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The Anglo-French summit MPs don't want you to know about
SOLOMON HUGHES looks at the secretive Franco-British Colloque, held last January, where politicans rubbed shoulders with unelected corporate executives
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British ministers, opposition MPs and top civil servants all went to a secretive, corporate-sponsored conference in a luxury hotel in France in January. I’ve pulled together some of the details, but who paid for the conference remains secret — although French energy firm EDF clearly had a big role.
Earlier this year some MPs listed attendance at the January “Franco-British Colloque” in the register of MPs’ interests. The Colloque is a long-running, government-business political conference, like an Anglo-French version of the Bilderberg or Davos conferences. The MPs said they got transport and hotel costs worth £590 each for the conference, so Commons rules meant they had to register the event.
The Franco-British Colloque was founded by BP boss Lord Simon back in the 1990s, and has always been corporate-sponsored. The conference committee invite 50 British and 50 French “delegates” to come debate the big issues. Like Bilderberg, this is where some corporate Establishment “grandees” invite younger political faces. It’s one of the ways business and political elites have a conversation.
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