Harry and Megain come to mind. They’ve just purchased a gas guzzling Range Rover and fly by private jets. Their mansion has 17 bathrooms but they love getting on the world stage and spouting off about things we shouldn’t do. Our carbon footprint is a fraction of these rich idiots. There is too much lecturing by too many self entitled knob for my liking

    2. MFD
      January 22, 2023

      Well said AP, those are my long beliefs. The reason I said no to the doctors receptionist two years back. I think long and hard then plow my own furrow.
      My Dad was right, when he returned from war he said one should look after Number one and close family.

  8. Philip P.
    January 22, 2023

    It is not just ‘they’, the Davos elite, who fail to cost their climate policy demands. Your colleague Chris Skidmore MP recently published a ‘Net Zero review’ in which he made 129 recommendations for adopting the green agenda. None of it was costed. His green roadmap is full of eco-babble about clean technologies and ‘green finance’ etc. etc. He was asked to provide his review by the then Conservative PM Liz Truss, who presumably did not ask for costings as she should have done.

    1. MFD
      January 22, 2023

      Ecco- babble, I like that! It will be reused at an appropriate time

  9. turboterrier
    January 22, 2023

    The easiest and quickest way to stop all this madness is for all the countries of the world to meet with their researched data with the exact figures for all the different elements on how much they will require to successfully implement Net Zero.
    These of course are on top of the normal running costs of the everyday necessities to keep their countries running.
    When they try to sell that to their people on how much they will have to pay and for how long and what sacrifices will need to be made, the train will hit the buffers.
    At the moment the populations have no idea what so ever on how much and the impact on their everyday lives. When it is ALL out in the open for debate then things will dramatically change.

    1. IanT
      January 22, 2023

      At the moment any logical argument against much of this Eco Religion is simply impossible. Younger members of my family (who themselves are parents) are either completely disinterested (much prefer to talk about football) or completely brainwashed by what they see on Sky or Social Media. When you ask them very simple questions about the subject, at best you get looks of resigned amusement (He’s a relic of another age but we still love him). Pretty much the same when you try to talk finance, tax, pensions etc. Yes, the cost of living is high but it’s all Putins fault right?

      I’m afraid these things are going to have to bite a lot harder before there’s enough real pain to make people actually stop and think “Does all this nonsense add up? Does it make Sense?” – because at the moment I don’t think people are questioning WHY they are getting poorer. They are still in ‘We need more pay mode’ – not able to accept (or understand) that the cupboard is bare. We need more people willing to challenge these fiscal and eco orthodoxies before we are completely bankrupt – because at the moment, that’s where we are heading.

      1. R.Grange
        January 22, 2023

        Ian, I agree with you, but what do you think the Covid psy-op was for, if not to school people into NOT questioning the government, and depending on it for their ‘safety’ and even their livelihood (furlough payments)? I don’t know many people who at the time were asking ‘Does all this nonsense add up? Does it make sense?’ OK, there are more people now who sheepishly admit that the whole thing was overdone. But at the time they weren’t sheepish, they were sheep.

  10. Cuibono
    January 22, 2023

    But are the members/attendees actually paying for this transition
out of their own pockets?
    Thought not = plebs’ tax rises.
    And who exactly will make money out of bug burgers?
    Not we the cold and starving people I bet!

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      January 22, 2023

      Include big pharma in that analysis Cuibono.

      1. Cuibono
        January 22, 2023

        +100
        Included!

  11. Mark B
    January 22, 2023

    Good morning.

    Someone had it right earlier in the week.

    Davos is a place where millionaires get to rub shoulders with billionaires in the hope of getting a job.

    Davos is about power and influence. It is about access to money and to guaranteed wealth. The thing that irritates me is, it is all dressed up as a harmless shindig to save the world. It is nothing of the sort. In fact, it is the complete opposite !

    The question is, what to do about it ? Well there is not much but, talking about it, making fun about it, and highlighting the contradictory positions of the WEF, the UN, the WHO and its other members of this rich clown circus.

    But there is one last thing about all this, and it is much more sinister. Have you ever noticed that none of the talking points that emerge from this are ever designed to affect the likes of China ? There is no criticism of China. No pleas to end its many of its damaging policies. It is, paraphrase, ‘The Dragon in the Room’ All is designed to undermine the West and Western society.

    Happy Chinese New Year to you all. Let us hop that the Year of the Rabbit is not caught in the headlights of what is planned for us ?

    😉

    1. dixie
      January 22, 2023

      Unfortunately it is the year of the weak minded (ie gullable) rabbit

      1. hefner
        January 22, 2023

        The rabbit in the Chinese tradition is a symbol of grace, gentleness and cleverness (a rabbit has a burrow with multiple exits).
        In its years, the rabbit is supposed to bring money, partnership and success (One can dream of such things for the UK Rabbit year).

        1. Mark B
          January 22, 2023

          maybe in the past mate, but not this time ! 😉

        2. dixie
          January 23, 2023

          the “water” rabbit – Gentle, amicable, able to adjust readily to different conditions, but with a weak mindset and principles

    2. Sharon
      January 22, 2023

      A good post, Mark.

      A lot of the WEF ideas are things that the Chinese society has. Social credit score for one


      I read that the WEF China office now has 40 permanent staff. I suspect the Chinese have more influence than we know. And the Chinese government don’t tolerate criticism, do they? Plus, there are some influential hangers on around parliament that admire the Chinese way of doing things.

      1. Mark B
        January 22, 2023

        The Chinese take influence to a new level. They target peoples relative, even children, and make life so wonderful for them. It is through these outer contacts that influence is made. Davos is one such vehicle where the rich and the powerful congregate and, in turn, can be influenced by the CCP.

        People like our kind host are not invited because they do not have sufficient influence.

