Hypocrisy, humbug and decadence in Davos: Crooning Hollywood A-listers, billionaire hedge-funders and sumptuous ski lodges... welcome to the World Economic Forum
- The narrow streets of the Alpine town are clogged with blacked-out limos
- World Economic Forum is the annual jamboree of the rich and shameless
- Watching the super-rich, one barely realises the world's financial troubles
- Nevertheless, conference is 'committed to improving the state of the world'
ents
It's the depth of night in Davos, but the party is just getting started. In the piano bar of the Hotel Europe, billionaire hedge-funders are knocking back gallons of eye-wateringly expensive Cristal champagne while Hollywood A-lister Kevin Spacey serenades them with an impromptu version of Frank Sinatra’s In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning.
Across town at the coolly minimalist Ameron hotel, executives from tax-avoiding Google are necking weapons-grade cocktails created by a ‘mixologist’ – specially flown in for the occasion – and tucking into odd-looking liquefied canapes on spoons while disco legend Nile Rodgers and his band Chic perform.
The narrow streets of this pretty Alpine town are clogged with blacked-out limousines plus an accompaniment of mini-skirted lovelies of dubious occupation, apparently bent on keeping some of the less scrupulous guests, well, occupied.
Luxury: The narrow streets of the pretty Alpine town of Davos are clogged with blacked-out limousines as the world's super-rich and shameless descend for the World Economic Forum
Welcome to the World Economic Forum: annual jamboree of the rich and shameless. And how apt that the festival of excess, which ended yesterday, is held 5,000ft up in the Swiss Alps. After all, it is without doubt the height of hypocrisy.
Because watching the super-rich at play in this exclusive ski resort, one would barely know that back in the real world stock markets have plummeted, China’s once-buoyant economy is tanking and Britain is facing the prospect of a return to recession.
And while the conference is billed piously by the WEF’s organisers as being ‘committed to improving the state of the world’ by bringing together politicians, business leaders and academics, on the evidence of what I can see, Davos has become little more than an excuse for indulgence on a truly global scale.Witness another event held annually in the popular – if soulless – Hotel Europe. Called the Wine Forum, it is hosted by a group of venture capitalists. While two shaven-headed heavies stop anyone without a special lanyard from entering, guests routinely swig from bottles – good Italian Barolo worth close to £400 each, £290 bottles of French Cheval Blanc 1976 – while earnestly discussing philanthropy.
But with so much do-gooding to be got through, who can blame them for letting their hair down a bit?
Welcome to the World Economic Forum: annual jamboree of the rich and shameless.
Paul Scott
Speaking of which, no international get-together would be complete without a complement of self-righteous celebrities. In the past Brad and Angelina have pitched up to polish their humanitarian credentials. This year, it was the turn of Spacey alongside the ubiquitous U2 frontman Bono, here in his role as self-appointed saviour of Africa.
Another big-name attraction was Hollywood leading man-turned- eco-warrior Leonardo DiCaprio, in town to receive an award for his stance on tackling climate change. In an impassioned acceptance speech, the star of The Wolf Of Wall Street was cheered by delegates as he berated oil, coal and gas conglomerates for their corporate greed.
Not, it seems, that anyone here has been listening to his message. In fact, Zurich airport has been swamped with the arrival of scores of private planes in recent days as the great and the good jet in from all over the world before being ferried to Davos in a fleet of their own helicopters. And is the holy-than-thou DiCaprio practising what he preaches? The star told his Davos audience he has just returned from flying all over the world making a documentary about – you’ve guessed it – how emissions are destroying the planet. In fact, it recently emerged that he had made no fewer than six private jet trips in as many weeks in 2014.
A-listers: Davos has become little more than an excuse for indulgence on a truly global scale. Pictured, from left, Kevin Spacey, Bono and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pose for a selfie in Davos, Switzerland
Extravagant: Zurich airport has been swamped with the arrival of scores of private planes in recent days as the great and the good jet in from all over the world before being ferried to Davos in a fleet of their own helicopters Pictured, helicopters land on the helipad at the InterContinental Hotel Davos, ahead of the World Economic Forum
To walk the narrow roads of Davos last week was to witness never-ending gridlock as a procession of gas-guzzling chauffeur-driven Mercedes and BMWs inched their way, bumper-to-bumper, across town.
Klaus Schwab – who founded the annual conference more than 40 years ago – even stuck up posters begging attendees to walk around the tiny town instead of being driven in their huge limousines. But his entreaties fell on deaf ears.
The highlight of the festivities came on Friday night with the Russian-themed party thrown jointly by oligarch Oleg Deripaska and the mega-rich financier Nat Rothschild.
Paul Scott
The crummiest hotel broom cupboard costs £400 a night at this time of the year. A ski chalet for the three days of the conference is likely to set you back the thick part of £100,000. And it was to an even more luxurious venue at the very top of the mountain that Tony Blair, Love Actually director Richard Curtis, singer will.i.am and Queen Rania of Jordan flocked earlier in the week as the guests of London PR guru Matthew Freud.
One reveller told The Mail on Sunday that the women were so rich, they felt free to leave their £10,000 Hermes handbags ‘lying around unguarded while they partied!’ But the highlight of the festivities came on Friday night with the Russian-themed party thrown jointly by oligarch Oleg Deripaska and the mega-rich financier Nat Rothschild. It took place at Deripaska’s palatial mountain home.
The invitations featured a cartoon winter scene of a group of beautiful maidens posing for a selfie with some handsome Cossacks.
The generous hosts laid on a fleet of chauffeur-driven cars every 15 minutes from 8pm to midnight to ferry their guest from the centre of Davos up the mountain in style.
For once Prince Andrew, usually a fixture at the five-star Grand Hotel Belvedere, was a no-show. But someone who can’t resist the mountain air is former Prime Minister Mr Blair. He was at it again this week, in trademark open-neck shirt and jacket, glad-handing like mad.
Exclusive: The highlight of the festivities came on Friday night with the Russian-themed party thrown jointly by oligarch Oleg Deripaska and the mega-rich financier Nat Rothschild (invitation pictured). It took place at Deripaska’s palatial mountain home
He will have been pleased to see President Alpha Condé of Guinea. Last year, it was revealed that Mr Blair gave him PR advice through his African charity about how to improve his image after opposition protesters were shot dead by Condé’s security forces. Rwandan president Paul Kagame was also there.
The former warlord, accused by the UN of genocide during his country’s bloody civil war, gets on so well with Mr Blair and his wife Cherie that he has lent the one-time Labour leader his private jet in the past.
Some might think such characters are hardly in keeping with the WEF’s supposedly high ideals. But then Davos, which last week was graced by visits from everyone from David Cameron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Bill Gates, is increasingly becoming a laughable caricature of itself. Publicity handouts for the conference – apparently without irony – described House Of Cards actor Spacey, Bono and fellow musician Peter Gabriel as ‘cultural leaders’ while among the wacky subjects up for discussion was what might happen if one day robots went to war with each other.
And to get taste for what an artificial intelligence future might look like, delegates flocked to meet a South Korean-built android called Hubo. So, could Hubo eventually replace the shameless party animals of Davos? Not unless he develops a taste for hypocrisy, quaffing Cristal and falling out of bars at all hours…
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