There has been enormous and entirely justifiable alarm over Elon Musk’s attempts to place himself at the centre of political developments not only in the US but also increasingly in Europe.
Musk, the deeply contentious figure regarded as the world’s richest person, has already been appointed by his friend Donald Trump to join his incoming administration as head of a newly created department of government efficiency (Doge) in Washington.
The billionaire tech entrepreneur has not been content with the Doge role, and has been trying to exercise his malign influence over administrations on this side of the Atlantic, particularly in London.
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His attacks on Keir Starmer and his safeguarding minister Jess Phillips over the long-running and appalling child sexual exploitation scandals in England are completely misplaced and have taken on what can only be described as a hysterical tone.
Musk’s proposal that King Charles should dissolve the Westminster parliament and call a general election exposed his basic ignorance of UK constitutional structures, while his demands for Starmer and Phillips to be jailed were beneath contempt.
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There are matters of the utmost seriousness over the shocking rape gang crimes which pre-date Starmer’s arrival in office last July, and raise issues for previous Conservative ministers.
It will also be noted that a prominent group of victims of gender-based violence went public yesterday to praise the work of Phillips and comprehensively reject the allegations made by Musk.
There have been understandable concerns that Musk wants to see Nigel Farage installed as the next British premier, following Trump’s success, and will set out to achieve his aims by promoting and funding the UK Reform party.
Farage’s own cavalier behaviour will come as little surprise to Stormont observers who have followed his erratic links with both the TUV and the DUP
However, wider tensions are emerging within Reform, with Farage already in dispute with Musk and forced to distance himself from the latter’s bizarre support for the jailed far right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who also calls himself Tommy Robinson and has a long criminal record.
Farage’s own cavalier behaviour will come as little surprise to Stormont observers who have followed his erratic links with both the Traditional Unionist Voice and the Democratic Unionist Party.
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Reform signed up to a formal electoral part with Jim Allister and the TUV earlier this year only for Farage to almost immediately endorse the rival candidacies of the DUP’s Ian Paisley and Sammy Wilson.
Farage’s backing did not exactly boost the DUP, with Paisley losing his Westminster seat to Allister in a wholly unexpected result and Wilson only hanging on by the narrowest of margins.
Musk and Farage are certainly capable of causing mischief on a grand scale but there will also be a strong sense that their lack of elementary political judgment will ultimately rebound on them in a spectacular way.
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