Brit Beats - Musk vs Starmer...and Farage? Also Welcome back, Cecilia Sala, Mar-a-Lago Diplomacy and Crossfire
Elon Musk's attacks against Keir Starmer are not new, but why is he blasting Nigel Farage? Welcome back, Cecilia Sala! Meloni aand the Mar-a-Lago diplomacy, Crossfire is on YT.
Brit Beats- Musk vs Starmer…and Farage?
Happy 2025! We are yet to reach the half of January, and Elon Musk is already meddling with UK politics (on top of endorsing the AfD for the February elections in Germany and hosting its leader, Alice Wiedel in a conversation on X). Musk’s attacks against Prime Minister Keir Starmer are not exactly breaking news material; during last August’s far-right attacks against minorities and migrants, the billionaire gave oxygen to conspiracy theories, mentioned an upcoming civil war in Britain, and used the nickname Two Tiers, mocking Starmer and at the same time suggesting that white Britons face harsher sentences than Britons of colour. This is again nothing new, as Musk is known for pushing conspiracy and racist theories akin to this one, like the white genocide one.
In this scenario, the revelations that Musk has investigated ways of ousting Starmer before the next election are not surprising. Musk also has accused Starmer of having failed, in his time as a prosecutor to tackle the child grooming cases and he has demanded a new national inquiry into historic cases involving British-Pakistani men in British towns and cities. In addition to this, X’s owner has also directly attacked Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, accusing her of being a “rape genocide apologist”. Phillips told Channel 4’s news presenter Cathy Newman that she had to make changes to her life after Musk post.
The grooming cases mentioned here are an old focus of the British far-right and unsurprisingly something that is far more motivated, in their attention by the ethnicity of the perpetrators than by an interest in the victims. This was a point expressed by Mehdi Hasan with Piers Morgan, as the former listed cases of grooming and violence against children in Britain that have not been discussed in the new cycle as the perpetrators were white. A similar point was also made in the House of Commons by Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome.
At any latitude, when the far-right talks about violence against children, as well as women, it always does so in a way that only favours its racist agenda, in a way that is never centered around concern for the victims of violence. The British far-right is not doing anything new here but follows a standard script, covered by all its homologs.
The most vocal figure in the far-right promoting the ethinicisation of these crimes has always been Tommy Robinson, founder of the English Defence League and whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon. Robinson is currently serving an 18-month sentence after breaching an injunction of contempt of court.
Robinson is the figure at the centre of the unexpected row between Musk and Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage. Musk has jumped on the grooming scandal bandwagon recently and asked in a post why Robinson is serving a sentence. This stance is something that Farage, despite his views cannot exactly embrace, especially at a time when his popularity is growing and a scenario that sees him reaching N.10 in the future is not unreal anymore.
In a short period, Musk has gone from meeting Farage in Mar-a-Lago and posing for pictures, announcing his intention of bankrolling Reform with 100m $ (81m £) to saying that the British politician does not have what it takes and should quit as leader of the party.
Reform is currently polling very closely to Labour and the Tories , so the party presents itself as a good bet for Musk. Of course, the richest man in the world may not be able to direct voters, but his financial support to parties and candidates can make a difference. Is Musk going to support Robinson in that way at some point? Farage has said that he and Musk will talk at Trump’s inauguration on January 20 and that sometimes people disagree. The developments will certainly be of interest.
As if this was not enough, Andrew Tate has launched a party called The Bruv Party and vowed to become the next Prime Minister. British politics looks more and more like a disturbing Black Mirror episode. Is Elon Musk going to bankroll Tate? Stranger things have happened.
Welcome back, Cecilia Sala!
Cecilia Sala is free. The Il Foglio and Chora Media journalist has been released from Evin prison and landed in Rome on January 8. Sala is also back with her podcast Stories and it is time to celebrate the return of the reporter. Sometimes good news also come around.
Mar-a-Lago diplomacy
The liberation of Cecilia Sala was a success of Giorgia Meloni’s government and the tensions between Rome and Tehran were discussed during the PM’s visit to President-Elect Donald Trump in his Florida residence at Mar-a-Lago.
Meloni was the third EU leader to visit Trump following his re-election and given the support around her leadership and the current weakness of President Macron and unlikely to be re-elected Chancellor Scholz, the Italian PM is looking at positioning herself and Italy as the bridge between Trump and Europe, as pointed out in this Associated Press report.
These prospects are certain to create concern, given Trump’s inflammatory declarations on Denmark’s sovereignty of Greenland as well as his more than ambiguous positions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, these prospects are not at all surprising, as Meloni has always been focused on projecting the international perspective of her vision of Italy with synergies with figures like Milei (who was a recent keynote speaker at Brothers of Italy’s gathering Atreju in December).
In addition to this, there is also the sinergy with Elon Musk and the interest of the government in Space X’s Starlink and its constellation of satellites (especially for secure connections with the military, diplomatic centres…) something that the Prime Minister denied in her press conference, responding to a question from the media Fanpage. Meloni said that she has not spoken with Musk, that she does not do favours to friends and that she does not have clear ideas on the topic at the moment.
In addition to that, when it came to Musk, Meloni brought back an old trope that she seemed to have abandoned for some time, specifically the rhetoric against George Soros, a far-right rhetoric, widespread internationally and which has been always filled with antisemitism. Of course, there are crucial differences between the two, but two come to mind straight away. Soros is not going to represent an influential role in the new US administration, unlike Musk and while he has supported parties in Italy (like Più Europa) and other parties in the past, he has not made a habit of openly meddling in the political affairs of other countries with daily inflammatory and at times threatening declarations through his social media channel.
January 20 is just around the corner, so we will soon see how much Meloni’s ambitions of bridging the European far-right and Italy that she represents with the Trump administration will pay off.
Crossfire
Crossfire is a documentary by Italian journalist Cristiano Tinazzi. The documentary investigates the deaths of the Italian photographer Andrea Rocchelli and the Russian journalist and interpreter Andrej Mironov on May 24, 2014 close to Sloviansk in Ukraine during a fight between pro-Russian militias and the Ukrainian army, and the related arrest and controversial trial of the Ukrainian-Italian soldier Vitaly Markiv, a member of the National Ukrainian Guard.
Tinazzi’s documentary features interviews with reporters who met Rocchelli and Mironov at the time and were also covering the clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian militias and a meticulous investigation of the events on the ground.
The documentary is available on You Tube in Italian and English. Last year, Crossfire was also screened at the Frontline Club in London. It’s a wrap for the first edition of the newsletter this year, stay tuned!
