Musk vs Farage
The BBC reports:
Elon Musk has called for Nigel Farage to be replaced as leader of Reform UK, just weeks after reports the multi-billionaire was in talks to donate to the party.
In a post on his social media site X, Musk said Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” to lead the party – but did not explain his reasoning.
Farage suggested this was due to a disagreement over Musk’s support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
He said Musk’s comment was “a surprise”, but that he would “never sell out my principles”.
It is about Tommy Robinson, and I have to say that Farage is in the right here.
Musk has tweeted:
Musk is conflating two seperate issues here. Robinson is not in prison for exposing the horrific grooming gangs scandal. In fact he didn’t expose them. He is in prison for contempt of court.
It was Andrew Norfolk of The Times that exposed the child grooming and abuse. I agree that what happened hasn’t had the media exposure it should have, and that too many in authority failed to act, because they were too focused on the perpetrators instead of the victims. It is a good thing to have people demanding that those in power should hold a high profile national inquiry into what happened (there have been a number of more targeted inquiries).
What Robinson is in jail for all comes from what was probably pretty typical school bullying. A 16 year old assault a 15 year old. The video went viral with a narrative that it was racially inspired as the victim was a Syrian refugee. It got viewed millions of times. It is worth noting that the Judge in the defamation trial said there was no evidence the attack was racially or religiously motivated. It was just a 16 year old being thuggish (sadly quite common).
Robinson took the side of the assailant and repeated claims by the assailant that the victim was in fact the bully, that it was self-defence, that he had attacked others. These were seen by millions also. The victim sued for defamation and a court found that what Robinson said was untrue. He found the statements by friends of the assailant to be unreliable and not backed by school evidence. Robinson was ordered to pay 100,000 pounds plus costs.
Robinson then made a film repeating the allegations against the victim, which had been found to be false and defamatory by the court. He then fled the country and only returned due to an arrest warrant. He was then jailed for contempt of court.
If you lose a defamation case in court, and you then make a film repeating the claims that had already been judged defamatory (and not to be repeated) then you will face contempt of court. It had nothing to do with the grooming scandals.
I think you can certainly make a valid criticism that the length of jail sentence for Robinson is excessive for a contempt of court ruling. But that is very different to claiming he is in prison for telling the truth.
Farage understands this, and that is why he refused to endorse Robinson, which then led Musk to say Farage should be replaced as UK Reform Leader. Just a few days earlier Musk was talking of possibly donating 100 million pounds to Reform – this shows the pitfalls of mercurial billionaires.