  12. Mary M.
    January 22, 2023

    Thank you, Sir John. A very refreshing start to a Sunday. More questioning is out in the open now about the validity of the WEF annual get-together.

    We serfs had always wondered why attendees flying in their private jets to Davos couldn’t use Zoom instead. The article in the Daily Mail has indicated why. There are activities on offer that logistically cannot take place remotely.

  13. Cuibono
    January 22, 2023

    I wonder then, what the definition of ruling the world is?
    Telling it exactly what to do and being obeyed must be quite a good start.
    Surely?

  14. DOM
    January 22, 2023

    Well done for airing an issue that many believe represents a direct threat to nation State democracies in the West and individual freedoms.

    British politicians (Why is Starmer there?) or indeed any British public servant including Prince Charles should not be attending this seedy and sinister gathering whose intent is oppressive using digital tech to impose control over many areas of our life

    It is why many believe the issues of climate, borders, public health, race and gender have been deliberately weaponised and politicised for purposes that I believe are criminal in law and in ethical terms

    It is not for the likes of Blair to tell me and others that we should we submit to public health (vaccines and viruses) monitoring using digital tech and other forms of digital control. The aim is nothing less than authoritarian and vulgar brutality damaging our freedoms from the State

    I look at what happened to Clarkson (and indeed Bridgen. Note their specific identity) and say that could be anyone of us. This Stalinist brutality to remove people from view for being contrary is utterly wedded to the politics of Davos and progressivism

    1. Donna
      January 22, 2023

      Tice played a clip this morning of Starmer responding to a question from Emily Maitless ….. which did he prefer, Davos or Westminster? He replied “Davos” because he was talking to people he would work with in the future and Westminster was just tribal noise.

      Says it all…… this is the man who claims to want to be British Prime Minister to “serve us.”

  15. Cuibono
    January 22, 2023

    The war with Russia which Davos is supporting ( nay pushing) must be helping against climate change no end.
    But then, maybe if they contrive to wipe out country after country they will have fulfilled their dream.
    An empty world.
    No Wefminster, no Washington, no Moscow
no nothing.
    And all enabled by the clueless.

  16. BOF
    January 22, 2023

    True Sir John, the WEF does not rule the world. But is it not too much of a co-incidence and highly disturbing that the ideas put forward there find their way into policy and legislation here and in many other countries. The WEF trained young global leaders that become national leaders or find their way into other positions of influence. The agenda is always to disenfranchise and impoverish ordinary people and give more power and wealth to the corporate world and super rich.

    We have just had the dangerous T Blair proposing digital ID’s for the world which will include our health and vaccination status, which fits in nicely with WHO plans for a world pandemic agreement which no doubt will be signed up to by our government with scant regard for the wishes or interests of we the people. The way government works is totally undemocratic.

  17. PeteB
    January 22, 2023

    Well said Sir J.

    Additionally all the cry of net-zero misses the real problem. In all of human history to the early 1800’s the population grew to 1 billion people, We then took 120 years to 1927 to double to 2 billion. Under 100 years later we are at 8 billion.
    How can this many humans not damage the planet – via land use, water use, pollution, consumption…

    1. Cuibono
      January 22, 2023

      +1
      Don’t worry

      They are working on that one!

    2. IanT
      January 22, 2023

      I understand your point Peter but in fact many populations (including China’s) are in decline. The fact is that as countries move out of poverty (and the female population becomes more educated) the need (and desire) for large families decreases. To just stand still a country needs a repoduction rate of 2.1 – very few countries exceed that these days – certainly none in the West. There is a short term problem that the old will exceed the young but that will pass naturally – just give it time. The real problem for many countries will in fact be population collapse. That’s why I don’t object to immigration but also why it must be managed – and not to put too fine a point on it – to our advantage.

      1. PeteB
        January 22, 2023

        Why is population collapse a problem? It will be gradual over several decadea and can be managed. One easy solution – work longer or saver harder. Ah, UK population (& others) don’t like that medicine.

      2. beresford
        January 22, 2023

        The trouble with this way of thinking is that at some point our country becomes their country. In order to save the village it was necessary to destroy the village. Hungary and Norway have increased their indigenous birthdate by adopting family-friendly policies. Viktor Orban says that they don’t need immigrants of different cultures, they need young Hungarians.

  18. Donna
    January 22, 2023

    Davos may not rule the world, but it seems effectively to rule in the western so-called democracies.

    Policies the “Elite” of Davos have called for are being imposed on these so-called democracies with no democratic debate and no democratic opposition. It’s Technocratic CONsensus policy-making which is as detached from democratic input let alone control as they can make it, short of declaring a Dictatorship.

    Davos demands 15 minute cities: 15 minute cities are being imposed across the UK

    Davos demands “renewable” energy: the serfs are forced to fund the installation of windmills and solar panels which only work intermittently AND pay a fortune for the reliable energy Davos says we must no longer use

    Davos demands no more fossil fuels: petrol cars and gas boilers are to be banned

    Davos demands we eat insects: ground-up house crickets are to be added to our food and kept off the list of ingredients although they know some people will be allergic since they know people will not buy it. The EU legislated for this a few days ago and it will almost certainly be applied in the UK.
    https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32023R0005&from=ENEtc

    What Davos demands, Davos generally gets in the western “democracies” it effectively controls.

    Or does anyone seriously think that Adhern, Trudeau, Rutte, Macron, Sunak/Hunt and Starmer/Reeves and the anti-democratic EU Elite AREN’T controlled by Davos?

