Taken from The Guardian, Wednesday 23 January 2013 20.46 GMT
Not quitting his day job, yet: Mario Monti's tells a 'pot calling kettle black' joke at the World Economic Forum. Photograph: Michel Euler/AP
If Mario Monti does receive the order of the boot in next month's Italian elections, he could try a late career change into stand-up. Monti relayed to Davos how a Qatari royal had told him that "corruption" was the biggest factor preventing Qatar investing in Italy. "I must tell you, I was a bit shocked," Monti dead-panned. "Partly because it wasn't the King of Norway talking." That's bound to bring the Middle East petro-money pouring in.
Two US visitors were overheard grumbling that they had missed the opening sessions (including Jamie Dimon bashing the banker bashers) because they took place too early in the day. "They should just devote the morning to issues that are interesting to European visitors," bemoaned one. Or Davos staff could leave alarm clocks instead of complimentary chocolates in visitors' rooms. One of our party missed out on the choccies, though, and found a sausage lovingly placed in their bedroom instead. We've not eaten it (yet ...)
Davos's pavements are notoriously slippery, but for some visitors the Congress Centre is also a dangerous place. One woman narrowly missed scattering the gaggle around Jamie Dimon like nine-pins, after failing to spot a small step and tumbling over. "Second time I've seen that this morning," whispered one UK hack. We'll set a video camera up tomorrow.
Russia's prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, wasn't shaken by the news that almost 78% of people in the Davos Hall felt "better governance" was the top priority for the Federation. "I knew that most people at Davos would vote that way," he said. "I voted for another option." So, it would have been even more of a landslide if Medvedev had gracefully abstained.
Davos was spared any serious snow showers on the opening day of the World Economic Forum's annual get-together. Instead, it was David Cameron's long-awaited speech on an EU referendum that slightly rained on the WEF's parade. Few UK CEOs avoided being quizzed about it – while one US banker waved the query away as he had quite enough on his plate without "taking on the UK government's challenges as well".
Those "distinguished" enough to remember the last UK referendum were in a nostalgic mood. Sir Howard Davies (no eurosceptic today) reminisced about how "there were only two no votes from '74 in the Foreign Office when I worked there, and one was me".
Miss of the day – failing to catch up with Dame Ellen Macarthur (or her doppleganger) for some serious hero worship, after she navigated the crowds with rather more aplomb than your humble correspondent.
Davos appears to have put its dressdown years behind it. An unscientific poll of the lounge after lunch showed a clear majority of male visitors wearing ties. Two years ago, Mark Zuckerberg's decision to don a tie was deemed newsworthy – clearly the Facebook founder is more of a fashion trendsetter than we thought.
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