The recent international jamboree at Davos provided ample opportunity for the "great and the good," as well as the not so great and not so good, to enjoy gourmet meals and doubtless lashings of champagne ultimately at the expense of tax-payers. The participants also had time to exchange views on current world issues.
A good deal of time was spent on the problems facing the European economy, not least the extent of youth unemployment which has reached crisis proportions. But for the British media the dominating theme was that of excessive executive pay and bonuses, especially bonuses for bankers.
The disparity between the huge sums paid to chief executives and senior directors and that of workers on the shop floor or in back offices has grown exponentially in Britain in the last decade although it is still not as great as in the United States. It has become a major cause of anger in Britain against free market capitalism.