    1. graham1946
      January 22, 2023

      Well said, Donna, Sir John is displaying extreme naivety with this article. He seems to believe that the rubbish policies of his own government come from his party, not Davos and the like. Strange coincidence that most of the Western world seem set on the same course. Government is not necessarily done via parliament, but what we used to refer to as ‘smoke filled rooms’ and then the canon fodder MP’s too lazy to check for facts, or because they want to keep their lucrative jobs, vote it all through. Whatever hardships they may dream up for us, it is certain it won’t apply to them. We may be told not to fly on holiday whilst they pollute the world with their private jets, gas guzzlers, over size mansions etc. It has been thus since the beginning of time – the majority of the people must be kept down to profit the elite. They used to do it with religion (still do in backward parts of the world). Today the new religion is climate change to instill fear and the hope that the elite will keep us safe.

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      January 22, 2023

      Your link is very interesting Donna thank you. Many of us don’t even realise what’s going on. I see insects are to be on the menu from the 24th January for 5 years and the company is registered in Vietnam. No surprise there then.

    3. BOF
      January 22, 2023

      Well said Donna. This morning I learned that Bill Gates, on top of owning a quarter of a million acres of US farmland, also has a major interest in the world seed banks. We should be fearful. No, we should be very angry.

      1. Enigma
        January 22, 2023

        BOF have you read Terra Viva by Vandana Shiva?

      2. hefner
        January 22, 2023

        ‘Bill Gates’’s seed banks, in fact the CGIAR (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research), is a global partnership of 15 food research centres encompassing 89 countries. By the way its first Arctic seed bank opened in spring 2020.
        But I guess the info must have percolated very very slowly and has now reached the websites ‘full of new information’ read by some of the distinguished contributors to this blog.

  19. Nottingham Lad Himself
    January 22, 2023

    No one – other than conspiracy theory obsessed lunatics – claimed that Davos did rule the world, so we have yet another Straw Man of a headline.

    1. Cuibono
      January 22, 2023

      Strange.
      You view the statement “Davos does not rule the world” as a Straw Man ( argument? Fallacy?).
      In other words 
.a huge exaggeration?
      So maybe you believe that Davos DOES rule the world?
      Possibly YOU are the one presenting a Worzel Gummidge?
      It is surely the person reacting with wild accusations who does?l

      1. glen cullen
        January 22, 2023

        I don’t thing Davos is conspiratorial, I believe they’re very open, you get what it says on the tin 
.join our club and follow our instructions

    2. a-tracy
      January 22, 2023

      If thats the case why did Sir Kneel a Lot feel like he had to be present Martin as the next future leader of the UK?

    3. a-tracy
      January 22, 2023

      Here you go Martin:
      20 Jan 2017 — Chinese President Xi Jinping stole the show in Davos with a speech that made it clear Beijing is eager to fill any vacuum in global leadership . Source Reuters.

      5 days ago — The World Economic Forum says billionaire Elon Musk wasn’t on the guest list for the annual meeting of business executives, global leaders and …Source ap news. So Elon is no longer seen as a leading business executive or global leader, lol.

      Founder and chair Klaus Schwab has run forum for 52 years but is now seen by some past and present staff as ‘a law unto himself’ Source Guardian. Mutiny amongst WEF staff over the role of ‘Mr Davos’.

      Who made him and this Davos SO important in Global Leadership? This is very powerful no conspiracy about that. Where is the conspiracy there?

    4. IanT
      January 22, 2023

      But they have a great deal of money and influence NLH – and a clear agenda. You might not agree with the conspiracy theories but you cannot ignore them either.

  20. agricola
    January 22, 2023

    Davos does rule our world when they have more support in Parliament than does the electorate. Their and the conservative MPs obsession with CO2 I liken to the catholic churches row with Galileo. It is long overdue in Parliament that the intelligent stood up and told the metaphorical kings and queens to put some clothes on as their CO2 raiments amount to nudity.

  21. Sharon
    January 22, 2023

    Absolutely new thinking is needed, JR!

    Davos Man and co are a massive cult, brainwashed with the idea of climate change.

    It’s quite impressive really, how such an absolutely ridiculous notion has taken hold by so many, worldwide. As someone said here yesterday, it would just as easy to draw sunbeams from a cucumber as try and affect the climate!

    1. Bloke
      January 22, 2023

      ‘Davos Man’ is the current equivalent of ‘Mondeo Man’ which misguided politicians seek to attract to support them.

      1. agricola
        January 22, 2023

        Bloke,
        He is far more dangerous than that.

        1. glen cullen
          January 22, 2023

          +1

        2. Bloke
          January 22, 2023

          Yes, you’re right. I should have shown that danger.

    2. agricola
      January 22, 2023

      Spot on Sharon, that climate changes is an historical fact, as of Genesis. The sudden leeming like rush to attribute this to the creation of the 0.04% of CO2 in the Worlds atmosphere by human industrial activity, is at best spurious. The level has fluctuated at around this level for eons, with and without industry. The great driver of climate change is solar activity. This is acknowledged in mans keeness to tap into solar energy directly and at second hand via wind. Our governments responsibility, and that of worldwide government is to take steps to counter any effects of climate change. If real this could be expensive, which is why government shy away and go for the soft target, you and me. In terms of preventive health care there is much that needs to be done in cleaning up our planet and changing the way we conduct our lives, so please stop leaning on the back of innocent plant food better known as CO2. Instead of ULEZ as an off government book scheme for predatory cash raising, why not put scientific and engineering skill into Hydrogen production, the burning of which in vehicles would end vehicle pollution at a stroke, without the downsides of trying to use electricity. Think of who would loose money at such a step and the lobbying power they can bring to bare.

      1. Mark
        January 22, 2023

        There is a very good video discussing most of the issues (good and bad, soluble and difficult) surrounding the production and use of hydrogen, particularly with reference as a transport fuel by Sabine Hossenfelder that is easy to find on Youtube. Her conclusion is that hydrogen is unlikely to be a solution.

