Not Since Thatcher Has There Been Such Lively Politics as Obtain in the Wake of Elon Musk

“Politics is boring” was the received opinion when I was a child. It was a weird reaction, considering politics is about the supremely important issue of the rights we hand over to others so they can tell us what to do and, increasingly, what to think.This changed with Mrs. Thatcher. Elements of adoration and hatred in the electorate’s attitude toward her combined to create a climate of excitement, added to by her own scenery-eating personality.Faced with a political vista such as today’s, it’s likely that our bougie Boudicca would need a nice sit-down after contemplating the mayhem. Imagine — we currently live in a political world so volatile that Thatcher would be considered a Centrist.The opening steps to the latest leg of this wild mazurka took place in the first week of 2025, when Elon Musk opined that Nigel Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” to be Reform UK’s leader, due to his refusal to accept the anti-Islamism street-fighter Tommy Robinson into his crew.Mr. Farage responded with a caution which is rarely his metier; “Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree — my view remains that Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles.”Minutes after, Mr. Musk posted on X: “Free Tommy Robinson now.” Mr. Farage attempted to put a lid on things by saying he planned to “have a conversation” with the aforementioned Mr. Musk “on a variety of things,” including Robinson, at the inauguration. That’ll be some urinal chat.The liberal elite here are torn between mocking the right for having a homoerotic hissy-fit (one described Musk and Farage as having “broken up”) and harrumphing over this blatant attempt by a foreigner to influence British politics (which, oddly, they didn’t do when Labour sent a team of activists over to the USA to campaign for Kamala Harris).Yet the liberal elite increasingly seem like daft children with their fingers in their ears as no matter how much they toss around the word “billionaire” about Mr. Musk, they have no more in common with the common man than he does.On issues such as the Muslim rape gangs, he’s probably far more in touch, not least in that he has now forced the phrase “rape gangs” to replace the disgracefully weak “grooming gangs,” which sounds like nothing more malign than fly-by-night poodle-parlours.It far better describes the biggest industrial-scale rape-as-punishment (in this case, for being white) human rights abuse in a country not actually at war. In the light of this it’s shocking (but not surprising — will he ever react like a decent human being?) that Prime Minister Starmer has accused those calling for an inquiry of jumping on a “far-Right bandwagon.”The Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, responded “That such a huge scandal could occur should prompt soul-searching, not ranting that those of us who care about it are ‘the far-Right.’”“Safe-guarding” minister Jess Phillips, another target of Mr. Musk’s ire, is a well-meaning woman — but that she is scared of an element of her own Muslim constituency is beyond question.Ms. Phillips now says that she has been forced to ask for extra police protection from Mr. Musk’s followers. She said the same thing of those neighbourhood Islamists during the election campaign.Yet again, the real story is the special protection which the UK establishment appears to extend to Islam — and if Elon Musk took a vow of silence tomorrow, this issue will not be going away. Remembering the smug jabber about the grown-ups being back in the room which heralded Sir Keir’s victory, it’s worth marking that grown-ups are often bad.Sometimes they tell children to be sure to Keep Our Little Secret — whereas Mr. Musk, for all his adolescent bombast, seems interested in the truth being out there somewhere. Everything about Mr. Musk is in the window; so much of the heart of Sir Keir lurks unseen in his Uncanny Valley. How much more excitement can we stand in this new Special Relationship, which has mutated from sedate waltz to crazed tango? Personally, I can’t get enough — if only because even the most sober of citizens can never again complain that “Politics is boring.”

Not Since Thatcher Has There Been Such Lively Politics as Obtain in the Wake of Elon Musk

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