It is that time of year again. Some 2,500 business people, politicians, artists and newly dubbed “global leaders”, together with another 10,000 or so support staff, journalists and hangers-on, are set to make their way up a Swiss mountain.

Going to Davos sounds like going on retreat – but in practice it is hardly akin to visiting a spa. Participants have to rise early to catch breakfast discussions and then spend the day trudging around in the snow to their next appointments. At times, the retreat it most feels like is Napoleon’s from Moscow.