  22. John McDonald
    January 22, 2023

    Unfortunately the people who attend Davos do rule the world but what you say Sir John about how they act and think is correct. However “How do we stop Russia blowing up Ukraine cities” reflect’s the West’s view of the cause of the war. Why could you have not asked the question “how do we make peace between Ukraine and Russia” First we have to make peace between the US and Russia how likely is that? It can’t happen without the West honestly looking at all the factors that started the conflict beginning well before 2014.
    The West did not ask the question then “why is Ukraine blowing up cities containing ethnic Russian Ukrainians” Democracy goes out the window when it comes to what do the ethnic Russian Ukrainians want.
    Currently there are no opposition parties in Ukraine, Russian language banned. The truth is none of this matters so long as Russia is defeated and the West starts WWIII. Then we will see what climate change is really like if anybody is left. Currently more likely to reach a “hot” WWIII before net zero.

    1. Hat man
      January 22, 2023

      All very true, and very worrying, John M. But the terms of that peace treaty are going to be very difficult. Merkel and Hollande recently admitted they did not seriously intend to keep to what they’d agreed with Russia in the 2015 Minsk II treaty. The Russians will not be keen to believe the good faith of any Western powers negotiating with them. Certainly Biden’s America is no kind of negotiating partner that you’d want to trust. I think the only way forward for Russia in dealing with Ukraine is to do what the America so often does, go for regime change. With a new regime in Kiev committed to neutrality and good relations with Russia, the Kremlin probably could sign off a peace agreement. How that happens remains to be seen. The Russians will certainly not want to depend on EU guarantors, as they naĂŻvely did in 2015. One outcome that’s looking increasingly likely is that Ukrainians finally rebel against Zelensky’s madcap rush to economic and military destruction. The senior commanders and political figures that Zelensky has alienated recently may just go to him and say his time is up.

  23. Sakara Gold
    January 22, 2023

    Renewable energy is new thinking. Windfarms and solar parks harvest free energy; they reduce the need to expend our precious foreign currency reserves importing fossil fuels. Of course, the powerful fossil fuel lobby sees EVs, heat pumps, windfarms, solar parks and the like as an existential threat to their business model. Their answer is to massively increase the price of their fuels to demonstrate to the world their power, greenwash their products to make them more appealing to the public and to spend humungous amounts of money lobbying decision makers and susceptible governments. With great success in the UK, I may add

    I regret that you were not invited to Davos. I may not agree with your views on the transition to clean energy or your willingless to sacrifice our environment for short term profit, but in a democracy you should be able to put your views across

    1. Donna
      January 22, 2023

      There is no such thing as free energy.

      If, as you claim, windmills and solar panels are “free energy” why is it costing us an absolute fortune in subsidies; payment for the energy they sporadically harness and payment for them not providing that energy when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine?

      Why are we paying wealthy landowners to site the monstrosities on their land?

      The claim that this energy is free is the argument of a not very bright child.

    2. Original Richard
      January 22, 2023

      Sakara Gold : “Windfarms and solar parks harvest free energy”

      Fossil fuels are also “free”. It’s the cost of capturing and distributing the energy which costs. The problem with renewables is intermittency. If wind energy is to be made reliable, say by using hydrogen as an energy store, produced by excess wind by electrolysis, then the installed wind capacity needs to be multiplied by 8 times or more for any given quantity of guaranteed/available/dispatchable power. This makes the price of wind energy at least £1000/MWhr without even considering the cost of the hydrogen infrastructure. This price has to be compared with the price of gas generated electricity which was £50/MWhr between 2006 and 2020 when Net Zero/ESG restrictions/regulations/taxes etc. started to apply to fossil fuels to favour renewables.

      Wind turbines would not exist at all if Professor Dieter Helm’s suggestion in his “Cost of Energy” review for the government that renewables contracts should guarantee a minimum power output had been implemented. Wind and solar power only exist all because fossil fuel back-up systems provide the reliability.

      Battery back-up would cost £1tn for each day the wind doesn’t blow and anyway it has been demonstrated there isn’t even sufficient mining capacity in the world for all the minerals required.

      The people at Davos know all this.

    3. IanT
      January 22, 2023

      “Renewable energy is new thinking. Windfarms and solar parks harvest free energy; they reduce the need to expend our precious foreign currency reserves importing fossil fuels”

      Windmills are nothing new Sakara – they gave way to more efficient power forms. Nor are renewables “free” – I seem to be paying quite a chunk of subsidy on my energy bills for them. As for importing fossil fuels, perhaps if we used more of those fossil fuels we already have here instead of importing them – we would all be a little less poor. As for our precious foreign currency reserves, that is something entirely dependant on how much we decide to devalue our own currency – not only through printing it to excess but also in terms of balance of trade. We will just get poorer unless we can start selling more than we consume. Simples – except I can’t see anyone doing anything to make that happen – quite the opposite in fact.

    4. MFD
      January 22, 2023

      Did you really believe all that BS Sakara Gold.
      I really pity the brain washed. Keep up the jabs!

    5. Mark
      January 22, 2023

      Oil and gas and geothermal wells and uranium and coal mines and hydro dams also harvest free energy. It’s the harvesting that costs, whatever the source.

  24. Peter
    January 22, 2023

    ‘ I can hear all the same things in the Commons from Labour, The Lib Dems and SNP.’

    Many Conservatives also voice Davos notions on climate change and diversity.

    Insofar as Davos offers the most generous gravy train around, it buys opinion even if it does not directly rule the world.

    1. glen cullen
      January 22, 2023

      Your on to something Peter

  25. Paul
    January 22, 2023

    Did you actually watch any of the webcasts from Davos?
    The purpose is cooperation not conflict- as Churchill said ‘Jaw, jaw not war, war’.
    If you had any new ideas rather than the tired old thinking, I am sure they would welcome you to speak.
    I watched many of today’s leaders and thinkers, not all of them in agreement, talking about important issues concerning eg: central bank action (Larry Summers for instance opposed to their actions) , how to grow the world economy with reducing pollution, how politically diverse opinion can resolve issues without conflict, how AI can impact on all our lives, awards to innovators finding ways to increase availability of drinking water.
    All positive steps – apart from Kimi and Grant where were our government ministers?

