Musk's madness after getting skewered by the Economist

Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of the Economist, appeared on CNBC this week to talk about the magazine’s interview with Elon Musk in which he defended his support for hard right lunatics like Restore Britain’s Rupert Lowe.

“I said to him that he supports, not just the populist right in Europe, but the far right, fringe groups that are, you know, nowhere near the mainstream and do actually propagate… really divisive far right politics,” she said. “I think that’s undoubted. And I think many of these politicians wouldn’t be anywhere without Elon Musk’s support.

“And I asked him why. And the reason I did that is that he also propagates a kind of caricatured view of Europe, that it is some sort of hellhole overrun with Muslim immigrants, incredibly violent… he has said that England is heading for civil war and I wanted to know when he was last there.

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“I feel very strongly that this is a profound mischaracterisation of Europe. It’s irresponsible for someone who has 240 million followers to propagate things that are simply not true.”

And how did Musk react to this objective truth? When a Reform UK activist, Rael Braverman, reposted CNBC’s video on X with the message “It’s people like her that are allowing the West to be destroyed. Luxury belief brigade in all its glory”, Musk responded immediately with: “She is a traitor to the West, plain and simple.”

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Braverman’s X account, meanwhile, is quite something. When not getting exercised about “woke” ITV including female pundits in its World Cup coverage, in the past week he has been outraged at the news Angela Rayner had received £182,376 from second jobs, including corporate speaking engagements and a book advance. Good job his own leader, Nigel Farage, gets by purely on his MP’s salary, then, famously spurning any lucrative sidelines!

And at the weekend he was musing: “Serious question. Can anyone name two things the Conservatives genuinely did well in 14 years of government where either you personally, or the country as a whole, is demonstrably better off as a result? I’m struggling to think of them.”

Perhaps he could ask the woman who, during those 14 years, served as a Brexit minister, attorney general and, twice, home secretary? She shouldn’t be too difficult to track down, what with Suella Braverman being his wife.