Does a shadowy clique of VIPs, politicians and billionaires (meeting today outside London) secretly run the world?

Even though it’s the birthplace of a Spice Girl, a former Gladiators champion and the Tory chairman Grant Shapps, nothing can have prepared Watford for the circus descending on it today.

For the line-up of famous guests checking into the five-star Grove Hotel on the town’s outskirts is even more star-spangled than when Russell Brand celebrated his stag party there with the likes of Noel Gallagher and David Walliams.

Those ferried in via fleets of limousines and helicopters include billionaires, bank bosses, defence chiefs, oil barons, politicians, royals and statesmen. For the next four days, these 138 very important people will discuss our futures over the finest food, wine and flattery — interspersed, no doubt, with the odd game of golf or a massage at the hotel spa.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2336598/IAN-BIRRELL-Does-shadowy-clique-VIPs-politicians-billionaires-meeting-today-Watford-secretly-run-world.html