    1. Bill B.
      January 22, 2023

      Senior government minister don’t need to go to Davos, Paul. They’re on board with the WEF message, and already have their orders for what to do.

      1. glen cullen
        January 22, 2023

        +1

    2. beresford
      January 22, 2023

      Did you see Tony Blair saying that ‘we’ need a global ‘vaccination’ register so that ‘we’ know everybody’s personal medical history?

  26. Nigl
    January 22, 2023

    And in the meantime informed sources are saying Sunak is considering selling out to the EU again by allowing a role for the ECJ in NI.

    A non impartial court whose role is to support/promote the EU so judgements will be biased being allowed to rule on part of another sovereign country that democratically voted to end that relationship.

    Utterly shameful and even worse, we all knew that would happen with all the talks about progress, total BS.

    The EU’s long game has played us like a violin for the utter fools this government is.

    1. Denis Cooper
      January 22, 2023

      Arguably the EU is the least to blame for the Northern Ireland predicament inherited by Rishi Sunak. I wouldn’t even lay much blame on the Irish government, either. I would start with George Osborne and his Project Fear lies about the ‘catastrophic’ economic impact of leaving the EU on WTO terms, without any special trade deal. Then I would add David Cameron for allowing and encouraging him to do that. Then Theresa May for accepting that nonsense and giving in to the Irish government, and also to the CBI.

      The correct response to the Irish threat was identified within days, as recollected here:

      https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/10/19/the-state-of-the-union-2/#comment-1269044

      “My possible solution was for the UK government to give an undertaking to the EU that it did not intend to allow its territory to become a source of unsuitable goods placed upon the EU Single Market, and so it would introduce a system to licence UK exporters to the EU which would force them to meet EU requirements or suffer penalties under UK law, with the possibility of EU officials being invited to assist in investigations.”

      Instead of export controls on goods being sent across the open land border into the Irish Republic and the EU Single Market Theresa May agreed to impose EU import controls on all goods being brought into the whole of the UK, plus EU Single Market rules on all goods produced in the whole of the UK.

      Then Boris Johnson reversed that for Great Britain but let it remain in place in Northern Ireland for the sake of his pathetic little trade deal, worth maybe 0.75% of GDP. Hence instead of UK export controls on goods being taken across the border there are EU import controls, plus EU Single Market rules on all goods produced in the province, from which local production something like half of the goods crossing the border are derived.

      Inevitably those EU Single Market rules on local production, made necessary because the protection of the EU Single Market is only partially achieved by import controls instead of being fully achieved by export controls, must come under the authority of the EU Commission and above them the EU court.

      1. Dave Andrews
        January 22, 2023

        I agree, the NI protocol is an own goal.

    2. Denis Cooper
      January 22, 2023

      I’ve just been reading this article about a claim made by the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs:

      https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2023/01/22/all-main-stormont-parties-want-to-keep-northern-irelands-access-to-single-market-martin-says/

      “All main Stormont parties want to keep NI’s access to single market, Martin says”

      “MicheĂĄl Martin said all the main parties, including the DUP, wanted to maintain one of the protocol’s key elements – Northern Ireland’s access to the EU single market.

      To date, the EU has made clear that single market access for Northern Ireland would depend on the region following the bloc’s rules on trade.”

      As Great Britain is not covered by the protocol, and is not following the bloc’s rules on trade, surely it would be reasonable to suppose that unlike companies in Northern Ireland companies in Great Britain have no access to the EU single market; in which case what is the meaning of the numbers in the table in Section 5.1 here:

      https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7851/CBP-7851.pdf

      It says that in 2021 total goods exports to the EU were worth ÂŁ154.3 billion, but of that only ÂŁ5.1 billion were sent from Northern Ireland. Some were unallocated, but goods worth at least ÂŁ136 billion were exported to the EU by companies in Great Britain; and how did they do that when they have no access to the EU single market?

      It’s just more twaddle; the same kind of twaddle that Irish politicians started producing even before we voted to leave the EU; but I blame them less for trying it on than I blame our politicians for going along with it.

  27. Wanderer
    January 22, 2023

    Not being invited to Davos could be seen as a badge of honour (Elon Musk?); to be invited, then go and tell them some home truths is wonderful but rare (Donald Trump?).

    It’s really bad to go there and throw away your taxpayers’ money, freedoms and futures in order to follow the Davos agenda (via an IOU after next election, Sir Kier). But it’s even worse to stay at home because the optics are bad, yet do the same thing.

  28. Ashley
    January 22, 2023

    Well perhaps not but there is clearly a conspiracy between governments, big business, vested interests and hypocritical private jet users & crony capitalists against the public. We see this especially with the mad climate alarmist net zero agenda (thanks Theresa May), open door immigration and the net harm vaccines. Lifesaving information about serious vaccine harms and indeed about successful Covid treatments was suppressed by MSM to push net harm vaccines for profit.

    See also the “interview” of the head of Pfizer on Twitter.

    See the excellent Neil Oliver programme yesterday on GBNew with his interview with the doctor in South Africa.

  29. Barbara Fairweather
    January 22, 2023

    Dear John
    Look up a utube of Konstantin Kristin speaking at the Oxford Union
    He is Russian but was educated in England
    It says it all
    You may have already seen it as it has gone viral!

