This year’s Bilderberg Conference is to be held this week in the Marriott Hotel, Copenhagen, Denmark.

This annual gathering of prime ministers, chief executives and military chiefs is, according to conspiracy theorists, to manipulate global affairs without any democratic oversight. The Bilderberg Conference has its own web site: http://www.bilderbergmeetings.org/index.php

There is a lot of other material available on the internet. See, for example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group and there are numerous press reports.

See for example:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/is-it-the-bilderberg-conference–or-conspiracy-9449477.html

The point of this post is to highlight the claims that secrecy equals dubious, if not illegal, activities. Conspiracy Theorists often make this claim usually along the lines of if you nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. This is a sweeping and grossly misleading comment. Everyone has something to hide more often than not everyone has multiple matters they do not wish to be made public. Groups also often have matters that they wish to be kept private for a whole host of legitimate reasons and individuals who are not members of that group have no right to know what the group discuss because they are not members of the group. For example, I have no right to attend board meetings of a company such as Shell or Microsoft because I am not a member of those boards. For the same reason I have no right to known what was discussed at a board meeting, other than that which the board decides to make public.

The actual meaning of words used in this context also requires to be considered and one in particular. ‘Secret’ means unknown, that is, no one other than the members of the group concerned knows anything about the group or its activities. Clearly ‘secret’ does not apply to the Bilderberg Conference as its existence is well know as it is where and when it is to be held, who is going to attend and even what is to be discussed. Instead the term ‘private’ would be a more accurate word to use in these circumstances but the word private, although accurate, does not have the sinister connotations so beloved by conspiracy theorists!

Finally, it should be borne in mind that the phrase: ‘if you nothing to hide you have nothing to fear’ was coined by Joseph Goebbels Nazi Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and we all know where that led.