“The Silly Season” traditionally dawned in the media every summer. With holidays under way and parliament in recess, a dearth of serious news reduced some organisations to going in search of the Loch Ness monster or unearthing another look-alike for the vanished alleged murderer, Lord Lucan.
Were it August rather than January, it might not be surprising to read that a billionaire “tech bro” from the US was sounding out potential contenders with whom he might replace the UK’s prime minister. That this extraordinary revelation is not being instantly dismissed as a spoof demonstrates the potential fragility of our democracy.
It may well be true that Elon Musk harbours delusions that he can use his money and his amplified mouthpiece, formerly known as Twitter, to achieve whatever he wants but, while that may be looking like a possibility in the US, it is not the case in the UK. Yet.
However, the more airtime and credence that is given to his ideas, the closer such a dire outcome may become. Online platforms play host to hordes of extremists, nutcases and malevolent individuals voicing views that are repugnant to the vast majority of people. Most of them have negligible impact. Musk, though, is being granted the engine of publicity by other media to the extent that the government eventually felt goaded into responding to his ravings about its handling of the “grooming gangs” issue and, in particular, his appalling personal attack on one minister, Jess Phillips.
While it is argued that his extraordinary – although probably temporary – status as a pivotal part of the incoming Donald Trump government means Musk has to be taken seriously, how much better it would be if he could simply be dismissed as another raving voice.
But the media has elevated Musk to star status and he feeds on it with the same voraciousness as Trump and the man who craves the friendship and support of them both, Nigel Farage.
Musk apparently saw Farage as a potential route to power in the UK and dangled the possibility of a massive financial donation to his Reform party to enhance the relationship. This was followed almost immediately by a falling out, which may be temporary – but Farage is the cannier politician of the two and will not give up power over his party if that is the price for Musk’s money.
Just six months after Labour’s landslide win in the general election, opinion polls show Reform amassing support at a remarkable rate. On the findings of one poll last week, Reform would leap from having just five MPs to winning 170 seats at the next election, second to Labour’s 238 but almost double the number of Tory wins.
Encouraged by such projections, it seems that Musk has warmed to the idea of installing his own placeman at the helm of the party and has been talking to Rupert Lowe, a former football club chairman who was elected as a Reform MP in July last year. If this is the case, it shows that the Tesla billionaire has no understanding of the UK political scene. Farage is Reform, just as he was the UK Independence Party and the Brexit Party.
He loves the limelight, and the media is happy to shine it upon him. To many electors, he is far more recognisable than Keir Starmer, the prime minister, Kemi Badenoch, the Conservatives’ leader, or Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat leader – and he is certainly the one with whom, if forced to choose any of them, they would opt to have a drink.
But do they have any idea what Farage aims to achieve for the country, now that the UK has left the EU? His criticisms of the government are regularly reported but rarely, if ever, is Farage pushed to say exactly how he would tackle the UK’s dire economic situation. At the last election his party’s “manifesto”, delivered in an interview with Mr Reform himself, included tax cuts while raising spending on the NHS and increasing the number of police by 40,000. Quite how this was to be paid for was unclear and remains so, although doing away with the net zero target was cited as one source of cash, along with benefit cuts.
He would not allow the government to get away with such vagaries, and neither should he be granted any leeway. He played a pivotal role in achieving what was always going to be a disastrous blow to the UK and, if he keeps putting himself forward as the future, he needs to provide answers as to how he would improve the situation.