  30. Keith from Leeds
    January 22, 2023

    Another good article, Sir John. But you & all our MPs must face the truth. Global Warming & Climate Change have been going on for thousands of years & we will never achieve net-zero. It is a scam which needs to be exposed. !0 to 15 years ago, it was difficult to understand, so most people accepted it. But today, there are plenty of books by qualified authors showing net zero is nonsense. Your greatest contribution to the UK may be to research and then debunk the GW/CC myth. The media won’t & cheerfully publish lies about it constantly. Someone has to lead the UK out of the financial mess GW/CC is causing now & it will get worse. Reliable low cost energy is the bedrock of modern life & the UK could transform its prospects if we used what is right beneath our feet.

    1. Pauline Baxter
      January 22, 2023

      Keith from Leeds. You are quite correct in what you say about global warming but the Davos ‘get togethers’ have many other evil plans, in addition to that one.

  31. Bloke
    January 22, 2023

    The WEF mission statement reads as if it has good intent but seems bent in different directions toward wrong. If consumers boycott what its deviant members sell, those members would slip on their own wasteful mess without the traction to cause more harm.

    1. Clough
      January 22, 2023

      What consumers could do is to keep using cash. Not prepare the way for a digital currency where all your transactions can be digitally monitored, and the data made available to goodness knows who.

  32. RDM
    January 22, 2023

    Exactly, great article!

    Thinking always needs challenge, peer review, or some form of critical thinking!

    It’s what make Science, science!

    Or, to put it another way;

    Only, if we have Justified True Belief, can we have Knowledge!

    AKA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettier_problem

    It’s a standard we should all thrive for, but it’s good to know at least one of our senior politicians does take it seriously!

    Best Regards,

    RDM.

    1. glen cullen
      January 22, 2023

      ‘When man thinks he knows everything, he ceases to learn’

  33. Cuibono
    January 22, 2023

    Seen the vid out of Davos?
    5 minutes cities now apparently
not 15.
    Millions of people squashed into a loooong rectangle of very tall buildings.
    Extremely small footprint.
    Already underway. A “generational” project.
    What was that about ruling the world?

    1. glen cullen
      January 22, 2023

      Sounds like Moscow during the Stalin era, travel passes required, one shop, appointed work, one media outlet 
.not to control the climate but to control the people

      1. hefner
        January 22, 2023

        Never been to Manhattan, have you?

  34. Ralph Corderoy
    January 22, 2023

    A recent interviewee I heard talking of Davos and the WEF said the WEF’s purpose was to ensure the wealthy asset holders remained so once the fiat money finally crashes and the plebs get feisty. It’s an interesting view of their prime concern; their public face being how to keep the hoi polloi in check. You have prominent members buying much farmland, for example; though Zimbabwe showed the ‘property rights’ policed by a government to landowners can be fickle.

    A return to a money with constrained monetary inflation together with mild economic deflation fuelled by technical innovation and productivity gains will see the masses once again prosper, as they did over the decades ending with La Belle Époque. In between will be hardship many don’t see in their lifetime, if the four-five-generation theory of shift and reset is true.

  35. Alan Paul Joyce
    January 22, 2023

    Dear Mr. Redwood,

    The things you list in your paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 that occupy the minds of the people who go to Davos sound eerily similar to the grand green speeches made and the policies being inflicted on us by UK politicians!

  36. Original Richard
    January 22, 2023

    There is no empirical evidence for catastrophic global warming or catastrophic climate change.

    This false claim, initiated by Marxists, and taken on by the global elites at Davos, is being used to justify the destruction of our economies in the West in order to impoverish and control us.

    There are no such demands upon China and India, and indeed the RoW, who are intent upon burning ÂŁ8bn tons of coal each year with resulting increases in atmospheric CO2 levels. Not an issue as they know that increasing CO2 has a negligible effect on global warming and climate and in fact, as plant food, greens the planet and means increased food production.

    And to quote Greta Thunberg, who said at the London South Bank Centre 30/10/2022 when promoting her newest book:

    “We are never going back to normal again [after the pandemic] because normal was already a crisis. What we refer to as “normal” is an extreme system built on exploitation of people and planet. It is a system defined by colonialism, imperialism, oppression and genocide by the so-called global North to accumulate wealth that still shapes our current world order”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ropBOwPvmLM&t=1513s
    13:20

    So no mention of anthropological CO2 emissions destroying the planet here then…quite a different reason given for her activism….

    1. glen cullen
      January 22, 2023

      +1

  37. David Cooper
    January 22, 2023

    “The disappointment about Davos is twofold…”
    May I suggest threefold, over and above not inviting consensus challengers and ducking difficult questions? Having decided that they know best, they set about planting their disciples in national governments and influential posts parallel to them, consistent with Herr Schwab’s outright professed aim to “penetrate the cabinets”. Such individuals are thereby serving a different master.

  38. Ian B
    January 22, 2023

    It used to be a closed shop meeting for a free open exchange of ideas. But, like all things in this modern World it gets Hijacked by the extreme left. ‘We’re all equal and as long as you do and see things exactly from my point of view you will find peace’ – my way or the highway

    Utter tosh and the usual corruption we are now surrounded with, no free exchange of thoughts, no acknowledgement of an alternative point. The exact opposite by the closing down of ideals other than their own.

  39. Lynn Atkinson
    January 22, 2023

    To stop Russia ‘blowing up Ukrainian cities’ we stop threatening Russia with NATO expansion to its borders and the siting of Nukes (which is all the west has) on said borders. We implement the peace treaties we guaranteed between Russia and Ukraine. When you are weak, and the west is weak – see Afghanistan – best not to advertise that point by belligerence and threats.
    The Davos set invited Putin. He made speeches against world hegemony, which they did not like. They have set out to destroy him and his country.
    It is outrageous that the House of Commons has not debated this fiasco! Are we at war – if so – why? We did not mind ethnic Russians and Donbas cities being ‘blown up’ for 14 years by Ukrainian troops.

  40. Bryan Harris
    January 22, 2023

    Davos does not rule the world?

    But they are trying very hard…

    The people who attend are influencers with their own circle of power – Davos allows them to use and increase what power they have.

