Amazon Prime is currently dominating adolescents’ screens with Beast Games, a glossy show where attention-seeking competitors bargain and tantrum, hoping to win a multimillion-dollar fortune and associated fame.
The games are played at the whim of internet megastar MrBeast, AKA 26-year-old multimillionaire Jimmy Donaldson, making any sort of strategy impossible. Losers fall from high pedestals into a vortex of oblivion.
So, to the inglorious fight for the approval of Elon Musk, X overlord and self-appointed saviour of Britain who on Monday suggested the UK should be “liberated”, apparently from its democratically elected government.
It was obvious from the get-go there could be no winners from cosying up to Donald Trump’s BFF (for now). For in Musk Games, up to $100m was being dangled as the prize for Reform UK if Nigel Farage could walk the tightrope between endorsing jailed far-right thug Tommy Robinson’s take on the child grooming scandal, maintaining Musk’s respect and saying what’s acceptable in the UK.
Musk’s pursuit of free speech at all costs has included calls to release Robinson, who was jailed in October after admitting contempt of court by repeating false claims against a Syrian refugee. His charge sheet, however, stretches much further back.
Elon Musk will get bored of the UK - and we will pay the price
Read MoreAfter a BBC interview on Sunday in which Farage refused to endorse Musk’s views on Robinson, the Reform leader was dropped into the vortex with Gamemaster Musk, who said he hasn’t “got what it takes” to lead the party. It was a “surprise” Farage tweeted, through gritted teeth.
But don’t worry, there’s another contestant already in the wings. Step forward Rupert Lowe MP, who – for now – remains on his Musk Games platform having caught the X boss’s eye as a possible Reform leader, and perhaps grateful recipient of any future cash injection.
Lowe, a former MEP, thanked Musk for his “kind comments” and praised Robinson’s “role in exposing these gangs”.
Tellingly, Musk made his assessment about Lowe’s suitability based entirely on the MP’s remarks on X but has never met him in real life. Showing again how little he understands British politics, Musk missed the point that Reform’s success is largely down to the communication skills of Farage himself.
In Musk Games there may not be many winners, but there are plenty of losers. Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips received sinister threats in the wake of posts on X by Musk that she was a “rape genocide apologist” who should go to prison for her handling of the child sex abuse scandal.
The issue of grooming gangs was put back in the spotlight after Phillips rejected Oldham Council’s request for a government-led inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation involving mainly Pakistani men in the town, in favour of a locally led investigation.
By Monday Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said a “line has been crossed” in Phillips’s treatment. During an impassioned defence of his own record as director of public prosecutions dealing with the cases and her work protecting women, Starmer avoided namechecking Musk. Instead, his ire was reserved for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.
“What I won’t tolerate is politicians jumping on the bandwagon simply to get attention, when those politicians sat in government for 14 long years, tweeting, talking, but not doing anything about it, now so desperate for attention that they’re amplifying what the far right is saying,” Starmer said.
Some in the Tory Party agree that, in the fight to occupy the space for votes being gobbled up by Reform, Badenoch’s call for a national inquiry into the sexual abuse cases is misjudged. She has made the mistake of associating herself too closely with the increasingly unpredictable ramblings of Musk.
According to some Tory MPs, Badenoch’s approach demonstrates a panic that’s at odds with her publicly stated position that there’s plenty of time for policy, and slowly does it.
Vying for political space with Farage, the argument goes in some Tory circles, is not the way to win back the majority of centrist voters needed to win the next election. And this even as the Tories brace for bleeding out county council seats to Reform in May.
“There is a panic about Reform taking ground,” one Conservative MP told The i Paper. “She’s not behaving like a confident grown-up.”
Allies of Badenoch reject that view, saying she wants to join the dots in the decades of failure by police, charities, social services and other authorities. They also dismiss the charge she could have made more of the issue during the Tories’ 14 years in power, and add that implementing the recommendations of Professor Alexis Jay’s review didn’t fall under her brief.
Phillips, who served on the inquiry into the gangs in Telford, is understood to want to make a locally led inquiry the model for any further grooming investigations.
Brits don't like Elon Musk - Farage is better off without him
Read MoreBack in the dystopian world of Musk Games, the losers keep piling up. Starmer was immediately accused of ignoring the needs of the victims in the case and implying his critics were on the far right. That line will repeat on him come the next Prime Minister’s Questions as MPs line up to remind him the real focus of this episode must be the vulnerable young girls who survived the abuse.
Musk’s public disavowal of Farage, while temporarily embarrassing, will have done the Brit some favours. There is already an undertone of discontent in the Trump camp about Musk’s oversized influence.
Last month several Trumpists criticised Musk’s support for a skilled worker visa programme popular with big tech, forcing the president elect to re-state his backing for his rocket ship-loving ally. At least Farage can play up his personal relationship with Trump, whatever Musk decides to do with his dollars.
It will also allow Farage to distance himself from Musk’s increasingly unhinged and defamatory statements about Starmer. This can only be good news for Reform as it aims to go mainstream.
Starmer is right to sidestep the mercurial tech billionaire’s lawless online sideshow. But Badenoch should be wary, for in the tantrum-heavy Musk Games there can be only one winner.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Kemi Badenoch can’t win in Elon Musk’s dystopian world )
Also on site :
- Reeves warned employment rights law has already led to hiring freeze and loss of business confidence
- Congress returns as Trump’s domestic agenda hangs by a thread
- Chicago businessman-turned-terrorist appears in India court wearing black hood