menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

How low will British politics go? Ask Elon, master of the Muskoverse – he’ll decide

7 0
07.01.2025

Can it really be three weeks ago that Nigel Farage and Elon Musk were posing adoringly at Mar-a-Lago, in front of that hilariously naff painting of Donald Trump in the tennis sweater? I am as surprised as Nigel that his holiday romance has been built on sand. Or, to put it another way, that the African billionaire who promised to deposit ££££££££££ in his account has turned out to be not what he seemed. The Farage dumping seems to have occurred after the Reform UK leader failed to agree with Musk that he should ally with the imprisoned career criminal Tommy Robinson over the latter’s stance on grooming gangs.

And so to grooming gangs – or rape gangs, as they are rightly and more accurately being called now. Maybe the first week of January has become the time when anger about things that have been going on for a long time reaches significant mass. Last year it was the Post Office, this year it is the rape gangs scandal. As for what it will be next year, the likeliest current forecast is: something that Elon decides. We all live in the Muskoverse now. It’s a quirk of the age that the genius leading the race to the stars is also the idiot leading the race to the bottom.

Some facts are worth restating. There has already been a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation, faultlessly chaired by Prof Alexis Jay, who had previously chaired the specific Rotherham inquiry. The rape gangs scandal was one part of this second inquiry. It led to a searing report and a number of urgent recommendations. They should have been adopted in full by the government of the day (Conservative), but were not. They should be adopted in full by the new government of the day (Labour).

However, there is now a deep, if belated, conviction taking hold that the rape gangs scandal has not been sufficiently understood or reckoned with in this country. This is correct. It is frequently alleged that in at least several of the multiple areas where........

© The Guardian