    Davos is certainly ruling the world when it comes to all nations following a similar path in economic strategy and too many woke ideas. So, YES, It does have more influence than an ordinary think tank might have. Just look at who attends and who colludes with the like-minded.

    Just listening to what Blair had to say there is enough to worry anyone.
    Speakers are there to influence opinion towards the new world as they see it, and they wouldn’t be there unless they had a lot of support.

    Let’s not take Davos for granted, for they can do an enormous amount of harm to our freedoms and futures if only a few of their insanities get adopted.

    1. Diane
      January 22, 2023

      BH: Agree re Blair’s words, quite chilling; what to expect? With that in mind, still no debate re the now closed (closed 17/11/22) Petition to Parliament no 614335 ( which reached 156084 signatures ) re forthcoming & to be negotiated 2024 WHO treaty but the government’s response on the website gives some pointers.

  41. Jude
    January 22, 2023

    While WEF spout these woke & anti-democratic visions to young politicians. They are influential in the political world. Good examples are Trudeau & Ardern, just a couple who WEF groomed. During Covid they intimidated, threatened & took their unvaccinated citizens human rights away. That is how they want the world to be run. How many more will be influenced by their indoctrination & totalitarian views? The fact our key politicians happily attend these jollies – at what cost to the taxpayers? Does not bode well for our children’s futures. Net Zero is a fallacy until China & India join.

  42. Ian B
    January 22, 2023

    An illustration of how lamentable our politicians are. In a Davos speech from the man wanting to be PM, we have the opposition party leader wanting to end new licences for exploration in the North Sea!

    The idea being the UK must ‘only import’ its Petro Chemical needs, this will somehow save the planet. There is as yet no proper alternative to the Petro Chemical world, the clothes on our backs, the footwear most wear, the water delivered to our home and the waste then disposed all need oil to create the materials. Communication devices, even the electric car. No oil means the removal of all these items i.e life’s now basic facilities and commodities. To many people don’t understand the World around them, oil is not and is nowhere near being just the petrol for transport.

    1. Bryan Harris
      January 22, 2023

      @Ian B +
      You give this socialist too much credit – He also wants to stop us importing oil – meaning his definition of the future is fuel poverty – Back to the Stoneage

  43. Bert Young
    January 22, 2023

    Davos is and has always been a publicity seeking stint . There is little or no follow up by any of the participants or by the organisations they represent . There are too many international get-togethers that result in nothing . The United Nations has failed to keep peace and the world is in no better place than it was 100 years ago . What goes on behind the scenes seems to be more important in deciding outcomes ; it is dominated by few individuals and not by democracy .

  44. beresford
    January 22, 2023

    They don’t favour open borders and free movement of people, they favour cheap labour and diminution of resistance by the destruction of the identities and cohesion of nation states. You try freely moving across the borders of their estates and see how quickly you are bundled out.

  45. Ian B
    January 22, 2023

    In other MsM noise, it would appear that some of our so-called MP’s do not know the difference between sex and sex. In a bizarre way, some MP’s and the noisy ‘look- at- me’ brigade don’t understand the Human Race as individuals have always been able to be act and do what ever they want to do.

    In today’s world we have a situation that when a very, very small minority that don’t get get admired and feted enough they see it as some sort of discrimination. However, the real concern is these groups although free to do what they want, they want the taxpayer to fund their aspirations in ways that aren’t afforded equally to the rest of society – that’s the real discrimination.

    Discrimination is nowadays always the complete opposite to how it is portrayed, it a small minority is seeking to victimise the majority because they wont join them.

  46. R.Grange
    January 22, 2023

    Starmer is a member of the US-Atlanticist Trilateral Commission. So of course he wants the US to be able to export its high-priced Liquid Natural Gas to us and to Europe. This man should never become PM, he is compromised by membership of a globalist cabal that has no respect for this nation’s interests.

  47. glen cullen
    January 22, 2023

    Why isn’t our loyal opposite asking questions about the government attendees at UN WEF Davos 
isn’t it their prime role to scrutinise the actions and decisions of government 
I remember reading about checks & balance somewhere
    IF THERE’S NO EFFECTIVE OPPOSITION THERE’S NO DEMOCRACY

    1. Ian B
      January 22, 2023

      @glen cullen +1 sort of… There is no opposition, because their is no real Government. No one standing up to manage those they give the taxpayers hard earned cash to. Checks and balances have disappeared they have been ruled out by this Parliament in their pandering for a MsM story.
      If this were a free sovereign democracy, there would be checks and balances, on all our Laws, Rules and Regulations. As it stands our Parliament cant even make, amend, or revoke he we operate they have made the HoC subordinate to others, the EU, ECHR, BoE, OSB and a massive list of undemocratic entities. The UK Parliament and the Government in its flat out refusal to manage has talked itself out of a purpose – do we still need them?

  48. Fedupsoutherner
    January 22, 2023

    You state you dont get invited to Davos. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would turn down an invitation anyway.

    1. glen cullen
      January 22, 2023

      Anyone with a sense of integrity, a duty to the UK people, loyal to the crown, sovereignty, freedom and democracy wouldn’t go

      1. Paul Cuthbertson
        January 22, 2023

        GC – “Duty to the people” – Do you really think your government cares about you? “loyal to the crown”????? The monarchy have openly promoted the WEF agenda.

        1. glen cullen
          January 23, 2023

          It sounds crazy now that you’ve highlighted it …thanks

  49. Donna
    January 22, 2023

    Perhaps he met up with a new-model “woman.” So he is still confused.

    1. glen cullen
      January 22, 2023

      Maybe he’s now a woman

  50. Ed
    January 22, 2023

    Net zero is: (among other things)
    1 Impossible. There are not enough resources in the world to meet demand.
    2. Pointless. The UK is responsible for 1 per cent of so called ghg emissions.
    3 Catastrophic. No power, no industry, blackouts, food shortages, civil unrest etc.

