Elon Musk seems to have invaded Britain—if solely by way of tweet. This week, the rightwing American billionaire stirred chaos by unleashing a tweet-storm in opposition to Keir Starmer, the Labor Occasion chief and present U.Okay. prime minister. Musk has had it out for Starmer ever since he was elected, and this week, he took issues up a notch when he used his platform, X, to induce King Charles to dissolve Britain’s parliament and dethrone the brand new prime minister.
On the whole, Musk has tried to depict Starmer’s authorities as a corrupt, incompetent regime that’s harming Britain. To capstone that messaging effort, Musk reposted a message this week from a commenter that learn: “Who additionally thinks the KING ought to Dissolve Parliament and order a Common Election be known as for the sake and safety of the nation? The King should ACT earlier than it’s too late!” Musk replied to the person’s submit, stating merely: “Sure.”
That’s not all Musk bought as much as. The American billionaire additionally seized on a scandal involving youngster grooming avenue gangs and used the episode to accuse Starmer of failing to carry youngster rapists in his nation to account, claiming Starmer was “complicit within the RAPE OF BRITAIN.” The scandal in query entails the phenomenon of “grooming gangs” in north England, that are mentioned to be composed largely of perpetrators of South Asian or British Pakistani heritage. Musk was subsequently accused of “politicizing” the rape of younger ladies as a way of pushing his personal rightwing agenda.
On the similar time, Musk introduced help for Tommy Robinson, a far-right political activist and convicted fraudster with a violent felony report who’s at the moment serving a jail time period. Robinson, whose given identify is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has been known as an “anti-Islam” activist and accused of Islamaphobia. “Free Tommy Robinson!” Musk posted. Robinson/Lennon is the founding father of the English Protection League, a now defunct group that lobbied in opposition to Islamic extremism. Musk stirred up a lot bother that conservative political allies of Trump reportedly needed to distance themselves from the feedback. Certainly, Bloomberg reviews that “senior politicians on the UK proper” reached out to “Donald Trump’s allies, urging the US President-elect’s group to not endorse British far-right activist Tommy Robinson.”
Why does Musk have it out for Starmer so unhealthy? Nobody actually is aware of for certain, although it’s troublesome to not see it as a broader effort to make the incoming liberal authorities look unhealthy so {that a} totally different (presumably conservative) authorities would possibly quickly take its place. That mentioned, it’s not like Musk is the primary American plutocrat to mess with U.Okay. politics. Certainly, the connection between U.S. billionaires and the hassle to remake Britain right into a rightwing dystopia, has been well-established for fairly a while.
The U.S.-led push to make Britain extra rightwing
One motive that Musk and his cohort could also be freaking out a lot about Starmer is that he’s the primary British prime minister in years who hasn’t loved political affiliations with the American proper. Boris Johnson, who served as PM between 2019 and 2022, notably schmoozed with pro-Trump of us, known as himself a libertarian, and his insurance policies had been largely formed by the Institute of Financial Affairs (IEA), a think-tank that’s a part of a worldwide libertarian community often known as Atlas. Whereas the Atlas Community was based by a British citizen, it’s primarily based within the U.S. and enjoys associations with quite a lot of American organizations, together with the Heritage Basis and ALEC (the pro-corporate, American Legislative Change Council). Previous to her rise to turn out to be Britain’s shortest-tenured prime minister, the infamous Liz Truss met with quite a lot of rightwing U.S. assume tanks, together with Heritage, the Aggressive Enterprise Institute, and ALEC. Later, when she grew to become prime minister, a lot of Truss’s financial coverage agenda was additionally largely developed by IEA. When Truss tried to unravel Britain’s woes with large tax cuts for billionaires (a notably Trumpian resolution), she was swiftly laughed out of presidency and abruptly resigned. Since stepping down from her PM function, Truss hasn’t completed an entire lot besides fangirl out over Donald Trump. In the meantime, Rishi Sunak, the interim prime minister who served between Truss and Starmer, additionally loved dense ties to America and tried to deploy “free market,” libertarian insurance policies, the majority of which had been deeply unpopular.
Musk’s propaganda function
The hassle to remodel Western nations into conservative strongholds has been bolstered by propaganda efforts designed to shake confidence in liberal governments. It ought to be famous that, on the similar time that Musk has sought to very publicly assault Starmer’s liberal authorities, he has additionally more and more allied himself with lots of the organizations and forces which have supported Britain’s cultural and financial drift in the direction of the appropriate.
I not too long ago wrote that Musk is mainly the brand new Steve Bannon, which means that Musk—like Bannon earlier than him—helped Trump get elected by serving as a messaging guru who might incite political help by tapping into voters’ cultural and financial grievances. Bannon, who helped Trump get elected in 2016, can also be credited with serving to to convey American-style nativism to British political tradition. Bannon additionally notably supported Tommy Robinson lengthy earlier than Musk started tweeting about him. Way back to 2018, Bannon was brazenly complimenting the rightwing agitator. In leaked audio, Bannon ranted: “Tommy Robinson is the f***ing spine of this nation. You lose guys like Tommy Robinson, you’re not going to have a rustic,” he apparently mentioned, of Britain. In February of final yr, Bannon appeared on the Conservative Political Motion Convention in Maryland (alongside Liz Truss) and known as Robinson a “hero.”
What Bannon did in a comparatively quiet trend, nevertheless, Musk is doing in broad daylight. By means of his platform X, Musk has managed to advertise a slew of rightwing conspiracy theories and misinformation that appears designed to shake public confidence in Starmer’s authorities. Earlier than his pro-Robinson tweets and his feedback about dissolving parliament and avenue rapes, Musk additionally used his platform to touch upon a stabbing episode that led to riots all through Britain. Musk’s feedback had been even credited with exacerbating the riots. Musk additionally not too long ago known as for brand spanking new elections in order that Starmer may very well be voted out of workplace.
So whereas it could be taking place on a distinct continent, Musk’s propaganda efforts within the U.Okay. would seem like similar to those he’s finishing up within the U.S. These efforts can also’t assist however be seen as a continuation of a broader effort by the American political rightwing to make use of racial and financial grievances as a way of radicalizing decrease and middle-class populations and herding them in the direction of financial agendas which can be designed by and for the rich. That mentioned, this program may match an entire lot higher within the U.S. than it has in Britain, the place the typical IQ could also be barely greater.