    Also carbon dioxide is not now, never has been and never will be the main driver of climate change.

    1. glen cullen
      January 22, 2023

      +1 but net-zero is a useful tool for governments to control people ….thats what its all about folks

  51. George Sheard
    January 22, 2023

    The biggest threat to the planet and the environment is the growth Of the population,
    But its never talked about the growing waste of people is growing we eat then produce waste this is being dumped in the sea, along side all the plastics, the growing ownership of cars and travel,
    We need to restrict the growth of mankind
    Its mankind that causes all the pollution
    George

    1. glen cullen
      January 22, 2023

      I respectfully disagree, stopping or restricting population growth is either communist or playing god 
.indeed we may have environmental issues in certain parts of the globe, but nether the earth nor its people are dying 
what you’re proclaiming is alarmist

    2. Hat man
      January 22, 2023

      Restrict the growth of mankind? I’m sure Bill Gates would agree with you, George, and you might like to learn how he went about it, in Africa and India, and what people over there thought of that. He was funding vaccination programmes. I’m also sure Sadiq Khan and Oxfordshire County Council would agree with you on stopping people using cars. It’s getting clearer what citizens think of that.

  52. Michael Saxton
    January 22, 2023

    Spot on Sir John. The Davos set are wedded to the Net Zero cause because it’s a money making scam under ‘cover’ of virtuousness. Since 1880 world temperatures have increased by approximately 1.3deg C. During this time improvements in health, housing, technology and income have improved exponentially. Since 1980 the world has seen a substantial increase in greening and agricultural production. Study of UN IPCC Scientific reports reveal there is no climate emergency, however the Summary to Policymakers exaggerate the scientific analysis along with media and politicians. Yes there is a need to decarbonise and reduce pollution but we have time to find the appropriate technical solution that is practical and affordable. The present policy of setting an arbitrary target (2050) and hoping technology will be found is not the answer. We need to develop a technology that can be used throughout the world rather than enabling a small elite to get filthy rich whilst the rest of us suffer and pay the price. In any event is an increase of 1.3deg C in the next 140 years a catastrophe? I don’t think so, man is clever especially at adaptation and innovation, look at the evidence of the past 140 years?

    1. glen cullen
      January 22, 2023

      You only have to look at the pictures of Sydney harbour Fort Denison 
.the sea levels haven’t changed in over a century 
maybe a millennium

  53. SimonR
    January 22, 2023

    Well said Sir John,

    What is needed however is a counter-narrative. We may regard the underlying philosophy of Davos as wrong-headed at best, but it is at least coherent and there is a roadmap. Those who oppose it can argue against some individual measures and extremes, and even win sometimes, but what is really needed is a map going somewhere else.

    Best,
    SR

  54. Pauline Baxter
    January 22, 2023

    ‘Davos does not rule the world’.
    Doesn’t it Sir John ??
    Why then do you hear all those things, even in our own parliament?
    Sorry but you ‘not believing in globalist conspiracies’ is causing you to close your eyes to what is happening in the world here and now.

  55. forthurst
    January 22, 2023

    “How do we stop Russia blowing up Ukrainian cities?”
    Zelensky wants the whole of Ukraine to align with the West culturally and strategically ie trannies and
    nukes on Russia’s border. Those parts of Ukraine which have traditionally been occupied by Russian
    speakers and who voted overwhelmingly to join Russia will continue to oppose the Zelensky regime and will be supported by Russia. This will end when the Zelensky regime has been obliterated and not before.
    Ukraine was carved out of Czarist Russia by the Bolshevik mass-murderers therefore there is no reason to
    image that ethnic Russians regard it as a legitimate state.
    The neocon plan to use Ukraine to weaken Russia is rather working the other way round; yet another miscalculation by the loons in the US State dept.

  56. Jamie
    January 22, 2023

    And then what about Bilderburg ? what is that all about if not new thinking?

    Also how does Davos differ from Bilderburg or any if the other grandiose talking shops or think-tanks that come our way? seems to me that it was the think-tanks that delivered us brexit and see the mess we are in now.

    1. Clough
      January 23, 2023

      The difference, Jamie, is that the WEF is open with its agenda, and who takes part at Davos. Bilderberg is not.

  57. glen cullen
    January 22, 2023

    BBC – Three UK coal plants have been ordered to begin warning up

  58. Pat
    January 22, 2023

    Curiously, these geniuses do not know how to use railway stations, as they evidently prefer helicopters to the one in Davos.

  59. Christopher H Sheldrake
    January 23, 2023

    We heard all the same bulls**t from the chairman of the CBI on the Today programme this morning.

    How these people can propose that to achieve growth we need even more immigration is ridiculous ! We are running at 500,000 a year net already. How many do they want us to take in ?

    I feel deeply uncomfortable with almost 400,000 students coming in. They are benefiting the universities by paying enormous fees, but what happens to all that cash ? if universities were brought into the 21st century, they would not need anywhere near as much money to function for British students.

  60. APL
    January 23, 2023

    JR: “They dress this up as good for green jobs, …”

    ‘Green jobs’ are nothing less than subsidized jobs. The same thing you and the government tried to eradicate in 1984. Why was it wrong to subsidize mining jobs in 1984. But in 2020s, Tories are happy ( viz Cameron, May, Johnson ) to subsidize so called ‘Green’ jobs?

    Now that it turns out we have nearly no Steel industry, no indigenous Coal industry, our government is writing cheques ( threatening war with Russia ) we do not have the industrial capacity to cash.

    This is amazingly stupid. But par for the course with our infantile political class.

  61. Atlas
    January 23, 2023

    “Davos does not rule the world”, but echoing the words of a 1970’s group, 10CC, record track “They’re working on it”…

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